Dial
by DesertChocolate
Summary: A man from our world is dropped into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with nothing but a watch on his wrist to make a life with. Luckily, it's one hell of a cool watch. Now if only he'd gotten the manual... Also posting on RoyalRoad
1. Chapter 1

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: Wwwwhy? Why am I writing another self insert? This is my third one! I need to be careful man. Not to mention I have a bunch of other fanfics that need love._

Well, the muse is in session.

Ben 10 and Marvel Cinematic Universe. God I love these universes.

I remember being a kid and watching the very first episode of Ben 10. I was so excited, watching a kid become powerful aliens and using them to become a hero. I remember later watching Alien Force, seeing the older, wiser Ben, with a new suite of aliens and a new threat. After that, well... Things went kinda downhill for me personally. Ultimate aliens were cool, but as useful as all that beyond being a ploy to sell toys. As for omniverse and the reboot, not a fan.

Even so, I had mad love for the franchise, and I've always wanted to write a fic for it.

And then we have the MCU... What, am I gonna explain it? It's the MCU. All of us have our first moments realizing the insane awesomeness we were in for when we first saw Iron Man. The movies, the shows, they are often great, sometimes decent, rarely terrible.

So now, a fic. A guy gets dropped into the MCU with an Omnitrix. Have fun, and please let me know what you think.

July 15, 2018, Portland, Earth Prime Source

I was writing, late at night. Not something uncommon for me. I was working on a new story after a long day, my legs still burning from my leg workout in the afternoon. It had been a good day though. My nephew had come back from a visit to our family in California and as soon as he saw my face, started asking where his DS in that combination of adorable and annoying only a child can. He'd followed up by incessantly showing me every step he took in Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon.

It was super annoying having him ask me to watch him play while I was trying to get work done, and I absolutely loved him for it. Once again, it was something only a kid you actually love can get away with.

He was asleep now. My legs burning and feeling satisfied with my day, I tapped away at the keyboard, idly sending fictional characters on fictional adventures. I'd probably sleep soon. Maybe. Probably. When I felt like it. For now, in the peaceful cool of an Oregon summer night, I was okay.

A face leaned over my shoulder. "My, you really do need someone to teach you proper grammar, don't you?"

I jumped, spinning my chair around in shock. There, in my room, stood a man. He was tall, thin, and had a dignified age about him. He looked about as old as my dad actually. His face was unshaven, hair slicked back and white with age at the sides. He wore a brown vest over a white shirt and black tie, all covered by a lab coat. A pair of safety goggles with green goggles hung around his neck.

I stared at him for a moment. I mean, if the guy had broken in, smashed my apartment door down, I may have been able to respond in some way. I might have been angry, or scared.

As it was, all I could do was stare at this random guy who'd just shown up out of nowhere in my room.

"Well," he said, still reading my computer monitor. "I suppose it doesn't matter too much. You can practice later."

As though his words were some sort of trigger, I snapped up from my chair, reflexively grabbing the nearest thing to a weapon I had close by. "What the fuck!?"

He smiled at that. Stepping back and raising his hands up with a casual slowness that made me feel foolish, he chuckled. "Young man, while I admire your choice of weaponry, I do believe that the Hero of Hyrule is the only one who could possibly use that weapon. Still, I admire the effort," he said in a accent right out of those classy movies from the fifties.

I looked down at the weapon I'd chosen. I'd gotten it at comic con a few months back. It was a replica Master Sword. The edge was blunted, the point sort of sharp, the hilt made of cheap plastic with a cylindrical hilt that would prevent me from knowing where the edge of the blade was without looking. Barring it's near uselessness as a weapon, it was still in it's plastic sheath.

That said, a big metal stick in a plastic sheath is still an effective club. I tightened my grip, and stared at the guy. "Dude... get out of my room."

He laughed. "Ah, 'dude'. I'm afraid I've come here for a reason. And I don't believe you will attack me. Not without a true reason for attacking me. Sad to say, but the sort of violence that would allow you to attack a man who is simply standing in your room is not a part of you my dear boy."

"I...uh," Once again, I felt foolish, and angry because of that feeling. The fact was, he was right. People just aren't built to attack randomly. Not if you've been raised all your life to avoid that instinct. After all, how many times had I seen street fight videos where two guys yelled at each other for four minutes before unleashing punches? It was 2018, and nobody was really ready to just unleash hell on some random person they'd met. Nobody except those trained for it, people from rough homes/neighborhoods, and insane people. Barring exceptions.

And I wasn't one of those exceptions.

"I do admire the effort however. On a basic level of course," he sat down in my chair. Despite the fact my chair had been just behind me a moment ago.

"Wait," I turned to see my chair was gone. I looked back at him, eyes wide. "How did you... I don't-"

'Goddamnit,' I thought to myself. 'What is going on!?'

"Now, I wish I could explain everything," he swung his left leg over his right, leaning back in _my_ beat up old chair. His smile was sad now, almost pitying. "But, sadly, the nature of my visit means I'll need to send you off as is. So, I am only here to be your, what is the word... oh yes, a ROB," he took out a pocket watch of all things and fiddled with it. Behind me a noise filled the air as blue light filled my dark room. The noise was like a plastic cup being torn apart over and over again. "I wish you best of luck. I suppose you won't forgive me, but it is what is needed."

I turned, and stared in shock at the sight behind me. Instead of my desk and computer resting peacefully, there was a giant glowing blue circle hanging in the air. "Oh shit."

"Indeed," A hand pressed into my back with incredible strength. I stumbled. "My name is Paradox, by the way. Safe travels."

"Oh shiiiii-" I fell into the glowing blue circle, and all the air in my lungs was sucked out.

'I should have hit him with my fucking sword.'

I fell in a void of blue lights. My body stretched into infinity. But it was also small as an atom. I had infinite understanding, and knew nothing. A whole bunch of other cliché ways to describe traveling through a portal.

I'd been going through that place for a while. I wish I could say it was boring. But it wasn't.

Instead, pain filled my entire body. Knives sliced apart my skin, ripped it from muscle, left my skeleton open to chilling air. My eyes were filled with needles, bit by bit. My limbs flew off of me, wriggling in the void.

Then, in an instant, I was healed again. I knew I'd felt pain. But the memory was only brief, as though I'd read, rather than experienced it. Until happened again.

I had no sense of time, so I had no idea how long I spent in that place. But when it ended, I was still screaming.

I flew into a brick wall in a flash of light. I fell to the ground.

"Ahhhhh!" I screamed, horrified. "Ahhhh! Oh my god, ohmygodohmygod." I screamed and screamed, hugging myself. "No... no. Please. I can't... I can't."

I lay there, in that place, feeling asphalt on my cheeks, tears on my cheeks as rage, horror, and pain left me just...

I never even noticed the watch resting on my left wrist. One with a symbol of two triangles connected at their points. All in green.

The sun had been up when I arrived in the alleyway. It had gone down by the time I had calmed down. I slowly got into a sitting position, my right cheek and arm still raw from lying on the concrete. I looked around, eyes drying, my muscles clenching in my arms.

I was in an alleyway. It was disgusting, littered with garbage that ranged from simple plastic wrappers to rotten food, with a dumpster a bit away from me. It smelled pretty terrible. But compared to where I'd been, I was okay with it.

I shivered, and looked down at myself. Whereever I was, it was chilly. Not snowy or anything, but the shorts and Tardis t-shirt I was wearing was still not cutting it. Granted, my beard and long hair was protecting me a bit, but it was no replacement for a sweater.

Still shivering, I rose to my bare feet and started walking. I didn't know where I was, what the hell was happening, though I had some theories. Crazy, insane theories.

I needed to... I needed to find a phone. I could call my brother. Shit, what was his number? Who memorizes phone numbers any more? I mean, maybe I could message him on facebook.

I got to a gate at the end of the alley and found it unlocked, opening it with a squeal of noise. I tripped slightly on my way out of the alleyway, but managed to keep walking, still shivering in the cold. Without a hair tie, my hair was in a poof of curls, so I kept brushing it out of the way as I walked. I looked around the city I was in.

The street I was walking on was named W 48th Street, which meant I had no idea where I was. Most likely a big city though. There were all the signs. Trash in the streets, constant noise in the distance, a random blanket on the floor. Apartment building were rising to the sky. Cars were parked all along the street. I passed by an abandoned lot, covered in gravel and dirt.

There was more though. Lots of portions of the city had apparently been hit by some sort of attack the likes of which I couldn't understand. Buildings had great holes dug into them. Detours were set up everywhere, leaving me to avoid certain streets, but I could see men in orange vests cleaning up broken and twisted steel and concrete.

"What the hell happened here?" I stopped at one point and stared at on bit of the work being done. A guy was driving a crane, taking away some massive piece of metal the color of polished bronze. I rubbed at my arms.

"Damnit," I walked away, trying to focus.

Thankfully, thanks to my workouts, I'm a pretty big guy now. I was actually pretty proud of it, since I'd worked so hard on it. So no one seemed willing to bother me. Which was good, because all the signs of a rough neighborhood were right there with the damaged buildings. Graffiti, guys gathered in protective groups while glaring at passersby. Still, the streets were practically empty.

I saw a park and turned to walk into it. It was forested little area, with bushes and a fence blocking it from the rest of the city. The leaves were brown, and the grass dead, but it was a park nonetheless. I strolled through, my feet burning a bit from the cold and the walking on asphalt. I got to the middle of the park, the trees around me blocking the lights of the city. A chilly wind blew some leaves past. It was actually peaceful.

Of course, that was when the whistle noise came from behind me.

I stopped in my tracks and closed my eyes. "Oooooh, this can't end well."

I turned to see four guys walk up to me. They were wearing jean jackets with matches sewn into them in a symbol I recognized. The guy in front of me was bald, his eyes brown and wide. His pale white skin seemed to glow in what little light there was. The other guys were white as well. This was important.

As they came closer, the patches caught my eye once more. Swastika's covered the men vests with the sort of pride the symbol did not deserve.

I don't give a damn about people talking about Holocaust conspiracies and how not all of them are bad, or how all opinions should be listened to. If you're the sort of jerk who wears a swastika and starts blaming people's race, religion, gender, or sexual preference for your problems, if you use those as a reason to hate people, you don't deserve sympathy, you don't deserve an opinion. Ignorance can be cured. But not when it's intentional ignorance.

The men walked up to me, the guy in the lead grinning. "Well well, look at you? Forget your shoes boy?"

I frowned, slowly backing away. "I did. I'm on my way to get them. Can you let me go?"

A knife came out. "Nah," he chuckled. His friends joined him in chuckling. They surrounded me. "I think I'd rather show what happens to immigrant fucks who come to New York."

He leaped forward, knife aimed at my stomach.

I wasn't a martial artist. I'd only been trained in some boxing and high school wrestling. Luckily, I was scared as hell.

I'd been shoved into a realm of pain, woke up in a random city, and found myself getting attacked by some of the worst kind of people in the world.

Like I'd said, no one in the modern world is ready to fight someone immediately without the right mentality.

I was finally in the right mentality.

When the guy stabbed at my stomach, I reached out as fast as I could and grabbed his wrist. The knife bounced off my watch, slicing deep into the back of my forearm. I pulled the guy in towards me, shouting.

"Fu-" My other hand rose up. I pulled him forward. My right hand pulled him close. My left snapped forward. I clenched my left hand into a tight fist moments before impact, twisted my hips with the blow, and slammed him with all the force I had. I aimed for his solar plexus, not wanting to break my knuckles on his skull. As the air was driven from the neo-nazi, I spun him around. The guy was a skinny jerk, so even though he was taller than me, he was easy to spin around and pull close. I clenched his wrist tight, pulling him back with me as my other hand wrapped around his neck. My right hand moved from his wrist to his hand, clenching it tight around the knife he was holding. I forced him to point his knife at his own throat.

I almost fell over, stumbling a bit, but I clutched the neo-nazi close and choked him. His friends came closer as I backed off. One guy took out a handgun.

"Let go of him!" He shouted. I ducked, trying to get the guy in between me and his friends.

"Better do it," the guy I was holding laughed, then tried to shake me off. I squeezed harder, trying to keep a hold of him, and I pressed his knife hand into his neck. He stilled at the feeling of it piercing his neck. "You fucking asshole!"

"I just want to go home," I said back to him. My voice cracked. "Seriously, I just..." I trailed off when I saw my watch. The watch I'd never seen before in my life. Scratch that. I knew the watch. But I'd never seen it in a form that wasn't either in cartoon or toy form.

"...Ha!" I let out. The three guys staring at me shared a look. The guy I was holding tried to struggle again. I felt myself go just a little insane. It was kinda nice. Kinda freeing. "Tell you what boys," I reached for the watch, struggling with my 'prisoner' as I did. "How about this? If this doesn't work... I'll let you kill me."

Looking back, I was probably lying. I'd damn well fight back either way. At this point, I was crazy enough to do it.

I grabbed the watch and twisted the face of it. The triangles opened up, and the guy I was holding stared with the same shock I felt when the watch lit up. A image floated from it, a green figure with a head like fire.

"What the..." One of the guys said softly as we all stared at my watch.

"I know right?" I said a bit crazily.

With that, I slammed my hand onto the watch. A flash of green light came from the device, before it enveloped me. I let go of the guy in my arms, shoving him away even as I became a different person.

My bones widened, growing outwards, before they dissolved entirely. Flesh and blood shifted, until only the green of vines remained. My organs began to produce methane in massive amount. My mind changed, connecting to the world around me in a way I didn't understand. In all, the change must have take less than a second, only a blink of time.

When it ended, I stood up tall, stretching my body out and looking at my hands. My body was now green vines and black sections of bark. My feet looked like roots surrounding rocks, allowing me to stand stable on the ground. My hands clenched into green fists. I knew, if I looked at myself, I would have a head shaped like flame, with slit green eyes.

I sighed. My voice sounded different now. Kinda nasally actually.

"Well... Tradition and all that, right," I reared back, crying out one word as proudly as I could. **"** **Swampfire!"**

"Holy shit!" the guy I'd shoved away yelled in amazement.

"Kill it!" The guy with the gun started shooting.

Bullets slammed into me, punching through my body to fly behind me. I staggered back, blinking as I felt the odd sensation of bullets going through me. A moment later, he had emptied his handgun. I looked down at myself.

There were a bunch of holes in me. About fifteen or so, tiny. I felt some wind passing through them. As I watched, the holes began to seal themselves. With a bit of concentration, I accelerated the process. Soon, all the holes were gone, leaving smooth plant-life.

"Whoa," I said in that nasally voice. "That is cool."

I felt so powerful. As though I was a hundred times stronger and more powerful than before. I took a deep breath, my massive chest moving with the action.

Then I raised a hand, mimicking the move I'd seen more than once on Cartoon Network. A plume of flame erupted from my palm. The guys crinkled their noses, apparently bother by the smell.

"What the hell!?" The neo-nazis backed away, scared.

So I threw a fireball at the ground in front of them, laughing. The fireball exploded, erupting with a brilliance I found gratifying.

"Run!"

They spun around.

But we were in a park. In a place full of greenery. Swampfire's home turf.

I reached out with my mind, and felt the trees around me. The feeling of the life around me was intoxicating. I struggled to focus, to ignore the way the world suddenly seemed so much larger, as though I was part of a conversation I'd never known was happening around me every day.

The grass grew up into massive stalks as tall as a man. Trees suddenly erupted with branches. A giant green oval sprouted from my chest, which I ripped out and threw in front of the group. The oval object exploded in front of them, turning into a plant that stabbed into the ground with it's roots and began to grow.

In seconds, the work of months or years, even millenia, passed by. When the guys ran, the plant I'd thrown launched out vines. The forest continued to grow and grow at high speed.

"God hel-" The leader, the guy who'd tried to stab me, was silenced when a vine wrapped around his mouth. In seconds, more vines surrounded his arms, legs, and chest, holding him tightly as he released muffled screams.

The other three turned around, trying to escape the other way. I grabbed one, a guy with a beard bigger than mine, by the shoulder.

"Not today!" I lashed out with a green fist as large as watermelon, my knuckles digging into his side before my inhuman strength lifted him up as I felt something like sticks break under my vine fist.

"Ugk!" He grunted as his ribs shattered. He was sent flying back, slamming into a tree. The tree, under my orders, wrapped him in it's branches, leaving him trapped in a wooden cocoon.

The last two guys tried to escape as well. They ran through the growing grass of the lawn next to the walkway. Which meant they were a field under my control. Feeling a bit vindictive, I stood for a moment, watching them run. When they'd gotten about twenty feet away, the grass rustling as they ran towards the nearest exit from the park to the streets, I dramatically raised a hand. For some reason, feeling like I was being a bit ironic, I snapped my fingers. The grass moved, and the two men fell.

"Augh!"

"Crap!"

I felt the grass speaking to me, letting me know they were wrapping around them. Some weeds joined in, growing with immense speed.

I looked over at the leader. He stared at me from the bonds of the plant I'd thrown. "New York City... Good to know." I looked over the men for a moment, then looked down at myself. "Hmm. You know fellas, I am going to need some clothes."

Later, with a bundle of clothing, an empty pistol, knife, and their cell phones and wallets, all stuffed into a bag made of vines, I turned and walked out of the park. Still transformed into Swampfire, flowers began to bloom in the middle of fall, police sirens came closer, and fire burned. Then, with a loud set of beeps and a big flash of red light, I became human again, and walked into the city.

Sleeping in a hotel is always a bit disgusting to me. I'm always thinking of how many people use hotels for things I'd prefer not to imagine without supermodels involved. That said, I found a solid place to sleep for the night, and thankfully the neo-nazis had some cash in their wallets, enough to get a room.

I managed to get some sleep, even clean the clothes I'd stolen in the small washer and dryer that came with the room. Granted, the clothes wasn't perfectly my size, but I'd gotten some jeans and shirts. Though I ended up having to rip a few swastika's off at one point.

I distracted myself like that for a bit. Rifling through the guys wallets, folding clothes, showering. All the while, I ignored the object on my wrist. It seemed to weigh me down with every move, a reminder of everything that had happened.

Soon, I had to confront it. I sat on the floor and stared at it, resting against the bed of the hotel room.

The Omnitrix. THE Omnitrix. From the tv show Ben 10.

I felt a smile rise on my face. So freaking cool. I loved that show, and the idea of the Omnitrix, a device that could turn a person into one of a plethora of badass aliens, was exciting as hell. And it was my favorite design too, the one from Alien Force. I reeeeaaaly wanted to play with it, to see just who I could into. Humongosaur? Diamondhead? Oh god, please don't let the Worst be one of my options. Hell, while I'd been freaking out before, turning into Swampfire was freaking awesome. Feeling so powerful, that connection to the plants around me, and the feel of summoning methane and igniting with a thought. Damn it was cool.

I lowered my arm and sighed. But then there was the elephant in the room. Why give me a uber powered watch with limitless potential, then drop me into New York City?

I decided to discard the fact this was all impossible. That the Omnitrix, Professor Paradox, teleportation, and aliens were all fictional, or at least not possible according to the 2018 I knew.

Professor Paradox. He was the key. He had answers, he knew why I was here, why I was given the watch. But most important...

I reached for one of the phones. It was locked. So were the other three. No answers. But they were older models. I couldn't tell if that meant anything.

I decided to wait for the next day to find information. But in the end, sleep wasn't going to come easy.

The next day, I was in the Columbus Branch Library. I'd been directed there by a kindly older woman. The library was two stories, gray stone, and in between a place called Rey's Deli Grocery on it's right, and an apartment building of some sort on the left. Once inside finding a computer was easy. Looking up recent news took seconds. I scrolled through the stories, some things jumping out at me immediately as weird. But one took my breath away.

It was seeing a picture of Robert Downey Jr, that guy from the movie Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. He was wearing a dapper suit, a suave smile on his face as he waved from a private jet. The headline made my headspin.

'Tony Stark Makes Plans To Rebuild Stark Tower As The Avengers Headquarters.'

Well, there was only one response I could give to that.

"Since when the fuck did Robert Downey Jr. play Iron Man?"

October 19, 2013. The day I entered the Marvel Universe.


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's Note: This chapter took a lot of work, figuring out the New York Area, using real locations, deciding what aliens to use when, and figuring out the dates. Hopefully, that work comes across as interesting, rather than unnecessary. Please enjoy, and let me know what you think :D_

 _December 19th, 2013_

"Raaagh!" I swung the sledgehammer with all my strength. The metal head smashed into brick, cracking it. My shoulders burning, I felt a grin on my face.

"Kid, you know how creepy it is when you smile like that?" I turned to look behind me, raising a hand to nudge the hard hat on my head back a bit.

"You know one of the signs of old age is repeating crap to people?" I replied.

The older black man behind me grinned. He was a big guy, with massive biceps and a belly that spoke of good eating. His hair was well groomed, though a large mustache bounced with every word he spoke.

He chuckled, his belly bouncing under the blue cotton shirt he was wearing. He was sitting on a cheap folding chair, sipping at a cup of water. "It's more of an insanity thing. But yeah, try not to look like you enjoy hitting things so much."

"Yeah, yeah," I looked over at the city outside.

The building we were standing in was one of many in New York that had been destroyed during an event that was being called, 'The Incident' by people of the city, though it was known worldwide as 'The Battle of New York'. A moment where aliens dropped from a portal in the sky and came down to attack Earth with the help of Loki. Until the Avengers stopped them.

Although finding out about the portal light in the sky made me feel a bit bemused. I'd seen a lot of movies over the years with a portal in the sky, a lot of those superhero movies, from Fan4stic to Suicide Squad. I suppose real life was imitating art in the end.

All of which I could not understand. I couldn't remember any of these events in the comics, and some of the actors looked like actors I recognized. Captain America and Black Widow had even been in the same movies a bunch of times. Well, their actors. Well, the actors that looked like them.

Whatever the case, it happened. I was standing in a building in the middle of Hell's Kitchen, one with a giant hole in it from what apparently been some sort of giant snake monster thing that had flown through the former apartment building.

As part of my attempt to make a living in this weird version of Marvel Comics I didn't know about, I took a job as a construction worker with a company that didn't ask a lot of questions. With all the damage from the battle, and the funding from StarkTech, Rand International, and various others pouring cash into New York to help rebuild it, construction companies had flooded into New York City, fixing buildings and streets that could be repaired, tearing down buildings that were lost causes so they could be built anew.

Perfect way for an immigrant to make some quick cash with some grunt work from guys who don't care a lot about legality. And, seeing as I was the ultimate immigrant, I managed to get work with a guy in charge of finding muscle for one of the companies in charge of the reconstruction of Hell's Kitchen. Some business called Union Allied Construction.

"It's simple work," I admitted. "Just gotta swing a stick and break stuff. It's fun, Sammy."

"Ha!" The man sitting with me replied boisterously. "Well, enjoy it while it lasts. In my experience, guys like you and Eddie over there," he nodded over to the side. In a room that had once been a kitchen, a Hispanic man just a bit shorter than me. He was a skinny guy, but he was taking apart the sink with a wrench, removing the pipes with ease. "Well, paperwork matters to some folk."

I sighed at that thought. Eddie and me both had no legal citizenship in America. For Eddie, it was because he crossed into America illegally to help support his mother in Puerto Rico. For me, it was because an asshole had dropped me into the middle of the city, leaving my paperwork in another universe.

"Well... I'll figure that out later," I reared back and swung my hammer. "Shouldn't you be working, Sammy?"

As brick crumbled and Eddie gently removed the sink in the kitchen, Sammy chuckled. "Nah, you young bucks have it handled. Just let my old ass rest for a bit."

"I have it on good authority that Captain America is older than you, and that guy would probably be right next to me."

Sammy scoffed. "Please youngblood, what do you know about Captain America?" He rose up and moved to pick up his own hammer. He reared back and decimated the brick wall in front of him with a single smooth movement. I coughed a bit as dust rose, and looked over at him as he smiled smugly.

"You're strong, kid," Sammy chuckled. "But it's important to know where to hit, and how fast too."

I blinked at this advice. I raised my own sledgehammer and tried to swing it the way Sammy had. The hammer bounced off the wall with no effect.

Sammy chuckled, leaving me to give him a chagrined look.

"Hey!" We turned around. A man stood there, wearing a polo shirt, khaki shorts, a blue hard hat, and carrying a clipboard. He glared at us, eyes hard, face pinched. Fredric, our boss. "Enough talk. We need the floor cleared by the end of the day."

Sammy and I shared a look before turning and going back to our work.

Later that day, we were done. Well, the guys on my shift. More would come in and do some work at night, but for now, my muscles burning from exertion, I was leaving for the day.

"Ahhh," Sammy sighed happily as we exited the construction site, entering the sidewalk. New York is never really quiet, but there was a brief sense of peace as the sun went down in the distance. He stretched, letting his arms reach for the sky.

"Ugh," I reeled back, playfully covering my nose while grabbing the arm nearest to me and pulling it down. "Dude, come on, deodorant!"

"Hmm?" Sammy slapped at me, grinning just a bit. "Little punk."

I smiled back. "Yeah yeah. See you tomorrow, old man."

"Hey, Mackmoud?"

I stopped, turning to look at him. I was using my real name since there wasn't much point in a cover story, but Sammy always slurred it from Mahmoud to 'Mackmoud'.

"What's up?"

"You need a ride?" He waved towards the parking lot his truck was parked in. "It ain't a big deal."

"Nah, I'm good." I smiled just a bit. "I wanna walk for a bit. Thanks though."

He shrugged, unbothered, and went off.

I, meanwhile, walked away. For a couple of blocks.

When I was sure I wasn't being followed, I turned towards the same section of neighborhoods I'd been hammering at the whole day. Technically, it was just buildings to be torn down. But in that section, there were a lot of places a guy could hide.

I left the sidewalk behind to go into an alleyway. From there, I hopped over a fence, then went through another alley. One more fence and I reached home.

A door with a steel lock pad blocked the way inside, with a clearly broken keypad next to it. I tapped on the 'broken' keypad, and the door let out a 'click', allowing me in.

Once inside, the motion sensors read my presence, and the lights turned on.

The place I'd been calling home for the past two months had once been an office building, for some tech company. It had been destroyed when some of the aliens, called the Chitauri, had blown up the upper floors with grenades then sent one of their reptile things through it. The building was up for reconstruction, but I could use it for now as a home. Rent free.

I'd taken the back room that had once been used for paperwork or something, and converted it into living space.

Yep. Mahmoud, the owner of a watch with infinite potential, living as a squatter.

I looked around. A big green thing the size of a closet rested in the corner. It had once been a broken refrigerator I'd found on the streets. It was still a fridge. Sometimes. Most days.

I opened the door and sighed in relief when I found my food cold. Rather than frozen, cooked, or just plain gone.

A steak was soon cooking on a machine that had once been a printer, and I moved to a beat up old couch to use my computer.

Like the fridge and stove, it was also made from parts of other devices. The phones I'd stolen from the neo-nazis two months before, a big TV monitor I'd found at one of the construction sites, some of the computers left behind by the tech company, a few more refrigerators, and three older generation video game consoles.

The computer worked. It worked damn well. Except on Wednesday, when it just put on videos of people laughing at Japanese game shows for hours, and when small children were eating lollipops nearby. Yesterday was a Wednesday. So, I could get some work done today.

The computer was really a supercomputer when it actually worked. I reached over for my keyboard and mouse and quickly switched it on. I got up and grabbed the steak, then went back.

"Okay. What are you up to, Stark?" I said to myself. My monitor glowed with a blue light, showing a sci-fi sort of look to it, with folders floating in a blue field. A wave of my hands would have let me move things around, but I reached for the mouse instead.

A quick click of the mouse opened a back channel I had into the Stark Industries employee memos. Nothing invasive, nothing about their secret projects, just the stuff any employee there would get sent. I read through them a bit but didn't find anything crazy. Another click sent me to the email of one Happy Hogan, Tony Stark's bodyguard. Some lovely messages wishing him well in his recovery. Another one from a company wishing to hire him from Stark Industries. And... oh. One sent from Happy to Pepper Potts letting her know how sorry he was about her break up with Tony Stark.

I leaned back in my seat, slicing into my overcooked steak with a sigh.

Damn. That sucked. I mean, in the comics, Happy and Pepper were married, but a lot of stuff back home depicted Tony and her in a relationship, and they seemed close in the news.

Feeling a bit more intrusive than usual, I switched the feed again. I pushed my steak aside and focused. Hacking into the employee stuff at Stark wasn't horrific in terms of danger. And Happy had a regular email as well as a more private one which was blocked by some insane firewalls, and I'd only hacked the regular one. Hacking into SHIELD was another game entirely.

Not to say it was impossible. Alien tech, even alien tech made from human parts, was incredibly powerful. With a bit of time, I could hack almost any computer on the planet. Well, I guessed I could.

But that didn't mean I shouldn't be careful.

I went through some of the messages sent to all SHIELD agents. High priority targets, warnings, some simple guidelines for new recruits.

Then I went deeper. The Daily Cadet, the newspaper for the science school that SHIELD ran, had run an article two days before about two of their Alumni, Jemma Simmons and Leo Fitz, had saved a kid named Donnie Gill from being frozen. Good on them.

There wasn't much else, except for Project Insight. I tried to gently find my way in, trawling through employee files, hunting down shipments. I made sure not to go through the same channels I had before.

Apparently, Project Insight was going well. They were building three big ass helicarriers, all powered by Iron Man type tech. Which was cool as shit. I took another bite of steak and shifted in my chair. I went to my other research next, still thinking.

Reports of a skeletal figure on a bike in the south. Apparently, people were thinking it was an urban legend, an explanation for the dead criminals getting burned to death. Ghost Rider.

I switched to a school I'd hacked, looking into their records. Peter Parker was doing well. He had won some science award recently. Good on the kid. Weird, he was only twelve. I didn't look him up for long since hacking into a children's school files made me feel skeevy.

The Baxter Building was still being built, and I couldn't find anything on any Fantastic Four member beyond the point they'd disappeared years back. Some company had hired them, before the company and the four disappeared. No Reed Richards, no Ben Grimm, Sue Storm, or Johnny Storm. That worried me. From the minute I'd found out, I'd left a program chasing any info that could be found on them, anything new. Nothing yet.

I growled in annoyance at that, then flipped to something else. "No mutants," I said with a sigh, looking over my other research. Not a sign of them. I couldn't find Wolverine, Cyclops, Professor X... Wait, I think I found... Uh, I couldn't find... Mutants were... I had to-

I ignored my screen for a moment. Whatever was on it probably didn't matter. After a moment, I went back to it to focus on something more important.

Wakanda was still being listed as a third world nation. Which was probably bullshit. I found myself smiling at the thought of Wakanda. It was weird, I didn't know a lot about Black Panther, but I felt a deep warmth when I thought of that nation. T'Challa was in university, studying the sciences, but that was all.

Finally, I turned on the police radio I had as a program on my computer, sitting back to listen to it.

For about ten minutes, I continued eating my steak as I listened. Whenever a code would get announced, I would look over at the notebook I'd written as a reference to what each code meant. Nothing the cops couldn't handle so far. No robbery in progress or anything. I finished my steak and got up, turning my computer off. Then I walked out of my home, locking it behind me, and headed to the alleyway.

Once there, I looked at my Omnitrix. One of the most powerful objects in all of fiction. Funnily enough, it's creator had developed it with the idea of peace in mind. Azmuth, one of a member of a species of extremely intelligent beings known as the Galvan, had created it to make up for another object he'd made, a sword with the power to destroy planets. It was supposed to allow a person to act as the perfect ambassador. With the ability to transform into any race in the galaxy, a person could interact with the people of the entire galaxy, to understand them and aid them. The ultimate peacekeeping tool.

Instead, he'd made the ultimate weapon. A person who can turn into any alien of the Ben 10 universe is not just powerful, they're versatile. Elemental control, enhanced strength and speed, flight, nuclear power, even time manipulation and reality warping. If there was an alien in Benjamin Tennyson's universe who could do something, the Omnitrix could do the same.

That weapon had landed in the hands of a ten-year-old brat. And that brat had done wondrous things with it. Ben Tennyson was one of my heroes, a kid who rose to the occasion again and again. He'd matured through battle and became a hero worthy of any universe. Ben 10 was awesome.

And now I had his Omnitrix. Ten alien forms, each with their own powers, with some crossover between them in terms of ability. Only ten, out of over a million. But that was enough.

I twisted the face of my watch, and it lit up in a flash of green. An image appeared, floating. Swampfire. He was one of my favorite forms, able to blast out flames from methane gases, control plants, and regenerate from harm with ease. But he wasn't what I needed.

I twisted the face, going through the aliens before I found the form that was best for what I wanted. Then, carefully, I pushed down on the watch.

Immediately, the change came.

My body grew outwards. I was already pretty hefty, but I gained over one hundred pounds of muscle in second. My leg twisted backward, my arms stretched out. Fur grew over my entire body. My fingernails became claws, but feet became massive paws. My nose grew outward, my ears shifted on top of my head as they change shape. My mouth became a muzzle, and my teeth became lethal fangs. I held back the urge to howl my name. Instead, I whispered it, in a voice that was half a growl.

" _ **Blitzwolfer..."**_ I hummed, then lifted my nose, taking a deep whiff of the air. To my human nose, the smell of the city was only sometimes palatable. To Blitzwolfer, the smells of the city were a delight. It was like watching a thousand movies at once and somehow comprehending all of them.

"Time to go," I ran for a nearby building and leaped up about twenty feet. My claws dug into the brick, and I climbed at high speed, going to the top of the six-story building in seconds. Once there, I ran.

There were few things that gave me as much joy as being transformed. Feeling so powerful, running at speeds so fast the world was a blur. My muscles pumped as I ran across the gravel rooftop, legs pushing forward. I was so fast!

I finally released a sound as I leaped to the next roof, a bark of joy. The noise exploded from my lungs, and I grinned at the feel of my simple bark resounding through the air like a bomb, echoing into the distance. More barks responded. It was sort of like listening to a foreign language. I couldn't understand the words, but the emotions carried through. Dogs sharing their own joy, their annoyance at my loudness, their challenges towards my dominance. I barked again, this time at the challengers, and laughed when they just barked the challenges once more.

I leaped to another rooftop, then climbed up to the next building, claws digging into the stone.

I ran around for about twenty minutes, keeping to the shadows and listening closely to the city around me. Blitzwolfer wasn't my best way to track someone down, but his speed, strength, tracking, and sonic powers made him an ideal form to travel in New York City so I could help people.

My decision was justified when I heard something. A loud scream. I took a whiff of the air. Elevated scents I'd learned to tie to fear and excitement, one of them being sweat. Combined with the scream, I had a target.

My right foot slammed into the roof, claws digging into the rocky surface to let me twist around in the middle of my run. I booked it towards the sound.

It was only a minute long run, but I smelled blood float up towards me. I growled in annoyance. Deep inside, a more primal part of me found joy in the smell. Fear, blood, all the signs of prey. Prey to hunt.

Luckily, it was easy to push the urge to hunt down. Blitzwolfer's species, Loboan's, were closer to their animal instincts than humans were, but they were still sentient, so I found it easy to focus.

When I reached the site of the scream, I found five people. Two men, one woman, attacking a young couple, a man and a woman. All different races.

The man was being held down by two of his attackers, a woman with long black hair and a man with inky black skin. He was screaming, a knife wound in his stomach pouring blood, but still struggling to get to his girl.

She was struggling too, crying. The last of the attackers was on top of her, struggling to get her wallet out of her pocket as he grabbed her throat.

I leaped down from the rooftop I was on. I didn't waste time waiting to land.

My mouth opened. In four different directions. It was weird how natural it felt to open my mouth and feel a seam open in the center of my face, running a line down my nose all the way to my chin.

I breathed in. Then I howled. Though that was an understatement.

" **AAAHHHWWOOOOO!"**

A green pulse of energy flew from my mouth, slamming into the two holding the guy down. All five of them screamed in pain, the man on top of the woman falling back and grabbing his ears.

I landed on the ground and sped forward, ignoring the spider-web of cracks I left in my landing. I grabbed the guy who'd been robbing the woman by his shirt and lifted him up. At my full height, I was massive, looming over everyone.

"Hey," I smirked at the terrified look he gave me. I looked over at the other two thugs. "How about you surrender?"

The male and female thugs turned to run. I spun around and threw the guy I was holding at them, running after them at the same time. The guy I'd thrown hit the girl, I grabbed the final guy by his leg.

"God, please no! Please don't do this!" He screamed.

"Arrest you?" I chuckled, pulling to join his friends. They were struggling to rise, but I opened my mouth again.

" **AAAHWOOO!"**

They were thrown back by the sonic blast. I threw the other guy with them, then looked over the couple. The woman was with her boyfriend. Or husband I supposed. They were trying to run.

"Hey!" The couple froze. I sighed at the look of fear they were giving me. "Relax. I'm going to tie them up, then call the police." The woman didn't seem to listen. She was tugging at her boy as he grunted in pain, his knife wound getting opened further. I rolled my eyes, more annoyed than saddened by their fear. "Stupid Marvel hatred of things they don't understand," I mumbled.

The symbol of the Omnitrix rested on my stomach. I reached a hand for it, tapping the device. It glowed green, my DNA once again undergoing a new change. My fur changed color, going from gray to blue. My arms and legs shifted into more human shaped ones, right up until five fingers turned into four, and five toes became two. Blades sprouted from my forearms and forelegs, made of a bony protrusion. I felt the fur on my face shift, rising into 'horns' from around my eyes. My senses were dulled, but my perception of the world slowed down, as though things were a step behind me.

" **Fasttrack."**

I ran as soon as I was transformed. First, I went into the street, looking around quickly. I saw some pallets near a shop that were being held together by rope, which I ran over and untied. Went over to the thugs, picking them up and wrapping them in the coarse rope. Once done, I went over to the couple.

The woman was still trying to drag her husband away. I gently moved him over away from her, and ripped his t-shirt off, pressing it into his wound to try and stop the bleeding.

Then I slowed down for a bit.

"What just-" The thugs looked down at themselves, shocked at the sight of the ropes wrapped around their arms and legs.

The woman looked down at her arms, blinking at the disappearance of her husband, then looked at me. "You were killing him," I said softly, pressing the shirt into his wound. The man looked at me, shocked. "I can take you to the hospital in seconds. I can save his life."

She stared at me. The man stared at me. After a moment, she nodded quickly, tears in her eyes.

"Okay," I grabbed my 'patients' arm so that he was holding his shirt to himself, then I picked up the man in a bridal carry. While Fasttrack wasn't as strong as Swampfire or Blitzwolfer, I could still easily carry him. "Get on my back."

"W-What?" She rose up, staring at me. I was taller than her, and pretty bulky for a speedster, but apparently less terrifying than my Blitzwolfer form because she seemed less fearful.

"Honey," the guy in my arms grunted. "Just... let's trust him, okay?" He held the shirt tighter to himself. It was soaked through by now.

She hesitated for a second longer. Then she walked over to me. It was a bit awkward, leaning down to let her leap onto my back while carrying her boyfriend/husband/guy. Once she was on, I rose up again.

"Hold on tight. Very, very tight."

When I was sure she was secure, I booked it towards the nearest hospital. I'd found the couple in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan, in an alleyway off W 14th Street. That made the nearest hospital Lenox Health Greenwich Village. I had no idea how long it would take to get there by car.

But I ran into the street, ducked around a car moving in slow motion. I tried to be careful, but I still had trouble with quick turns, so I had to hold the guy tight and keep making sure the woman was holding tight. Still, what was a moment of adjustment for me, was a microsecond to the couple.

"Yaaaaaaaaa!" The girl screamed in my ear as I ran through the Manhattan streets.

"Hoooo!" The guy replied.

Soon I found the hospital, an interestingly shaped building with weird circular holes on the upper floors walls. Lenox Hospital had an emergency room, so I slowed down and went towards it.

Fasttrack was fast. But not so good at slowing down or turning on a dime.

I rushed the couple past an Asian couple walking out of the doors, going in and screeching to a stop. My feet left long grooves in the linoleum, and the wife leaped off my back.

"Hey!" I called out, gently holding the guy. "He's got a knife wound to the stomach!"

A nurse turned, startled, then stared at me, shocked by my appearance.

"Lady, come save this guy!"

My yell startled her into moving. A gurney was brought over, and he was put on top, the nurses yelling medical terms I didn't understand. I patted the woman as she went to follow.

"Good luck."

She responded with a teary smile. "Thank you so much!"

With that, she was off. I watched the two go, smiling a bit. I felt good. Helping people was something I was new to, but it wasn't a bad feeling to know you'd made a difference.

"G-Get down on the floor!" Said a voice from my left.

It was a security guard. He had a gun out, pointed in fear.

"...No."

I sped away in a flash of blue. It was a matter of another sprint to go back to the alleyway, where the three thugs still were. One of them had gotten loose and was trying to rise to his feet. I ran in and punched him in the face at high speed. As he staggered back, I went through his friend's pockets, stealing their smartphones and the knife they'd cut the guy with.

Another run with the rope to tie them up, then it was on to the police station. The 10th Precinct in fact. I ran in, dropped the three off with a note, and was out in milliseconds.

Good thing. The Omnitrix began to beep, flashing red light. A quick sprint past an alley, then I was back in human form.

I tripped mid-run, the switch from Citrakayah to human perception of speed throwing me off, but I managed to right myself. I strode out of the alley and looked at my Omnitrix. The center was now red, so no transformations for the next few minutes. I had a couple of aliens I wanted to play with later, but for now...

I took out my brand new StarkTech phone and checked it. No security. I activated the e-mail function, logged out of the girls account and signed into mine. From there, I could check on my computer's files at home. I went through them for a bit. Nothing new. I went to my research on Latveria. Still no sign of Doctor Doom being a thing, though some basketball player was making a name in the sport. Then I looked into the Savage Land. Yeah, Antartica was still frozen. Nothing on the mystical realms, but there was not much chance of that information on the internet. Worth a shot.

I sighed, walking down the street on my phone. This had been my pattern after work, saving people's lives, wallets... sometimes saving them from horrors that sickened me.

There were times... there was a woman. She'd been savaged. The guys who'd taken her had been at it for hours.

It was one month into me living in Manhattan. That was the first time I'd ever put a concentrated effort into hurting someone.

Thinking of her, I switched over to the file I had set aside for her case. She was still getting help, for the physical and mental trauma. She was doing her best. Jen Tiller. As for her assailants, they were still in the hospital. I'd shattered their bones, destroyed their bodies. They'd need years before they could actually move, eat, or shit without aid again. I felt a burning guilt for that, a pain at how I'd lost control. But Jen Tiller deserved to know her attackers would never hurt anyone else like that again.

As the Omnitrix changed the color back to green, I checked the time. Well. Maybe I could save one more before the night was over.

I managed to save three more people, then ended the night with my workout before going to sleep.

 _January 10, 2014_

"Sammy!" I yelled out. He turned to look at me, then nodded when I gestured towards a kitchen Eddie had emptied out. I went inside and started swinging, thinking to myself as my arms and hips moved to strike.

We were at a new construction site. The last house had been taken down just before New Years. In that time, I'd gone on more patrols, done more workouts, and done more research. I'd gotten into a routine, but soon I'd need to move on. The patrols, in the end, were just me practicing. Using my powers against non-threats, moving about the city, making technology for useful purposes. I'd have to step onto the stage soon. Actually, help people on a large scale, help the Avengers. Well, unless they went all Civil War on me, but there weren't nearly enough superheroes for that to be an issue. Besides, I was on camera enough that even hacking hospital and police security footage wouldn't work forever.

As I lifted the hammer again, my phone began to buzz. And so did my Omnitrix.

I stopped, surprised. Then I felt horrified.

My computer at home had a connection to both my Omnitrix and phone. I hadn't been able to mess with my Omnitrix much since my tech transformation was more of an engineer than a scientist, so none of my attempts to unlock the Master Code had worked. But I got it to respond to very specific things.

I dropped the hammer and hurriedly pulled out my phone.

My stomach fell out from under me. I staggered, trying to understand what I was reading. Then I ran.

"Sammy!" My voice cracked, and I tried to focus. Sammy was standing near the trailer set up at the sight. He turned to look at me as I ran up. "I'm leaving!"

"Kid?" Sammy reached for his head and blinked in confusion.

"Mr. Schahed," Frederic, our pinch-faced boss stepped out from around Sammy. "I must remind you that United Allied does not pay you for the days work without-"

I stepped forward, cocked my hips forward, and slammed my fist into my bosses chin in an uppercut. "I quit, Frederic."

"I don't think he heard you," Sammy said as I walked by. He watched in shock as I left.

I ran into an alleyway and opened my Omnitrix up. It was an effort of will trying not to slam my palm into the dial, to carefully pick my alien rather than rush into it in my panic. I finally pushed it down and felt the change come.

" **Fasttrack!"**

I didn't care about cameras now. I sped through the streets passing through town as fast as I could.

Alleyway, fence, alleyway, then hop over another fence, put in my code, rush inside. The smell of burnt food told me my fridge had burned its contents again. I ignored it, putting on my computer. I tapped the Omnitrix and returned to human.

"I... I don't understand what to do with this."

I stood in the middle of my living room, staring at my screen. There, in front of me, were words I just didn't understand.

 **STEVEN ROGERS IS NOW WANTED FUGITIVE OF SHIELD. ALL SHIELD AGENTS ARE TO REPORT ANY INFORMATION ABOUT HIS WHEREABOUTS AND BRING HIM IN FOR QUESTIONING. THIS IS THE NUMBER ONE PRIORITY FOR ALL AGENTS. FIND STEVE ROGERS, BRING HIM IN.**


	3. Chapter 3

_January 10th, 2014_

For a crazy moment, I felt under-dressed in my blue shirt. I stared at my computer screen, trying to understand what was going. The message was from SHIELD, being sent to all agents through priority channels. Every agent on the planet was getting this. And it was insane.

 **STEVEN ROGERS IS NOW A WANTED FUGITIVE OF SHIELD. ALL SHIELD AGENTS ARE TO REPORT ANY INFORMATION ABOUT HIS WHEREABOUTS AND BRING HIM IN FOR QUESTIONING.**

I ran through every bit of comic book knowledge I had, some of it mere scraps I'd overheard. What was going on? Why was SHIELD hunting Captain America?

Captain America going rogue was actually pretty common when I thought about it. It was true for all superheroes, a moment when the people who were supposed to support them started to think of them as criminals. But in this case, what was happening? Was he being mind controlled? Framed? Did someone trick SHIELD somehow?

 _Hail Hydra._ Said a soft voice in my mind. An image that had actually in the news for a while in my world. Captain America, suddenly saying those two disgusting words. Was it something like that? Some weird pseudo body switch thing?

I needed answers. I needed to find out who were the bad guys.

My feet didn't move. I licked my lips. For all my power, I'd spent months fighting thugs, gangsters, and rapists, all for the sake of practice. To git gud with my powers, to establish a rhythm, to know when my watch would turn off and reset (Though that was still up in the air). All for the day I'd actually fight as an Avenger, to save people from monsters, to do the work I did on patrol of Manhattan on a larger scale. With the Omnitrix, I could save a lot of people.

I'd thought about going home a couple of times. Of making a device to make a portal back somehow. But nothing I tried let me do it. For some reason, I was locked in this universe, or at least, my tech couldn't make the calculations to find my home universe so I could actually make a device that would get me there. So while I was here, I wanted to do some good. To use this gift that was forced/given to me to be a good guy.

At that moment, I thought of Ben. I thought of how much he'd gone through. I thought of Marvel's famous characters. Of what made those heroes. And it was funny. But I found my inspiration from a boy who, in this universe, was only twelve years old.

 _With Great Power, comes Great Responsibility._

That thought made me step forward. I turned off the blinking message and switched over to my SHIELD link. I didn't hesitate anymore. I needed information. And only one man would tell me the truth, or at least his version of it.

There was a button on my computer, dedicated to one purpose. It was made from the head of a Hulk doll, something of a joke. Some of my forms had their own sense of humor. I wasn't laughing.

I pushed down on the Hulk's head slightlly, but not enough to actually activate it.. Then I stopped to think before pulling my hand away. Not the time to be impulsive. I walked over to another corner of my home and grabbed the pack I had set aside. It was made from tough leather, filled with clothes, some granola bars, a tough canteen of water, a first aid kit, and knives. With a final thought, I threw off my blue shirt and grabbed one I'd saved. A white one, with a black stripe straight through the center. It felt appropriate. Made for anything, up to getting teleported into outer speed. A bug-out bag. I checked the Omnitrix, flipped through my aliens for a moment. Not to transform, just to make sure of what was happening.

The plan had always been this, on some level. I was always waiting for a call to action. I'd spent weeks preparing for the day I would need to step into battle, to join the Avengers or help one of the street level superheroes like me.

I looked around my small home, shrugging my backpack slightly. "I guess... I guess this is goodbye." I'd been planning to leave in a hurry at any time. That's why there were no posters, no movies or video games in my house. But still... Leaving was gonna suck.

Then I sat down at my computer and pressed down on the Hulk's head. It wiggled slightly, his angry snarl bouncing around.

"HULK SMASH!" My computer speakers cried out.

My screen flickered. That was it. Sadly, computer's aren't exactly dramatic when it came to this sort of thing. But in my homemade supercomputer, a program ripped through every firewall in SHIELD. My passive intrusion became an invasion as I pulled every secret they had into my PC. On any other day, this would have been an insane move. No one human can look into the thousands of files belonging to SHIELD without hundreds of hours of time to read through the sort of dark crap no one should read.

I ignored all of it, switching over to the most relevant file. All the work being done in finding one Steven Rogers.

Satellite surveillance, security camera, social network tracking, word of mouth. Everything on the East Coast was trying to find him.

Which meant I was too.

You know the great thing about technology? With a good enough interface, you don't need to be smart. You just let the tech do the job for you. Not many can build smartphones. Almost anyone can use them. And my supercomputer could do the work of teams of hackers and technicians by itself. It separated out data and started using SHIELD's resources for me. I needed to find Captain America, and my computer started tracking him. Simple as a couple of button presses. I called the program 'CapWatch' and left it running. I pulled out my smartphone and connected it to my computer with a cable. I connected the program to my cell phone. With it on, I could keep a watch on Captain Rogers while on the move. The program would work within SHIELD, hidden by alien programming and keeping me informed.

And then my computer beeped. The cameras had found him, at a mall in D.C. I made sure my phone was connected to the CapWatch program, then turned back to the moniter.

"Huh," I leaned towards the screen, squinting. "He really does look like Chris Evans. But giant."

It was something I'd always known from the footage, but now it was obvious. When he stood next to Thor and the Hulk, he wasn't that big. On his own? Dude had to be over six feet. He was trying to be low-key, but it's hard for a truck made of super-soldier enhanced and sculpted muscle to hid with a hat and a pair of glasses. He was standing with a woman, in the middle of an Apple computer store. They were tapping away at something. Well, the woman in the hoodie was at least. She was shorter than he was and hiding better. I'd barely half-noticed her. Something about how she was standing just... made her hard to notice. As though she was hiding even as she stood there. It took me a bit to recognize Natasha Romanov. So Captain America was innocent? Or, wait, was Black Widow evil in this universe, just like in the Ultimates? Damnit all, more questions.

As she typed, another alert came through. I checked it.

"Ah... shit."

The alert was actually two. First, whatever Black Widow had done, it put a level six homing program onto them, which meant SHIELD now knew where they were.

Second, someone had triggered one of the motion sensors around my home.

I ran to the computer and triggered the outer cameras, made from printer and smartphone parts. Eight screens showing everything around the building showed me what was happening.

Men were pouring from black SUV's, guns out. They wore all black uniforms, with bulletproof armor, helmets, and combat boots. They were going down the alley near my home. All with assault rifles out.

"How the hell did they get here so fast?" I grumbled. I knew they would track me once I slammed through their firewalls with the rudeness of a knife to the testes. But I hadn't expected them to be so quick. Or to come with an army. SHIELD may have been under high alert, but I didn't think they would send assault rifles against a hacker.

I made sure my bag was slightly loose on my back. Then I pressed a self-destruct on my computer. It linked with my fridge, stove, and security system. In three minutes, it would explode everything, leaving no trace of who'd lived there.

It sucked ass. I'd made a home in Manhattan. My crappy rundown home, with tech that barely worked, a fridge that burned food, and a supercomputer that played Japanese TV on Wednesday no matter what I did. I pushed the thought away.

I needed to get to Captain America and Black Widow. I was going to help, and I couldn't let SHIELD stop me. Whatever was happening, he was the key.

Then I looked at the computer. The camera outside my door showed the SHIELD agents throwing something. At first, I thought it was a smoke grenade, but why throw that at a closed door. The computer helpfully identified it for me with the use of StarkTech accelerated reality, zooming in and naming the object. I didn't read the whole description. Two words were enough.

 **Fragmentation Grenade.**

My right arm lifted. I twisted the face of the Omnitrix. I didn't look at the watch. No time to choose, any alien was more durable than I was. I just slammed my hand onto the watch, roaring as my palm hit my wrist.

"IT'S HERO TIME!"

 **BOOM!**

When the grenade blew up, it destroyed my metal door. Shrapnel flew into the air, some of it as long as knives. Enough to impale me, to even kill me.

But the change had already come. I grew up to nine feet in height. Blue-green crystals grew across my skin, sliding out of my pores, surrounding my fingers, my face. I grew massive spikes on my shoulders. My body was made of crystal.

" **Diamondhead!"**

I stood there proudly, ignoring the shrapnel bouncing off the crystal.

" _ **Huh,"**_ my voice was odd in this form, resonating. " _ **I would have preferred to run... but maybe I should throw a punch or two."**_

Not really my plan to turn into Diamondhead. I needed to leave, and this form wasn't made for that.

Then again... they'd thrown a grenade at me.

" _ **All right,"**_ I snapped my hands to the side, thinking of Thor for some reason. My crystalline hands shapeshifted, becoming massive blades worthy of any anime. " _ **I said hero time. I'll make good on that."**_

I leaped out of my home, my backpack now tight, and roared.

There were twelve men in the little courtyard outside my home. I'm not sure what they expected, but it wasn't a Petrosapien leaping into the air out of the smoke, glowing blue-green in the sunlight and wearing a black and green outfit. Behind me, my home for over three months blew up. I roared, blade arms out, and slammed into the ground.

The men around me started to shoot. Bullets slammed into my form, only to fall to the ground in useless chunks. Diamondhead could survive reentry on his own. Bullets would do nothing. I ignored it and ran towards one of the soldiers. My left sword arm shifted, turning into a fist. Simple. But when your hands are as big and heavy as Diamondhead's, they hit with a hell of a lot of force. I punched his chest, sending him flying. My right arm became a shield. I waded in, pumping my left fist in my best boxing stance and hitting another guy in the leg. I tried to be gentle. These were just soldiers after all.

I blocked another hail of bullets from one man using my right arm shield, hearing loud noises like metal hammers on stone as bullets hit crystal to no avail. I walked towards him swiftly, reaching a hand out and grabbing his gun away from him. He staggered back. I punched him in the rips, tossing him aside. Another SHIELD soldier stepped forward to swing his fist at me, and I let him. His fist broke on my chin. He screamed as he fell to his knees, and I kicked him back. " _ **Sorry, buddy."**_

"Take him down!"

That was the only response I got. More assault rifle fire was shot at me, and I growled in annoyance. While I couldn't be hurt by the bullets, the noise of them hitting me in the head and chest was annoying.

I slammed my fist into the floor. Crystal shot into the earth, then exploded outwards around me in a shining imitation of an explosion. I tried to keep the shards dull, but when crystals the size of diamonds erupt upwards at high speed, they hit hard.

The soldiers around me screamed as the crystals slammed into them, sending them flying. I heard more men coming towards us, and I knew I had to go. I couldn't exactly kill the good guys, even if they had thrown a grenade at me.

I turned and swung my arm out, shooting blades of crystal at the ground. As they sank into concrete, they exploded, turning into a massive ramp. I ran for it, sliding on the crystals and launching into the air. As I came close to another building, I threw more crystals. They grew in seconds into a sort of bowl stabbed into the wall, letting me dive into the 'bowl', slide down and fly out of the other side. I landed on a roof and sprinted as hard as I could, hearing the guys behind me yelling at each other. Then the 'whomp, whomp, whomp' of a helicopter's blades flew by. A sigh left my lips when a black helicopter spun around to come in front of me.

" _ **These assholes are persistent."**_

No time for niceties. Mid-run, I spun to aim myself at the helicopter, my legs and arms pumping hard. It turned it's right side towards me, the door sliding open. A guy levered a freaking minigun at me. The barrels started turning at high speed.

" _ **All this for a little hacking!?"**_

The guy pointing the minigun couldn't hear me, considering the helicopter blades were sending a massive ruckus into the air.

The minigun started firing. I lifted a hand up, shapeshifting my arm to turn into a giant shield again. Big bullets the size of thumbs slammed into the shield, sending flattened bullet rounds bouncing on the rooftop as they uselessly tried to break the unbreakable. I sprinted, holding my shield in front of me. My other hand swung outwards and tossed another crystal, a large stone bouncing on the ground before I leaped onto it. The stone grew under my feet, surging upwards and sending me towards the helicopter. My shield became a sword in mid-air.

" _ **Raaugh!"**_ With that cry, I slammed my sword hand deep into the steel of the helicopter, at the point where the tail met the body of the chopper. The sound of metal being sliced by steel was a wailing screech of noise in the air. My sword sprouted a flower of crystals within the helicopter, pushing them to grow as fast as I could make them go. The guy with the minigun stared at me as the section of the helicopter I was hanging from began to sprout blue-green knives from the inside. All along the inside of the chopper, more and more crystals sliced through the seats, the fuel tank, grinding through the aircraft until a massive one rose from the floor. It was as big as a man and forced the guy at the minigun to back up as it crowded the helicopter. The whole thing began to fall, unbalanced and leaking fuel as my crystals sliced into it.

" _ **There's a bar down the street,"**_ I said with a grin at the shocked soldier, still held to the chopper by my sword hand. " _ **I suggest you guys go there after this, drink things off."**_

I leaped from the chopper, aiming towards another building nearby. I slammed into the rooftop in a ground pound and hurriedly looked over at the helicopter. The thing was unsteady, about to slam into a building nearby.

I reached my mind into the crystals within the helicopter. Crystals feel like... light. Warmth of the sun on your face, even as you feel a cooling breeze on your arms. I moved that feeling, carefully, my arms swaying in the air as my carved lips curved. As the crystals moved, I dragged the copter through the air. It's rotors screamed, struggling to fight my pull. I grunted with the effort, trying to hold the aircraft, and guided it slowly to the ground. When it came close to the ground, away from any cars, the pilot stopped fighting me. Together, me swaying my arms and the pilot in the street ahead of me moving his joystick, I slowly lowered the chopper to the ground, ignoring the sounds of more men coming up onto the roof behind me for a second. As soon as the chopper was down, I spun around.

More soldiers stood behind me than had appeared at my door. About twenty or so. I stared at them as they pointed their guns at me, my eyes narrowing.

For some reason, this felt... wrong. Opening up with a grenade on a house that could just have held a very stupid hacker. Coming in with guns up, without even speaking to me in some way. I mean, sure, I'd committed a crime, but hackers don't get armies attacking them, they get job offers. All of this felt less like SHIELD, and more like I was fighting an evil army.

The men surrounded me, one in the center barking at me. "Get down, get down now! We will shoot you, you damn freak!"

" _ **Rude,"**_ I grumbled softly.

Guns cocked. I raised my hands.

Assault rifle fire slammed into me. I didn't stagger, my feet having sprouted spikes through the bottom of my shoes to let me stay standing. As the bullets hit my stone skin, my fingers sank into my palms, turning them into flat planes with spikes popping out. I fired an assault of spikes from my new cannon arms. They slammed into the ground in front of the guys shooting at me, erupting into a wall of massive spikes to defend me.

I turned and leaped off the building, reaching for my chest. A massive palm tapped the Omnitrix.

Once more, the change came. My crystal skin became reptilian, scaled and colored brown. My massive form shrank to become far more skinny, aerodynamic. My backpack was stretched to the limit when another growth sprouted on my back, which solidified before a pair of wings snapped out from it. My face became beaked, and my eyesight sharpened as my hands and feet each grew three talons.

In mid-air, falling towards the ground I pointed myself towards the ground. A section of my back came alight with green energy. I screeched for joy as I shot forward at the pavement like a jet engine. Before I hit the ground, I twisted my body upwards in a maneuver that would have snapped a human back, at way too many G's. I rocketed back up into the sky as fast as I could, the organic engine on my back roaring with an unearthly noise. I released a pulse of energy, shooting into the sky at sonic speeds.

I passed the guys on the rooftop chopping away at my crystal formation, spinning upwards and crying out the name.

" **Astrodactyl!"**

With that cry, I spun around. "Okay! Time to g-screeeech!" I blinked, floating for a moment. "That's weird to get used to, Squaaaawk!" I said, letting another screech of noise out once I'd finished. Sometimes you have to let the form do what it wants. And Astrodactyl like to release loud bird noises when it talked. Hell, I kinda liked it too.

I tapped the Omnitrix again, this time trying to access the GPS. I didn't have much time before the Omnitrix would time out, especially with all the stuff I'd had Diamondhead do, so I quickly accessed the direction of the mall Captain America had been in. A moments orientation and I rocketed away, zooming through the sky with a tremendous boom of noise as I broke the sound barrier.


	4. Chapter 4

_Author's Note: This chapter was fun. Considering the two new aliens revealed, I had to do some playing around with the changes in personality and the way the alien's act. One, in particular, was a lot of fun, and I loved the energy it brought out of me. Though I imagine some would find him annoying._

 _Overall, this chapter was fun to write, and I hope you enjoy it._

Nobody can really understand the joy of flying. Of rocketing through the air, screaming on a wave of air, diving and ducking as gravity fought to grab you and failed. The wind roared past me, my talons trailing behind me as my wings felt the icy chill pass above and over my skin.

But I had a purpose. Even as I flew, I knew the truth. There was no way Captain America was at that mall in Washington D.C. anymore. I had to find them again, him and that mysterious woman with him. With my eyesight, I focused on where I was aiming for. I needed to find them again, which meant hacking. I'd been flying for about a minute. Astrodactyl was fast, fast enough to break the speed of sound with ease.

The distance between Manhattan and Washington DC is only about 230 miles. Even Mach 1 is 340ish meters a second, and I could clear that with ease. Which meant I needed to slow down so I could see what I needed. I also dropped as low as possible at points, flying along rivers, under bridges, trying to avoid detection by radar.

About six minutes into the flight, the Omnitrix started to beep. I shot towards the ground, glad I wasn't as high up as the twenty thousand feet I'd been at before.

I came down behind a 7-11 on the outskirts of D.C. It was in one of the rougher neighborhoods of the city. As I landed, the Omnitrix turned off, and I landed in a roll as a human being. I stood up and looked around the empty street, then started walking.

Even with everything I'd done to try and shake off the radar, I knew it wouldn't last. I needed more. I needed a tech solution, a way to stop anyone, anywhere from tracking me. I'd thought of building one before, but I was more focused on hacking.

I grabbed my phone and found the nearest technology store. A Best Buy a few streets away. I started jogging, keeping my eyes open for anyone shady. I wasn't exactly trained in espionage, so I couldn't see if anyone was following, but it was the best I could do on short notice. Funny. All the power to change the world on my wrist, and the first time I get the chance to help an Avenger, it's on a mission more dependent on spy stuff rather than explosions.

I hurried down the sidewalk and got to the parking lot of the Best Buy. When I walked in, a kindly older woman with a badge on her chest that said her name was Martha smiled at me.

"Hello there! Do you need any help?"

"As much as the universe can give me," I said quickly, striding past her fast. She blinked after me as I headed to the gaming center.

Years back, in my home universe, scientists used a little under 2,000 Playstation 3's to create a supercomputer. It used the advanced graphics capability of the gaming console to do things other supercomputers could do at a fraction of the cost. The PS3 was released in 2006, while the year I was in now was 2014. More importantly, it was created in a universe without Tony Stark.

In this Marvel universe, I found stuff I wouldn't be able to back home. I checked my phone as I walked through the store, and kept track of Captain America and Black Widow's traveling through my CapWatch program.

I had one of the employees get me one of the new StarkConsole systems, which he told me would be waiting at the front for me since they didn't keep them on shelves. We did the same with a small monitor, a pair of earphones, some graphics cards, and some legos, though I could carry a few of those items myself.

Once at the cashier, the problems started.

"That will be, one thousand seventy-eight dollars, and thirty-eight cents," the cashier, a cheery young woman with black hair that had a red stripe in her bangs, smiled at me. "And will you be paying with debit or credit?"

"Cash," I reached into my bag. Over the months, I'd only spent money on essentials. The rest, I got from trashcans, sometimes pawn shops, but usually, I rarely spent the money I got from my job for anything that wasn't food. Add in the money I stole from thugs and gangbangers, and I had some cash to spend.

Of course, I'd forgotten that a young man looking hectically around and carrying over a thousand dollars in cash looks suspicious. I realized something was wrong when the cashier started taking an extra long time to check my bills. Then I saw the employee in the background making a phone call. He was trying not to look at me.

Someone came up behind me. "Excuse me, sir?" I turned around. The guy behind me was short, kinda pudgy, with slicked-back hair. He looked like a normal guy. He smiled. "Can you come with me please?" He opened his coat. Inside was a badge with an eagle symbol on it. SHIELD.

"...What, were you in the store already?" I said as the cashier hurried away.

The guy shook his head. "No, but I was close by when we intercepted the phone call to the police... It just took him a while to get here." He nodded behind me. I turned around. There was a guy, standing taller than me. He was striding towards me, wearing nothing but a tank top, which showed off he had enough muscle for a fitness magazine. His head was bald, and his eyes were hard. He was walking towards me, practically glaring.

"Don't move!" The guy who'd gotten my attention first was suddenly pressing a gun to my head. But I'd already reached for the Omnitrix. I thought about changing the alien I had set on it for when I left the store. But it didn't look like I had time. "Get down on the floor, and we-"

I pressed the face of the Omnitrix. The guy fired his gun, but I was already knee height to him.

I shrank down by about five feet. My hair faded away. My ears grew out behind me as my nose grew forward. I felt my arms become skinny sticks, yet somehow become even more powerful. My skin became red. My blue jeans changed to fit my new form, my sneakers as well. And my white t-shirt shrank with me, the black spreading out. As it did, the shirt shifted colors further. A gold image appeared. Like a man wearing a helmet with big goggles on and a triforce symbol on the eyebrow. Over the head were two words. _Black Sabbath._ Three more words rested under the head. _U.S. Tour '78._

" **Jury Rigg!"** I cried out, stretching my arms out as though I was a menacing monster, rather than a tiny red Gremlin in a tour shirt.

"Hahahaha!" I giggled, rubbing my hands together. "Oh yes! Time to go nuts baby!"

The guy who'd pointed the gun at me stared for a second. I leaped up and grabbed his face. "Hahahaha!" I punched him in the nose, hard, cackling madly as I held onto him by his right ear.

"Oh god! Get him off me!" the guy screamed falling back as I punched him over and over with a tiny fist. He reached up and tried to pull me off him. I leaped away, over him, and ran towards the main store.

My mind was racing. Jury Rigg was just a manic energy kind of guy as is. But here? In the middle of a Best Buy?

"Oh my god," I stopped in the middle of an aisle full of printers. My fingers twitched as I stared at the devices in front of me. "Heh... hehehehehehehe! DISASSEMBLE!"

With that battle cry, I leapt for the nearest printer. My powerful red claws dug into the plastic, ripping through the casing. As I did, my mind began to link it all together. One part connected to this part, so it could do this. And if that was possible, why couldn't I just do this? The feeling of tearing the printer apart, of understanding through destruction, made me cackle like a madman, my squeaky voice filling the air. "Disassemble, disassembledisassembledisassemble!" In a blur, three printer were torn to pieces. Then I started mashing them together. The computer parts, mechanical sections, the pieces just fit together in my head. My mind may have been as hyper as the Flash on crack, but I just felt this... natural intuition for technology. I knew the machine because it just made sense.

"Reassemble!" I cried out, creating a power source in the handle. "Reassemble, reassemble!" I placed the glass in the barrel as a focusing lens, then jammed plastic all around it for reinforcement. "Heh. Fixed it, baby!"

Jury Rigg was my most mind-bending form. But in some ways, he was also my most peaceful.

Just as I finished the machine, the bald guy from earlier came around the corner. When he saw me, he started walking down the aisle. I picked up the device in my hand and pointed it at him.

"Hey, baldie!" I said with a fanged grin. "Say hello!"

The creation I'd made was shaped like a giant gun made of plastic. I pulled a trigger that had once been a piece of plastic, and the gun fired, sending me flying from the recoil.

A ball of light slammed into the tall bald guy. It pressed into his chest, lifting him up and sending him flying.

"HA!" I cried out. The guy slammed into an earphone display, shattering the plastic. "What you gonna do now!?"

The bald giant rose up. His nostrils flared, rage in his face. He grabbed the metal shelving next to him with his right hand. He smirked suddenly, his rage becoming determination. "I can think of something."

As I watched, his right hand changed color. From the point where he was grabbing the shelving, it started to match the shelving. For a moment, I thought it was some sort of camouflage. Then I realized it was so much worse.

The color moved up his arms to his shoulders, and up over his head, until he was completely white, metal replacing skin.

"Huh," I said, my eyes wide. "Your last name wouldn't happen to be Levin, would it?"

The big metal man roared, rushing at me. The imagery of a giant white being of metal rushing for a tiny red gremlin carrying a giant gun was hilarious. I raised the gun and fired again, as fast as I could. The light balls didn't send him flying anymore, only smashing into him with force. I leaped onto a shelf and started running down the aisle, kicking products to the floor as he followed me.

"Crusher Creel, right!?" I smirked at the roar I got in response. "What, you don't like that name?"

I leaped over to the next aisle, shooting at the guy. My gun didn't have a punch, but at least the light balls could knock him around.

I leaped over to the next aisle, then the next, going from shelf to shelf. He spun to follow me, crashing through shelves as I leaped from one to another. I leaped over one more. Then I leaped off the shelf and down into the aisle, leaving me to hide against the shelves and wait.

To my left, Creel slammed through the shelves, crossed, the aisle, and crashed through the next one. I grinned at the sight of him continues his chase as I stood behind him, then turned.

I needed to escape. But I also needed to be able to keep anyone from chasing me. I ran through the holes Creel had made, going back until I hit the smartphone stuff. I grabbed three phones and turned to get more.

"There you are!"

I looked up. The guy who I'd punched in the face came running down the aisle. His nose was bloody, and he seemed enraged. He sprinted full force.

"Come here, you little shit!" he reached out his hands to grab me.

I grinned. "Rude!" Then I lifted my gun.

He had a moment to realize what it was. His eyes widened, and his sprint became a backpedal. Then a ball of solidified red light slammed into his face. I didn't stop shooting as he flew through the air, hitting him three more times and knocking him across the store.

"Eat it!" Then I ran.

I grabbed more stuff, earphones, a keyboard, alarm clocks, stuffing my arms as I ran through the aisles of Best Buy. In the distance, I could hear Creel trying to find me. While I was surprisingly quick for being so small, I was on a low amount of time.

"Disassemble," I whispered, unable to fight my compulsion, but still lowering my voice. I grabbed at all the stuff in my arms and tore it apart. Smartphones were torn apart so their batteries could be used as power sources, and their touchscreens as interfaces, their wireless stuff to interact with satellites. The keyboard and alarm clocks used for their circuitry. The earphones to produce sound. Except one, which I used to make something else.

Soon, I was finished. I had a small block of random wires and circuitry before me, and a smaller one that looked like a pair of headphones turned into makeshift speakers with a Darth Vader alarm clock in the middle. I was about to pick them up and run when the wall behind me exploded.

"Yeep!" That was all I got out. Then I was picked up and slammed into a shelf. Hands of steel wrapped around my thin neck. "Gack!"

Creel held me in the air. He smiled at the sight of me in his grasp. Slowly, he began to squeeze.

"Ghhh!" I wheezed out. My left hand hurriedly reached for the Omnitrix symbol on my belt as I mentally reached for a hero who could fight off Creel.

I changed. In seconds, my height exploded up to nine feet. Red skin became orange and white fur, striped black. My muscles exploded outwards, becoming massive boulders beneath my fur. My feet became paws, and my hands each grew a single massive claw popping out of the back of my wrist. And my face became that of tigers.

" **Rath!"**

I roared in Creel's face, picking him up and tossing him back. He slammed into some shelves, destroying the store further as his metal form broke them. "You ain't about to choke me again, bub!"

With that, I stepped forward. Creel went to meet me, lashing out in a cross aimed at my chin. I caught his fist, a small shockwave as metal met flesh, both with superhuman power. When he stared at me in shock, I grinned savagely.

"Thhhhhat's right buster!" I pulled in his arm, my claw slashing at his stomach. For a moment, my claw and his stomach clashed. A long gash was scratched into his steel form, but not enough to hurt him. He freed his fist from my grasp and fell back, but I stepped for. "Ya got nothing!" I roared, meeting him in battle.

I roared, rushing him, slashing my claws into him. He fell back under my power. I relished in the sight as his metal skin was carved by my claws. "That's right! Let me tell you something Crusher Creel! Nobody can beat Rath!" I picked him and slammed him into the ground. "I'm the best there is at what I do, and it isn't very nice!"

"You talk too much," Creel punched me in the face from his position on the ground.

I fell back, staggering. He followed me, punching my ribs. For the first time since I found out I had Rath as a transformation, I felt pain from a blow, my bones groaning at the blow. I grunted, rage blinding me.

"You think you're great, Mr. I-Can-Turn-Into-What-I-Touch!? Well, bring it on!" I punched him in the face.

Then Creel punched me in mine.

We duked it out, tearing through Best Buy, turning shelves into scrap against our bodies. I grabbed a flat screen and slammed it over his head. He grunted as hundreds of dollars of metal and plastic tore over him. His skin flickered in color to match the TV, and he hurriedly grabbed some steel shelving, to change into steel again. I roared, hitting him over and over. Creel was silent now, trying to beat me with every bit of skill he had, his fists slamming into my chest, ribs, and face. I felt some respect for a moment. Creel was tough. But mostly, I was frustrated this problem wasn't going away by punching it. So, I decided it was time to really fight.

When Creel threw another punch, I leaped up. About twenty feet in the air. "Messier Elbow Drop!"

Creel tried to dodge, but I came down to fast, slamming my full body weight into his back with my elbow. He hit the ground, hard. I rolled to my feet and grabbed him, holding him upside down in a hug, his face outwards. I leaped upwards. And as I came down with Creel's head leading, I called out once more.

"Polaris Piledriver!"

The ground shook with our impact. For a moment, it was still. I sat in a crater that had once been the gaming center of the Best Buy, Creel lying on his face. I rose up, and picked Creel up by his leg, lifting him until he was upside down and face to face with me. Creel was still awake, but weak. I grinned toothily. "Rath wins?" Creel didn't respond. "Yeah, Rath wins!"

I tossed him aside.

A gunshot echoed in the store. A brief impact jostled my arm, a mere pinprick compared to I turned around. A bunch of guys were coming towards me, all dressed in police uniforms or familiar black military gear. I scowled. "Rath is real annoyed with you idiots!" I roared. I reached for the Omnitrix symbol on my chest, tapping it.

Orange fur became brown reptilian skin.

" **Astrodactyl!"**

There were about fifteen men coming towards me. I opened my mouth and charged it with star power. "Squawk!" A beam of green energy flew from my mouth, slamming into a man wearing a cops uniform. As he fell back, my jetpack launched me into the air. I fired again and again in the air, forcing the men back into cover, then cartwheeled in the air.

In the aisles I'd been before, I saw three men walking towards the items I'd made. I flew over, dropping next to them. "Not happening!" I snapped out. The star energy within me shifted to my wrists, in the bracers on my forearms. I unleashed it, creating two energy whips that sprouted from the holes on my wrists. The three men raised guns to shoot me. I snapped my left energy whip out, wrapping the legs and pulling the whip. They fell in a heap. One of the men reached for his hip. I twirled my right energy whip, then lashed out, hitting him in the face. I did it to the other two, then got on to business.

I turned to my creations. First, I fired an energy beam at the gun I'd made, destroying it as thoroughly as I could. Then I scooped up the other two devices. I placed each on either side of my hip. That finished, I lifted up once more. The soldiers were coming towards me again. One had a rocket launcher, which he fired at me as I hovered in the air. I spun an energy whip around and lashed out, exploding the rocket in mid-air.

"You'll have to do better than that, squawk!" I flew for the exit. As I launched forward, my jetpack released a propulsion blast behind me. It hit the ground and exploded, sending the SHIELD agents flying. I swung my whip at the glass of the front store window, breaking it. With that, I was out in the fresh air. I flew upwards, only to widen my eyes at the sight above me in the sky.

"Coooool, squawk!"

A Quinjet. It floated over me, with its rotor wings, cool design, and even missiles on the wings, a feature I'd never seen on them.

I flew up past it. The Quinjet turned towards me, a Gatling gun popping out of its nose.

"Oh, squawk."

The loud whine of a Gatling gun filled the air as I rocketed around. The Quinjet spun to follow me, the Gatling guns filling the space behind me with bullets. The Quinjet fired missiles as well, three gray ones that followed me. I swung left to right, up and down, but I couldn't shake them. My eyes narrowed.

"This is a lot of resources coming at me," I grumbled.

With that, I did a loop. I zoomed above the Quinjet, where it's Gatling gun couldn't reach me. The pilot tried to rise up, but it wasn't fast enough. I turned and unleashed my right energy whip, star energy lashing out to destroy all three missiles. Then I aimed at the Quinjet and fired a blast from my mouth at the top. The aircraft staggered under the blast. I flew upwards, releasing another propulsion blast from my jetpack, leaving the Quinjet behind me. As I did, I reached for my waist and touched one of the devices. Two things happened. First, the device began to emit energy that would interfere with any radar, as well as hacking satellites to erase my image as I flew.

Then the first device activated the second device on my hip. That device projected a bubble in the air around me, one that kept sound crystal clear. Then it began to play a song, the music starting with a guitar riff. As it played, I sighed.

"Gonna have heavy metal in my head all day now," I said, despairing of ever understanding why Jury Rigg was so weird.

 _All you women who want a man of the street_

 _But you don't know which way you want to turn_

 _Just keep a coming and put your hand out to me_

 _'Cause I'm the one who's gonna make you burn_

With that music playing, I did an aileron roll, released another propulsion blast, and shot forward.

I landed once I figured I was far enough away. I had to check where Captain America was, and my phone disappeared with my clothes whenever I transformed. I took a moment to despair the loss of my backpack. All that money, gone. What a waste.

I touched down in a bit of forest, changing back. The forest was mostly dead, considering it was January. I took a breath, feeling a bit chilly, but not bad. I sat against a tree and slowly slid down until my butt hit the floor.

I needed a break. Even with all my fighting in New York, I'd never been involved in so much combat. And Creel. Damn. If Creel had fought a bit smarter, he could have beaten me. Even with the Omnitrix healing me, I still felt his blows, the sheer power he had. What was SHIELD doing working with Crusher Creel?

I stopped, just trying to breathe for a moment. Once done, I checked CapWatch once more. The program was still running fine. I did a quick check and found it wasn't compromised. No one had found it. Thank you, alien tech, for being so damn broken. Jury Rigg was awesome.

Anyways. I leaned against the tree and zoomed in on the map, showing me where the two were. Between my shopping, the fight with Creel and the Quinjet, and my rushed flight away from Best Buy, Captain America and Black Widow had made progress. They were on I-95, driving steadily north. If they kept going, they'd eventually hit Jersey. Sammy would have had something to say about Jersey.

I watched them, trying to decide if I should join them. The devices I'd put on were still working at my hips, both humming ominously, but steadily. The beginning refrains of _Enter Sandman_ began to play, kept in a three-foot bubble around me by the device. The tiny image on my screen of a blue truck driving steadily continued to play. I sighed, then got to my feet. I checked the Omnitrix, wishing it had some sort of energy bar I could use to tell how much energy I had left in it. Finally, I just activated it, transforming back into Astrodactyl.

With that, I was off into the sky.


	5. Chapter 5

It took some stops to catch up with them. I had to keep landing to give the Omnitrix a break and check my CapWatch program. But soon, I was flying over I-95. And after that, I saw them.

Captain America was driving. Black Widow was in shotgun. They were talking about something.

I swooped in above their truck, staying high so they wouldn't see me. The truck was a big, brand new one. I didn't know Captain America owned a truck. I wasn't sure if it mattered, but it seemed funny somehow.

I followed them like that for a bit, trying to figure out how to make contact. Flying was fun, but I could feel exhaustion coming in with all of the constant Omnitrix use today. I could keep going for a bit longer. But I needed a nap tonight.

With no end to their driving in sight, I followed them by leapfrogging. I would land once the Omnitrix timed out, watch their progress on CapWatch, then take off again to catch up. Like stalking taken to the next level, something I tried not to think about. I had to stay high, using my insane eyesight to see them, so I wouldn't freak them out by flying in close. A giant pterodactyl with rockets wasn't something they'd find comfort in.

Slowly, I flew. They drove. For over an hour, we went like that.

Finally, while I was just wondering if I should cut my losses and take a nap, they turned off the interstate. I sighed in relief and followed them. They drove through the city streets, then down country roads. Until they were driving on one road, an overgrown one that hadn't been used in a long time. A military base was in the distance. It was empty, rundown. After some thought, I flew ahead of Cap and Black Widow.

Once I got to the base, I dropped to land at the gate, turning human once more. I walked up to it, reading the sign hanging on the chain fence. "Camp Lehigh..." The whole fence was brown with rust. A beat up old stop sign rested on it as well. In the light of the sinking sun, I could see that the rest of the base was much the same, a relic of a bygone age. All red brick buildings and rusted railings everywhere.

I turned when the truck slowly rode up to me. I raised my hands up, smiling as best as I could. Captain America stopped the truck about twelve feet from me and stepped out with Black Widow. They'd clearly seen me and, because Cap's shield was on his arm, and Black Widow had her gun out and pointed. I took a deep breath as they came closer. I reached for my waist and turned off the music that had been with me all day.

"Hi!" I said, as brightly as I could. "My name's Mahmoud. I want to help."

The two shared a glance. Captain America walked up to me. There was an incredible grace to him. For all his size, he walked like he was half a second from simply lifting off into the air. Black Widow was different. Where he was grace, she was subtlety. As he came forward, she stepped behind him, almost hiding in his shadow. I tried not be unnerved by that.

But then, I was also trying not to geek out.

Captain America was holding his shield. THE Shield! Made of vibranium in this universe, rather than a vibranium-iron alloy, it was still able to take hit from inconceivably powerful things, including Thor.

And Captain America and Black Widow. I was looking at superheroes.

As they stopped in front of me, I couldn't stop smiling.

"How did you find us?" Black Widow asked.

"SHIELD," they stiffened. I quickly continued. "I mean because I hacked SHIELD. I used their satellites and database to find you, then kept anyone from finding you. Here, see?" I reached into my pocket.

"Ah, careful," Black Widow said in warning, pointing her gun at my face. I flinched. After a moment, I slowly pulled out my phone, raising it for them to see. I switched on the CapWatch app, then tossed it to Cap, who caught it in his right hand. He turned it look, then blinked.

"CapWatch?"

I winced. "I... like my programs to have fun names."

Black Widow's lips twitched upwards.

"And you can follow us with this?" he asked, looking up at me. "Why? What do you want?"

I spoke fast. "Back in October, I was given this," I lifted a hand up, displaying the Omnitrix. "I don't know why I was given it. But it gave me powers. So I started using those powers to help people, traveling around Manhattan and saving anyone I found. It was good work."

"Speed it up," Black Widow said. "It's cute you like playing the superhero, but we're on a timetable."

"Yeah, got it. So anyway, I hacked into Stark Industries and SHIELD," the two shared a surprised glance at that. "I was doing that to make sure the next time a Battle of New York or a Convergence happens, I'd be there to help. And when they announced that Captain America was enemy of the state out of nowhere, I wanted to do something. So I did one big hack, grabbing all the info I could so I could find you. And the next thing I know, SHIELD is tossing a grenade at my door."

"Yeah, there's a lot of that going around," Captain America noted with a smirk.

"That watch," Black Widow stared at the Omnitrix. "I've seen the symbol on it. You're the guy who's been running around Manhattan the last few months. The one who can turn into all those creatures."

The fact Black Widow knew about me wasn't much of a surprise. Even with all I'd done to try and keep off the grid, there was no way _someone_ hadn't discovered my presence in New York, especially considering the people I'd saved had a perfect view of me. I nodded towards Black Widow and she gave me a smile. More of an amused one, rather than a kind one, but still a smile. "Fury was going to send someone to try and make contact with you. You were going to be investigated soon."

"Hopefully without a grenade thrown at me," I said with a grimace.

"Well, it wouldn't have been my first choice," she said. "So you what, wanted to help us out of the goodness of your heart?"

"...yes?" I said. "I mean, I kinda destroyed a Best Buy to find you guys. Which, I gotta be honest, I'm feeling kinda guilty about."

Captain America stepped forward, motioning towards the Omnitrix. "And you said that watch lets you hack things?"

"No," I lifted my wrist to show it to him. "This isn't a watch. This is the Omnitrix. And it lets me turn into aliens."

"Asgardian?" Captain America asked.

"Not from what I've heard," Black Widow answered. "So you were a superhero in New York, found out Captain America was being chased by SHIELD, and you were such a fanboy you decided to come and help."

"Yes," I sighed in relief. "That is exactly it."

Black Widow and Captain America shared a look. After a moment, she put her gun down and Captain America came over to grab my shoulder. He smiled at me, and I found myself grinning back.

"I'm not sure I can trust you... But I'd like to."

"He's naive like that," Black Widow said. She holstered her gun and stepped towards the gate. "I'm still going to shoot you if you turn out to be working for SHIELD."

"Not likely," I said as Captain America stepped around me and used his shield to shatter the lock on the gate with one smooth strike. "Grenade's thrown at me tend to make me an enemy."

"You're really stuck on that grenade thing, aren't you?" Black Widow said.

We entered the camp together. "Yeah well, I'm sensitive like that. So uh, what exactly are you guys here for? What is this place?"

"It's where I was trained," Captain America said. "We're following a lead."

We walked through the camp, looking around the place. "Trained before or after you started punching Hitler?"

Captain America chuckled. "Actually, I never met the real Hitler. I mostly dealt with his soldiers and the Red Skull. But this was before all that," He looked around. For a moment, he looked a thousand yards away. "I was still just a skinny kid from Brooklyn, trying to be a soldier."

"And now you're Captain America," I said, watching as Black Widow moved over to look into one of the windows.

"Call me Steve," he gave me a smile, then turned to look at a nearby flagpole. Once again, it looked like he was somewhere else. When I looked at Black Widow, she was eyeing me. Even as we walked around, she was still eyeing me. She had some sort of scanner in her hand, and it was beeping as she held it up. I looked at it thoughtfully, scratching my chin.

"This is a dead end," Black Widow said. She put down her scanner and put it in her pocket. "Zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote the files must have must have used a router to throw people off." She looked over at Steve, who was staring at a bunker. "What is it?"

I looked at him as well. He seemed to have an epiphany. He started moving towards the bunker, I went to follow, and Black Widow hopped over a railing to join us.

"Army regulations forbid storing munitions within five hundred yards of the barracks," he said as we walked up to the bunker. He gave us a look. "This building's in the wrong place."

He smashed the lock on the door to the uh, the munition bunker, I guess? I couldn't help but stare at the shield as it turned steel into scrap. That thing was seriously awesome.

We walked down a flight of stairs and found what looked like a large office space. "I'm not a soldier, but this doesn't look like munitions," I said, stepping down to the place.

"It's not," Black Widow was looking at a wall nearby. "It's SHIELD."

"Or maybe where it started," Steve added.

We were all looking at a massive symbol on the wall, the centerpiece of the room. An eagle, surrounded by the words, 'Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division'.

"That's probably your fault," I said without thinking.

Steve looked at me, surprised. "What was?"

"Uh," I chuckled, waving at his right arm, still holding the shield. "I mean, they worked really hard to make up a name that spelled SHIELD, right."

Steve looked down, surprised. He held it up. After a moment, he gave his weapon a warm smile. "Yeah. I guess they did."

"I can sense anything that might be in here if you guys let me?"

"How?" Natasha asked.

I responded by waving the Omnitrix at her. "If someone other than us has been in here in recent years, I'll be able to follow their trail."

Steve and Natasha shared another look.

"Do it," Steve told me.

" All right. Keep in mind, I won't be able to talk in this form, so just follow my lead." I opened up the Omnitrix, flipping through my menu. I needed to sense things human eyes couldn't Blitzwolfer was great because he had a good range of powers, including his senses. But when I really needed to track something or someone down even after years...

I pressed the face. And the change came in a millisecond.

I went from biped to quadruped. Orange fur sprouted across my body, covering me in a thick armored coat. My eyes sank away and disappeared, and new sensory organs grew at the nape of my neck. Fingernails became claws. A shoulder brace appeared, with the Omnitrix glowing brightly on it.

I didn't speak English in this form, but if the snarl I barked out when I finished could be translated, I knew what it would be.

" **Wildmutt!"**

"Well that's new," Steve said. His voice was different now. It was as though he was so much clearer. Like my human ears were only hearing him on the tiniest level. Now, I could hear every bounce and quiver in his voice.

That's just how being Wildmutt felt in general. Every scent in the air, every sound, singing to me. There was no sense of color beyond heat, and photographs would be blank rectangles to me. But I didn't feel blind. How could I, when the world was so much more vivid now? When I could hear heartbeats, smell sweat, feel the primal part of the world in my heart. Being Wildmutt was like becoming something simpler than a human. But it also felt purer somehow. As though the complications of sight was replaced by a roaring world of beautiful scents and sound.

I sniffed the air with my gills, listened to it all.

"He said he can't talk like this," Black Widow said. There was a smell coming from her mouth I had to think to recognize. Bubblegum? A lot of it, too. She had some more in her pocket. "How's he supposed to tell us anything?"

I snarled moving about the room for a moment. I smelled something else, beyond Steve, Nat, the spiders and the concrete. Someone else had been here, months back. He smelled like airline fuel. I moved over to the stairs, following his trail. He'd walked over to an office. I turned, growling at the two.

"What, over there?" Steve walked over to join me, and I pushed the door, smashing it off its hinges and into the ground. Steve cocked an eyebrow. "Huh. Strong."

"Showoff," was Black Widow's opinion.

The two followed me in as I sniffed my way up to some shelves. There were three big blank rectangles up on the wall, which I ignored to follow the scent. Captain America and Natasha walked up the rectangles behind me, talking about them in a way that made me realized they were photos. Cap apparently knew them. His heartbeat skipped a little when he saw them. Time to ask about that later. I followed the smell of the man from before to some shelves. There was a gap in between the shelves where I could smell metal and plastic beyond it, a bit of ozone to indicate electricity, and Steve noticed it as well. "If you're already working in a secret office," I gripped the gap in between the shelves, shoving them apart. Even after all the years, the right shelf easily slid on its rails. "Why do you need to hide the elevator?"

Just a light on the wall and a pair of doors with windows in them. We walked towards it, me sniffing at the air, and Black Widow went up to the keypad next to it. She lifted a device over the keypad, and it created a hologram over the device, showing the numbers on the pad. The hologram shuffled the numbers and quickly came up with the code, which she pressed into the pad. The elevator doors slid open, and we walked inside. As the elevator dropped, Cap looked at me.

"You uh, gonna change back?" I looked up at him. "I mean, is there a time limit, or, do you have to press a button?"

I growled in annoyance, reaching for my shoulder to tap the Omnitrix. In a flash of light, I was back in my white and black shirt and blue jeans. I sighed in disappointment. Ironically, changing from Wildmutt always made me feel blind as a human.

"What does that feel like, anyway?" Captain America asked.

"Remember the day you became a superhuman?" I said. "That sudden feeling of becoming stronger, faster, having better senses?"

Steve nodded.

"Like that, but I can change back."

"God, I wish we had time for me to interrogate you." Black Widow muttered.

I looked over at her. "I mean, you could just ask me questions."

"I prefer interrogation, lets me get the real story." She replied.

"You never talk to people over coffee?" I had no idea why I was talking the way I was. For some reason, it was really easy to talk to her. She was funny.

"I do, but not when they can suddenly turn into giant dogs."

"What, you don't like Tony Stark?" We shared a grin, and Steve chuckled.

"Any chance you guys can tell me about what's going on?" The elevator was still lowering. "I mean, why is SHIELD attacking you guys?"

"We aren't sure," Steve said. "As far as we know, the answers are here."

"What about Nick Fury?" I asked. "I mean, he's the head of SHIELD, why didn't he stop this?"

The two shared a look, then faced the doors again. Steve answered. "He was killed by the Winter Soldier."

I stared at him. Then at Black Widow. She looked back at me. And I scratched at my wrist, near the Omnitrix, trying to think.

"That look on your face," Black Widow said knowingly. "That's why I want to interrogate you."

The doors opened then. I swallowed, and we all walked out of the elevator and into a dark room. It was hard to see anything. But as we walked up lights began to turn on, revealing the space to us.

"Whoa," I looked around. Hundreds of rectangular towers surrounded us, each with reels that could be seen inside through windows. Some "What, they couldn't upgrade to a laptop? This is an inefficient use of space."

"You always talk this much?" Black Widow asked.

"Dialogue is important for relationships," I said as we followed Steve towards several monitors. "Plus, I'm nervous when I meet superheroes."

"Children," Steve said gently. "We have work to do."

When we got to the monitors, there was a desk in front of them. There were a couple of camera on top of the monitors. "Well that's new," I said when I saw a USB port station on the desk. "And I mean that literally."

Natasha took something out of her pocket and plugged it into the port. More lights turned on, clearing things up further. The reels in the towers began to spin. As we stood there, the center monitor turned on over the desk, and two words appeared as the speakers in the station spoke.

"Initiate, System." The voice was robotic.

Natasha moved over to the ancient keyboard and tapped away at it. "Y-E-S, spells yes..." She smirked as the computers hummed. "Shall we play a game?" She intoned in a deep voice. I grinned at that, and she turned to Steve. "It's from a movie-"

"I know," he cut her off, bemused. "I saw it."

"Oh yeah," I said, realizing. "You have a lot of pop culture to catch up on."

"I'm doing my best," he replied, clearly focused on the task at hand.

Suddenly the center monitor lit up. Lines of green codes went down the screen, and a voice spoke.

"Rogers, Steven." Said a voice with a German accent. "Born, 1918."

"What the..." I said in confusion. A camera on top of the monitors turned to look at Black Widow.

"Romanov, Natalia Alianovna. Born 1984." The camera turned to look at me. And then it stalled. The voice spoke again. "You, I do not know. That never happens."

"What, are you an AI?" I asked.

"No, I am not, herrlein," the voice said. "I may not be the man I was when the captain took me prisoner in 1945, but _I am._ " A monitor to the side showed us an image. An older man, with glasses and a rather sour look on his face.

I looked around the computers, thinking to myself. Natasha asked Steve, "Do you know this thing?"

Steve didn't speak for a moment. He stepped around the monitors, going down some stairs and circling behind it.

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years." Steve said.

"Well, apparently he went all brain upload instead," I said, reaching for the Omnitrix and flipping through the menu.

"First correction," the computer, or I suppose, Armin, said. "I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive."

"Yeah, well, bet it's been a while since you had a good steak or smelled flowers," I replied.

"True," Armin admitted. "But it is better than death. When I received a terminal diagnosis in 1972, there was nothing to be done for my body. My mind, however, was saved on over two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain." His voice was thick with satisfaction on the last words.

"Sorry we didn't wipe our feet," I whispered, selecting an alien, but not pressing down on the watch yet.

"How did you get here?" Steve asked once he'd circle to stand between Natasha and I once more.

"Invited," Armin said.

"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic value."

"They thought I could help their cause," Armin said smugly. "I also helped my own."

"Hydra died with the Red Skull," Cap said firmly.

"Cut off one head," an image appeared on the screen, and I frowned at it. A skull, with tentacles coming out from it. The symbol of Hydra. "Two more shall take its place."

"Otherwise known as not knowing when you goddamn quit," I whispered to Steve. He ignored me.

"Prove it," Steve said softly to Armin.

"Accessing archive." The computer screens changed, showing us an image of a thin man wearing a Nazi uniform. Johann Schmidt, the Red Skull. "HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize, was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist." The imagery of the founders of SHIELD, from Peggy Carter to Howard Stark, showed on screen.

"Yeah, because I sit around all day wishing someone would take my ability to choose from me," I growled, touching the Omnitrix again. Natasha shushed me.

"The war taught us much," he continued. "Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, SHIELD was founded and The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD." I stared at the screen, dawning horror filling me as I realized the implications of what he was saying. More and more images of war, of stock prices, of Armin himself working within SHIELD, all as images of the Hydra symbol flashed throughout. "For seventy years HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed." The image of a man with a metal arm flashed. An arm with a red star on it. Bucky Barnes.

"And nobody found out?" I asked.

"Accidents will happen," More images appeared. A newspaper declaring the death of Howard and Maria Stark. Nicolas Fury, with the word deceased over his picture. HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise." Steve's face tightened. His hand clenched into a fist as he looked at the monitor that was Armin's face. "We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your life; a zero sum."

Steve lashed out, shattering the middle screen. It was quiet for a moment. Then another screen lit up.

"As I was saying..." Armin's voice was so damn smug. I was going to activate the Omnitrix and start disassembling shit, but Steve spoke again.

"What's on this drive?" He indicated the USB Natasha had plugged in. I stared at it, realizing something.

"Project Insight requires... _insight._ So I wrote an algorithm." Armin replied.

"What kind of algorithm, what does it do?" Natasha asked.

"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." Suddenly, the doors behind us began to be blocked by a pair of blast doors. Steve threw his shield at it, but they slammed close. I took a moment to marvel at the sight of my first look at Captain America throwing his mighty shield, but apparently, the doors had refused to yield, and it bounced back into his hand.

The device in Natasha's pocket beeped, and she pulled it out to look at it. "Steve, we got a bogey. Short-range ballistic. 30 seconds tops."

"Who fired it?" Steve asked, shocked.

"SHIELD," Natasha answered.

"I'm afraid I have been stalling, Captain," Armin said smugly.

"I wouldn't worry about that," I turned to look at Armin. "I've got something for missiles."

I activated the device on my hip. I grinned as the field enveloped me in a massive radius, and the beeping from Natasha's device stopped. Moments later, the sound of a muffled explosion came from the surface, feeling like it was coming from our right. "If I'm right, that missile will have veered off. Right?"

Natasha blinked, looking down at the device in her hand. Then she looked at me. "How...?"

I took the device on my hip and tossed it to Captain America. "I made this for my flight over here. It keeps me from getting caught by infrared, anything made for the air. And if anyone aims a heatseeker or something while I'm flying-"

"It forces it to veer away," Steve looked up at me, grinning.

"That, is impossible!" We turned to look at Armin. His green face was blinking in and out at a high speed.

"Oh yeah, it is," I said back, grinning. "Unless you got the right toy. Alien tech, baby. _My_ alien tech. And now, we need answers from you computer man. See, I heard about Project Insight while I was hacked into SHIELD, and I know a bit. But if it's Hydra, we need more."

"I will tell you _nothing_!" He seethed.

I looked at Captain America. "Hey, Steve. Is it cool if I tear this guy apart and build him into something that will give us answers?"

Steve looked at me. Then he looked over at the computer. Then he smiled.

"...Scheisse," a German-accented computer said quietly.

I pressed the Omnitrix. The change came in seconds. Once again, I was a small red Gremlin, wearing a Black Sabbath t-shirt and tiny blue jeans, with the Omnitrix symbol on my belt. And as I changed, the other device on my hip began to play music.

" **Jury Rigg!"**

"Well, that's attractive," Natasha said, still looking a bit amazed at surviving.

"I have my moments!" I squeaked. Then I looked around me. To my eyes, I wasn't standing in a weird computer room anymore. I was in heaven, a place where I could see how all the pieces separated... or were put together.

"We don't have much time," Steve said. "Can you work fa-"

"DISASSEMBLE!" With the battle cry, I leaped at the monitor Steve had broken, smashing my way through it, then digging my way into it.

"No!" Armin Zola screamed, horrified. "Get out of me you horrendous creature! No! NooooOOOOOO!"

I smashed my way out of another monitor like an alien out of a crewmembers stomach and roared with glee before diving back in, ignoring the disturbed looks Natasha and Steve gave me. I grabbed at wires, every pull of them showing me transferred power and information. I ripped out chips, and the way they broke told me what to do. Every bit of destruction gave me the delicious answer to creation.

In the end, while Armin's mind ran through thousands of feet of databanks, it all sent information to the computers I was tearing into. And if it did that, it meant I could pull all those archives to me.

"Just one more second!" I yelled, my red ears quivering with glee. "This is gonna be great!"

"Please, no!" Armin yelled. "Captain, he is causing me pain! I cannot feel, yet he is making me! Please, he is-"

I pulled out another chip, and he petered out. "Sorry! I shut off his sound now!"

"...He's writing his begging on the screens now," Natasha said from outside the computer as I dug through another section. She sounded fascinated.

"I'm letting him!" I smashed my way out from another screen and pulled in the USB port station and the keyboard. With a blur, I pulled all the pieces together. "More fun that way! HAHAHAHA!"

"Where's that music coming from?" Steve asked, coming closer.

" _Take me through the centuries to supersonic years!"_ The device replied, playing Black Sabbath's _Symptom of the Universe._

"We're running out of time," Natasha said. "We got a Quinjet coming in, we need to run."

"Done!" I leaped out of the computer. As I did, Armin Zola's program shutdown. The reels around us stopped spinning. I turned to look at the only screen I hadn't shattered as more words rolled onto the screen.

 _Damn you._

With that, Armin Zola died. I'd have felt more sympathy, except he was a jerk computer. If he'd been Data, or EDI, or Vision, I'd have been sorry. But he'd had his chance at life. Plus, it wasn't like I'd stabbed a man in the heart.

"Okay!" I turned to look at them. "So now we run, right!?"

"That has the answers?" He asked, staring at the X-shaped mass of wires and glass in my hand. I nodded quickly.

"Yep! Reassembled, baby!"

"Good!" Steve looked at the elevator. "Then we need to run, now!"

"Can't go up the elevator," Natasha said. "They'll be waiting up top, and as soon as the Quinjet gets here they'll start shooting."

"Then I say we dig our way out," I tapped the Omnitrix symbol on my belt. Red skin became diamond-hard crystal, and I rose up to tower over Natasha, then Steve. I grinned as I stood at my full height.

" **Diamondhead!"**

"You gonna run out of those anytime soon?" Steve asked me as I walked over to a nearby wall, placing the device holding Zola's memory on my waist.

" _ **I haven't yet,"**_ I said with a smirk. ** _"Now, hop on."_** Crystals grew beneath my feet, becoming a flat platform about six feet around me. Natasha stared at it as Steve walked over to hop on to the platform.

"Uh, can you break down your plan?" She said hesitantly.

" _ **Digging our way out."**_

Still hesitant, but having no other bright ideas, she got on as well. I forced the crystals to surround us in walls until we were in a large tepee made of blue-green crystal. Then I had the crystal under us grow, pushing us up at an angle. The top of the 'tepee' slammed point first into the ceiling, smashing through with ease. More crystal grew beneath us, pushing at a diagonal angle. I forced more and more power through my body, and we sliced through the earth with ease.

"This is crazy," Natasha said in awe.

" _ **I hope not,"**_ I said as we shot through the dirt, the groaning sound of dirt being pushed away by us surrounding my makeshift shovel. **_"If I am crazy, this would be a bad time to become sane."_**

"And I thought the helicarrier was the end of me being surprised," Steve muttered.

Behind us and down, the sound of explosions began to sound out. I turned to look at Natasha. She nodded. "Yeah, that would be the Quinjet destroying the base in an attempt to kill us."

I looked at Steve. He looked sad. He leaned against a wall of the tepee, sighing. _**"I'm sorry,"**_ he looked at me. _**"I know that place meant a lot to you."**_

We met eyes. After a moment, he nodded. "Yeah. I haven't been there in a long time but... it was where I got started."

I nodded at that. _**"We'll make them pay,"**_ I said with a sigh. _**"SHIELD isn't what you thought it was. But it was made by good people. And with this,"**_ I nodded towards the junky looking device on my waist. _**"We can save it."**_

"Is it worth saving?" Steve asked.

I looked over at him. He was still staring at the ground. He was staring at his shield. I tried to think of what to say.

" _ **Those people,"**_ I finally got out. _ **"The ones in the pictures that you and Natasha were looking at. Who were they?"**_

Steve looked up at me, sighing. "Yeah, um..." Natasha sat down, looking at him. "They were the founders of SHIELD. Friends of mine. General Chester Phillips. Howard Stark. P-" Steve stopped, swallowing. Then he continued. "Peggy Carter... They'd be horrified if they saw what SHIELD became."

"Some of it was good," Natasha said weakly. She sighed. "I wouldn't have joined if I didn't think so."

We were suddenly in the open air. I opened the tepee by sliding the crystal apart. We'd popped up in a field, a long way away from Camp Lehigh's remains. It was night now and crickets buzzing in the field in the distance.

As we got out, Natasha looked back at the massive crystal jutting out of the earth. "You going to do anything about that?"

" _ **Nope."**_ I sighed. **_"I already left crystals behind. I might as well give them something insane to dig through. I like the idea of Hydra cleaning up my messes."_**

At that moment, the Omnitrix timed out in the classic red beeping before flashing out bright red light, turning me human again. I grimaced, looking down at my Omnitrix. "Times up. We need someplace to rest. I'm running out of steam at this point. Plus, we need to look into the data I stole."

"...I think I've got somewhere in mind." Steve said. He hefted his shield.

"What, someone you know?" Natasha asked.

"Iron Man?" I added.

"...Not exactly."

Steve knocked on the sliding glass door in front of us. When it opened, a fit man with dark skin and well-trimmed hair opened the door. He was wearing a purple shirt and looked a bit sweaty. He looked at the three of us. I was standing next to Steve, with Natasha behind me, as always, since she could shoot me in the head faster that way.

"Hey man," the man said.

"How's it going?" I replied. Steve put a hand on my shoulder, looking back at the man.

"I'm sorry about this," Steve said. "We need a place to lay low."

"Everyone we know is trying to kill us," Natasha said.

The man looked at us. After a moment, he seemed to come to a decision. "Not everyone."

He stepped aside to let us in. I smiled, and the three of us walked past him.

"I'm Mahmoud Schahed, by the way," I said to the man once we'd gone inside.

He smiled, holding a hand out to me. I took it. "Sam Wilson."

I tried to hold back my shock. Holy crap. The Falcon. I looked around the room. Captain America, Black Widow, and the Falcon...

"Today has been... just the best." I finally said, grinning like a madman.

Steve and Sam gave me weird looks. Natasha narrowed her eyes at me. I just grinned back at them.

Guess I'm an Avenger now?


	6. Chapter 6

_Author's Note:_ So this chapter is mostly talking. Even worse, it's mostly copy and paste from the movie, just like last chapter. So hopefully the changes still help. And there is the fun of the promised action. Either way, I really hope you guys like this.

 _January 11th, 2014_

Later, I was deleting the CapWatch on my phone. As good as it was, a dedicated program for finding Cap wasn't useful anymore. And without my supercomputer, I couldn't turn in into something new, so, bye bye CapWatch. Though has served me well.

Sam came in with a pot of coffee. "Oh thank god," I said, walking over to join him at his dinner table. "I'm running at fumes at this point."

"Yeah, you all look like you had a hell of a day," Sam noted with a look at me, then at the hallway where Cap and Natasha had gone. "What exactly is going on?"

I shrugged, watching as Sam set out some creamer and sugar, bringing some cups to him. "I'm honestly just the guy who shoved myself into the mess. I wanted to help Captain America, then they're trying to kill me. But here's what I know, and what Cap and Nat told me on the way here..."

I gave Sam the low down. Project INSIGHT, Fury dying, SHIELD attacking Cap, SHIELD attacking me, the stuff we'd found out from Arnim Zola, and finally the x-shaped device I'd made from Arnim's parts.

"So that little thing has all the info you need?" Sam asked. He was scrambling some eggs now and had some toast set aside.

"Yep, as far as we know," I took another sip of coffee.

"By the way, do you know me somehow?" Sam asked. I sipped my coffee again. "I mean, you seemed to recognize my name."

I didn't speak for a moment, leaning back in my chair. "Yeah. SHIELD had a file on you. They said you were a good soldier. I didn't dig through anything, but apparently, they were planning to recruit you one day."

Sam froze for a moment. He looked up. "And if SHIELD is HYDRA-"

"Not all of it," I corrected him. "Black Widow isn't. There's a whole lot of people there who are probably just trying to help people and have no idea they were even infiltrated by HYDRA at all.. But yeah. If SHIELD knew about you, HYDRA might too."

"That's mildly terrifying," Sam put the eggs he'd cooked onto a plate.

"I think the world got terrifying the moment I woke up in a New York City that had aliens and superhumans as part of the day to day," I admitted. "Compared to that, all this espionage stuff is almost normal. At least we know HYDRA is a threat made by normal men. Normal, racist men."

Sam, a black man, and I, an Arab man, shared a glance. "Can't believe we're dealing with Nazi's," Sam mumbled.

"Hey they came back, and Captain America came with them," we shared a grin at that. "I want to kick some HYDRA ass. I'm just wondering what we need to do to get it done. I mean, all I knew about Project Insight was that they had three big old helicarriers with repulsor technology installed."

"Sounds like you can do a lot of damage with those," Sam said. He put the eggs and toast on the table, and I thanked him as I got some. "I'm gonna go get those two."

He walked back to where Steve and Natasha were, and I continued to eat. The group entered shortly. Natasha gave me a look, eyeing the Omnitrix, but didn't say anything. I decided that was progress. Steve sat next to me, while Natasha took a spot nearby to lean against a wall. Sam took some toast and started buttering it, sitting down with us.

"So what do we do?" I asked the two superheroes.

"Have you gone through the information that you took from Zola?" Natasha asked me.

I shook my head. "I may have a genius on my wrist, but I'm not skilled in espionage or military tactics. I wanted to wait."

I reached for my device and tapped the top of it. "X-Device, wake up."

The glass and steel creation buzzed for a moment before projecting a holographic screen facing me and Cap.

"Whoa," Sam looked at the hologram, ignoring the toast in his hand.

"How is that possible?" Natasha asked, as stunned as Sam. "Arnim Zola wasn't made of any tech to make holograms."

"Doesn't matter," I said. "Jury Rigg doesn't see technology based on what it is. When he tears things apart, it gives him insight into what is possible. He's like a guy who breaks apart a Lego house so he can see the pieces, then makes something new."

"I'm not going to question it," Steve said. "Show us what you've got."

Funnily enough, he actually didn't seem too worried. I suppose his experience with sudden new tech was more flexible after being frozen in the ice.

"X-Device, what do you got on Project Insight?" I asked.

" _One moment, sir,"_ Natasha flinched when the device spoke.

"Wait, is it alive?" She stepped forward, staring at the X-Device.

" _No, I am not ma'am,"_ The voice was very country, the sort you'd hear in Texas. I'd wanted a voice based on something American, seeing as we were fighting Nazi's. _"Mahmoud made me as an interface to access my files."_

"He's just a basic virtual intelligence," I explained. "He can simulate responses and reactions, but beyond that, he's not a real person. No offense meant, X."

" _None to be taken sir,"_ He responded.

"That means you killed Zola?" Steve asked me.

I scoffed. "No. He wasn't AI. He wasn't even a brain upload. Damn close but... true AI and brain uploads can develop. They can come up with new ideas, process emotion, learn, even do stupid things. Zola wasn't alive. He was just a recording. A tape that could spit out the responses on cue. He was stuck in time, no soul, no true intelligence.

" _That is correct sir,"_ X said. _"At most, he was a lesser version of myself. Ah, I have the files."_ X said, displaying the files on the holographic screen in front of us. I lifted a hand up to flip through them by 'pressing' my fingers to the screen and moving them.

"Let's see, Project Insight," I brought up files of various blueprints. I threw those over to Natasha, who blinked when the X-Device created a second screen for her. "Here are the blueprints for the helicarriers. But Zola said it required an algorithm. What for?"

"Fury said that the goal was to kill terrorists before they could strike," Steve sounded a bit disgusted. "Maybe HYDRA wanted to do something with that?"

"Hm, no," Natasha flipped through the blueprints I'd sent her, zooming in to look at the various hallways. "It can't be just a plot to kill terrorists. The way Zola spoke, it was as though this was some sort of endgame. We have the algorithm, and we have the information Zola had. Um, X?" Natasha said hesitantly.

A southern accent replied. _"Yes ma'am?"_

"Is there anything in your files on what the algorithm was supposed to do?"

" _No ma'am. It was made to predict things on a massive scale, using the internet, stored footage, medical records, social media, actual media, and various other sources."_ X replied. _"Zola believed that you could predict the course of a man's life by following these trends. But there is no record of what HYDRA itself was going to do with it."_

"Well, that's convenient," Natasha said with a sarcastic grumble.

"It makes sense though, right? Zola made the algorithm so it makes sense he would have that in his brain, but I doubt Hydra put all their plans in an outdated location that wasn't even guarded." I stated before asking, "So what now?"

"Well, someone launched that domestic missile at us," Natasha closed her screen, tossing it to me. "Who in SHIELD can do that?"

"Pierce," Steve leaned back in his chair, looking annoyed.

"Alexander Pierce," X said. "Head of HYDRA, and one of their highest officials. He would often visit Zola for advice."

"Well, right now he's in one of the most secure buildings in the world," Natasha said.

"Not a problem," I raised the Omnitrix. "I can just smash my way in and grab him. But then, I don't know who is HYDRA in the building and who isn't. X, do you have a list?"

" _One moment... I have select personal, but many of Hydra's operatives are hidden and I'm sure that Zola's information base was heavily outdated. The various leaders do not trust each other to share a full list of soldiers and Zola was 'technically' a defunct asset beyond his algorithm."_

"But it's a good start," Steve leaned forward. "Who in HYDRA worked under Pierce?"

"Jasper Sitwell," We all looked at Natasha. "He was on the Lemurian Star. Where I first stole Zola's algorithm."

" _He is on my list of subordinates. Apparently, his son is currently going to HYDRA Preparatory Academy."_

We turned to look at X. "Uh," I looked around. "HYDRA has an academy... for kids..."

Steve let out an explosive breath, running a hand down his face. "Okay, focus. We need to kidnap Sitwell, find out what the algorithm is for. So the question is, how do the two most wanted people in Washington and their shapeshifting friend kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight?"

Sam got up, drawing our attention. He went into the kitchen and threw a folder on the table. "Answer is; you don't."

Steve looked down at the folder Sam had dropped. "What's this?"

"Call it a resume," Sam said confidently.

I leaned over to stare at the photo. Sam was there, a little younger than he was now, wearing a tight suit. A man stood next to him wearing the same suit, both holding goggles in their hands. Natasha picked up the photo, looking at it closely.

"Is this Bakhmala?" Natasha asked. Sam nodded. "The Khalid Khandil mission, that was you," she gave Steve a glance. "You didn't say he was a para-rescue."

Steve was focused on something else as he took the photo. His eyes were on the other guy standing next to Sam. He looked up at Sam.

"Is this Riley?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah."

Sam and Steve seemed to pass something between each other with that look. I didn't comment on it. Natasha spoke once again.

"I heard they couldn't bring in the choppers because of the RPGs. What did you use, a stealth chute?"

"No," Sam stepped forward, picking the folder up to hand to Steve. "These."

Steve took the folder, opening it. I grinned at what was inside. I'd guessed, but it was still cool to see the truth.

Steve seemed amused. "I thought you said you were a pilot."

Sam grinned. "I never said pilot."

Steve looked down at the folder. After a thoughtful pause, he shook his head. "I can't ask you to do this, Sam. You got out for a good reason."

"Dude, Captain America needs my help. There's no reason to get back in," Sam said firmly.

Steve and Natasha gave me a look. I held up my hands. "Hey, he didn't hear it from me. When Captain America needs help, people want to help him."

Steve looked between me and Sam, and he seemed overwhelmed for a moment. After a while, he nodded. "Okay. Where do we get these things?"

"The last one is at Fort Meade, behind three guarded gates and a twelve-inch steel wall."

Steve and Natasha shared a look. She shrugged. Steve looked back at Sam. "Shouldn't be a problem."

He threw a folder onto the table. On it, several words were emblazoned. **EXO-7 Falcon**.

"I guess I'm gonna need to make another radar jammer," I said before turning to Steve. "And _you_ need to make a phone call."

"Wait," Steve interrupted, already guessing what I was getting at. "I don't think that's necessary."

"...They'll want in on this," I said to Steve. "I mean, the stuff you're dealing with? At least let them know you're okay man."

"I," Steve looked at Natasha. She smirked. "I have no secure way to contact them-"

My answer was to throw my smartphone to him. He caught it out of the air easily. "That's my phone.

It's undetectable by anything short of actual magic. You can call anyone on the planet, and not worry about people listening in."

Steve stared at me, at a loss for words. I shrugged. "They're your friends, right? I'd want to know my friends are safe."

"He's right," Natasha said. "Plus... we might want to call them to help later."

"I don't want to drag anyone else into this," Steve protested.

"I'm not sure what's going on," Sam said, drawing our attention. "But if the people you want to call are friends... If Riley was alive, and he didn't ask me for help with something this big, I would never forgive him."

Steve looked around. After a moment, he sighed and walked to the other room. "Fine. I'll make the call."

A while later, I was sitting in a room with Natasha and Steve, waiting for Sam to do his part of the plan. He was looking over the city from a nearby window. Natasha, on the other hand, was asking me questions.

"So you say you're from Oakland?" She asked pointedly.

"Born there," I answered. "Raised in different cities in California, then spent part of my life in Oregon before I came here."

"Where you got the Omnitrix?" Black Widow asked.

"Yep."

"Who gave it to you?"

"No idea."

She raised an eyebrow at that. "None?"

"Well, some," I admitted. "But I have no idea for sure."

"So someone gave you, a random nobody by your own admission, alien technology programmed with the ability to turn you into beings like Diamondhead, and you have no idea why?" Natasha asked skeptically.

"None," I looked at her. Her gaze was neutral. I sighed. "Yeah, I know it's suspicious. I'm just doing the best I can with the tools I've been given."

Just then, the elevator down the hall opened. Natasha gave me a look. "You ready?"

"Yep," I answered easily. The three of us went over the elevator. Inside stood Sam and another man.

Older than us, with a bald head, skin a shade darker than mine, wearing glasses, slightly overweight. He also looked scared as hell and about to piss himself.

He stared at us as Sam shoved him forward. I grinned.

This was going to be fun.

Steve threw the guy, Sitwell, through the door to the rooftop as Natasha and I followed. Sitwell fell, rolled back, and got up almost tripping over his feet as Steve followed him. I circled around, and the three of us strode towards the man. I stared at him, feeling my anger fill me. HYDRA. This guy was one of the people who had tried to kill me. Things were feeling pretty personal about now.

Steve didn't waste time. "Tell me about Zola's algorithm."

Sitwell took fast steps back, trying to stay calm. "Never heard of it."

"What were you doing on the Lemurian Star?"

"I was throwing up, I get seasick."

We got to the edge of the roof, and Steve grabbed Sitwell's suit, pulling him close so they were face-to-face. It was tense for a moment. Then Sitwell smiled. "Is this little display meant to insinuate that you're gonna throw me off the roof? Because it's really not your style, Rogers."

Steve eyed Sitwell. After a moment, Steve smiled back, stepping away. "No, it's not. Luckily, I've got people for that."

I pressed the Omnitrix. Instantly, orange fur sprouted across my form, and my eyes faded away. I got down on all fours and roared, a snarling bestial cry of rage and joy all in one.

"OH MY GOD!" Sitwell squealed.

"I know right?" Natasha stepped forward, a rush of sweet scent and beautiful sound moving along the rooftop to step past me. "And that's not even your immediate problem." With a smooth move, she slammed her foot into Sitwell's chest as he freaked out at the sight of my Wildmutt form.

"WAAAAaaaaaaaaa..."

As Sitwell's voice faded in the distance, Natasha looked over at Steve, snapping her fingers. "Oh, wait, what about that girl in the science division, Diana..."

"Debbie!" Steve replied, looking down at the falling form of Sitwell. "With the blue stripe in her hair?"

"Yeah!" Natasha said happily. "She's cute, right?"

"Yeah, I'm not ready for that."

I let out a bark, a small chuff, trying to sound disapproving.

"I know," Natasha said, sounding as disappointed as I did.

Steve didn't know what to think of that.

Suddenly, in a burst of noise, Sam rocketed past us on his winged jetpack.

A winged jetpack, man. With big gray wings, graceful flight, and cool rockets. How freaking awesome was Sam?

Sitwell was in his left hand, still screaming in fear. Sam went over us, dropping Sitwell onto the rooftop. As soon as Sitwell dropped, I rushed him. Sitwell screamed anew, trying to escape, but I landed on his back, twisting him so he was facing up at my snarling jaws. I bit down in front of his nose, and sucked in the sweet scent of fear.

"OH GOD!" Sitwell screamed in horror. I drooled on his face. He screamed louder. "Please, get him off!"

"Think we forgot to mention that in this form he likes the taste of people." Widow happily added, which only made Sitwell whimper in fear.

I laughed, a growling noise filling the air.

"Kid!" Steve barked as they came closer. I stepped away immediately, letting Sitwell rise.

"Zola's algorithm is a program!" Sitwell said hurriedly, trying to back away from Sam, Natasha, me, and any other monsters hiding nearby. "For choosing Insight's targets!"

"We got that part," Natasha said wryly. As she walked by me, she ran a hand along my head, getting a pleased growl as she scratched my head. "Who are the targets?"

"All of you!" Sitwell looked around, trying to breath, flinching whenever he laid eyes on me. "A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa city. Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to HYDRA! Now, or in the future."

I stopped growling.

Anyone. Anyone. Even a baby could eventually grow to have a rebellious hatred of HYDRA. What if he developed that as a child when he saw his parents were killed? Would Project Insight decide he was a risk? Hell, anyone could decide HYDRA was evil. Peter Parker. Matt Murdock. Jessica Jones. The people of Wakanda. If any of them decided to rise against HYDRA, HYDRA would attack. And once they did...

I slapped my Omnitrix symbol. In a snarl, I rose to my feet as a human, ignoring Natasha backing away hurriedly from where she'd been petting me. "How many people!?"

Sitwell stared at me.

"HOW MANY!?"

"Millions!" Sitwell looked around at us. "The Insight Helicarriers will kill millions."

We were in Sam's car later, driving at high speed towards the Triskelion, the headquarters of SHIELD. I was sitting in the back on the left of Sitwell, behind Sam, while Natasha sat behind Steve on Sitwell's right.

"So we're going to sneak in there and shut it down?" I asked.

"That's the plan," Steve said grimly.

"Well, Project Insight is launching in 20 hours, we should be able to get it done in time," Natasha noted, leaning forward to speak to Steve and Sam.

"I know, but let's make it fast anyways," Steve said. "We'll use him to bypass the DNA scans and get to the helicarriers, then we can have Jury Rigg or Diamondhead stop them from flying."

"What!?" I winced when Sitwell yelled in my ear. "Are you kidding me!? That is a terrible, terrible id-"

A massive impact hit the roof. Then a robot hand shattered the back window, grabbed Sitwell, and threw him screaming from the car.

"Holy shit!" I yelled, shocked. I could see Sitwell fly twenty feet before slamming into a car, rolling to a stop only to get run over. "Damn!"

"Move!"

Natasha grabbed me and pulled me from my seat as a bullet slammed into the cushion. I let her move me, following her lead, and she forced me into the front seat with Steve, where we crammed ourselves in as awkwardly together as possible.

"How did he even get on the car!?" I yelled in shock.

Natasha shot at the roof as the guy on it fired back. Steve reached over Natasha to slam the parking brakes on as Sam drove, and we came to an abrupt stop. A man came flying off the roof, rolled along the pavement, then got to a kneeling stance and slammed his fingers into the concrete, coming to a stop. His robotic arm glinted in the light, and I stared. "Winter Soldier."

He rose to his feet. His face was covered in a mask and goggles. But I knew Bucky Barnes rested beneath that mask.

I reached for the Omnitrix. Natasha raised her gun.

And a car slammed into us from behind. For a moment, Natasha's elbow was in my stomach as we were thrown around by the impact, and I hurriedly pushed myself into the back seat. Our car was forced forward at high speed towards the Winter Soldier. He leaped over and onto the car with another loud 'thump'. Sam tried to put on the brakes, but we were getting pushed by the car behind us even so.

"Put on the gas!" I yelled.

Sam punched it. Behind me I could see Winter Soldier's feet as he hopped from the roof to the hood of the truck. The truck came around as Sam sped down the road, and I cursed when my body was slid from side to side all over the place. The truck slammed into the car once more, and we were sent into the guardrail. There was a horrific moment where I was airborne. I reached for the Omnitrix. Steve, Natasha, and Sam flew out of the car.

I had a brief moment where Natasha and I shared a horrified glance.

And then I was alone as the car flipped through the air.

 _Author's Note:_ Next chapter is the Battle of Washington, done my way. Afterwards, a meeting with new allies, and the decision of what to do with SHIELD.


	7. Chapter 7

The car was spinning in the air, sending me up into the ceiling where I slammed my neck into the roof. The whole world had gone crazy. At some point I slapped my wrist. Still, I was bounced around and I felt pain blossomed with each slam against the car.

Then I was transformed. But the car still rolled. I still smashed into things over and over again. The car still threw me around, bouncing me against everything.

Finally, the car came to a stop. I lay there for a second. Then I got up to my feet with a snarl.

Someone had hurt me. Someone had to pay.

The car was on it's back. I didn't care. I slammed my claws into the floor that was now above me, and slashed my way through steel, plastic and foam. I dug my way out, and pushed my way to freedom. Once I was out, my gills took a deep breath. I pointed my head towards the heat of the sun on my face.

I roared, declaring my rage. I was in pain, but not to the point of actual injury. Just enough to make me mad.

I snapped my head to focus on my opponents. They smelled like gunpowder, plastic, and leather. There was a hint of more gunpower in the air, and the metal of weapons. One of them was the Winter Soldier. His men stared at me in fear. The Winter Soldier aimed his weapon at me.

I leaped away as a metal object propelled itself from his weapon to me, exploding on Sam's car and destroying it for good. Soldiers began to fire at me. I ran at high speed, my enhanced senses showing me where they were, the sound of bulletfire only aiding me in what I was doing. Guns are loud, but when I was prepared for them, I could use them to help me find my targets.

Winter Soldier shot at me again. I ducked low on the pavement, letting the grenade fly over head, and rushed towards the soldiers. I roared, my claws dug into the concrete, and I leaped towards one. As the second car pulled up to spill more soldiers, I landed on the one I'd targeted and slashed at his chest, slicing deep. He tried to raise his gun, screaming in horror, and I took the assault rifle into my mouth. My teeth sliced into the metal with ease. The others tried to aim at me, the smell of fear in the air, and I leaped towards another soldier, slashing at his leg to leave enormous gashes in him. When they started shooting again, I was up in the air, leaping over a sedan. I ran around it, then leaped to grab a guy by the leg, pulling him to throw him at a nearby car. The soldiers tried to get a bead on me, but I ran back around, dodging the gunfire in great leaping bounds, using cars as cover. When I was close enough, I jumped over the hood of the Humvee to grab the back of a soldier's jacket.

"Shit!" was all the soldier could yell as I pulled him over the hood. I growled, grabbing his gun and tossing it to Sam, who'd snuck around the guardrails. He let out a surprised shout when a assault rifle fell out of the sky to land in front of him, but I ignored that to bash the soldier I had on the ground in the face, breaking his jaw and knocking him out.

Just then, another Humvee rolled up. Smelling the gunpowder inside, I leaped over to it, slamming into the roof of the second car. The men inside were about to get out, so I responded by ripping the roof off to join them inside.

In the enclosed space, they couldn't escape. I was a deadly monster in an Humvee full of men. I only had to do what came best.

I started slamming my feet against people, my tail wildly swinging through the air, and my teeth dug past body armor to fill my mouth with hot blood. I tried my best not kill anyone, I still wasn't ready for an act so heinous, but Wildmutt's primal nature left me happy to maim. Which left my victims panicking.

"God help!"

"It's got my arm!"

"Shoot it! Somebody fucking shoot this thing!"

The eight men in the car tried to fight back, but it's hard to aim a gun at something that big in such a small space when it is slicing your arms open.

Just then an arm reached into the rooftop and grabbed me by the neck. For a moment, I thought it was the Winter Soldier when I felt the metal fingers lift me up out of the Humvee and toss me out to the pavement. But as I got up with a snarl, I realized it was someone else entirely. Someone I recognized.

He stood as bald as every, his black skin shining in the sunlight. Skin the same color as the car I'd just been in. Creel.

I roared, rushing him. Creel stepped forward, and I leaped onto the man, sending him back into the car, which crumpled under his weight. I bit down at his throat, and he got his left forearm in the way. I gnawed on that instead, my claws ripping at his shirt and digging gouges into his skin. He swore, then punched me in the rips with his right arm. I bit down harder. He punched me again, and this time I was forced to back off. I leaped off him, growling, and circled around for a moment. Then I saw more soldiers come around to aim guns at me. I hurriedly reached for the Omnitrix.

In a flash of light, I became bipedal again. My claws shifted to become a single one on the back of my fist. My orange fur became striped with black, and a white patch grew on my belly. The omnitrix went from my shoulder to my chest. I roared, the sound erupting in a wave.

"Oh yeah baby!" I flexed, my muscles bursting with power. "The Rath is back!"

The soldiers fired at me, but I didn't feel a thing as bullets bounced off my skin. "Hey you!" I pointed at Creel, who was stepping forward. "Let me tell you something, Creel! Rath doesn't-"

Creel punched me in the face. I stepped back, shaking my head.

"Rath doesn't-" He punched me in the gut, and I snarled.

"Rath doesn't-" Creel leaped up and slammed his fist into my chin. It didn't hurt too much, but it was enough to send me onto my back, physics working against me.

I snarled shaking my head. Creel stepped forward, and I leaped to my feet, roaring. The burst of noise sent Creel back. "RATH DOESN'T LIKE BEING INTERRUPTED WHILE RATH IS INSULTING PEOPLE! IT'S WHAT RATH DOES! AND NOW RATH'S GONNA INTERRUPT YOUR FACE WITH RATH'S FIST, AND MAKE YOU LIKE IT!"

Creel tried to attack again but this time I was ready. I leaped forward, slipped under his right cross to circle around to his back. My arms wrapped around his waist, and I pulled him close, his metal back to my chest. I flexed, lifting him off the ground.

"Ah, shit!" Creel yelled. He tried to struggle, and I grinned.

"Too late!" I grinned toothily. "FINAL!" I lifted him up, leaning back into a classic German suplex. I slammed him into the concrete headfirst. Then I leaped up, still holding him, and brought us back to standing. "ATOMIC!" One more suplex. I brought us back to standing spun him around so he was upside down in my arms, then leaped twenty feet into the air. Spinning towards the ground as soldiers stared in awe, I slammed Creel headfirst into the pavement. "BUSTER!"

A crater was slammed into the bridge. I sat for a moment, with Creel embedded in the bridge at the center of the crater. "Ha!" I rose up lauching. "Why do you even try!? You're always going to ice skate uphill! Then Rath will make the hill a not-hill, so your trying is meaningless!"

"While I love the trash talk, that doesn't make any sense!" I looked up to see Sam. He was holding one of the assault rifles that belonged to the soldiers, and wore his jetpack in it's folded form, giving me a look of surprise. He shook his head. "Hey, I'm gonna help Cap! You got this!?"

"Rath has everything!" I turned to look at Creel. He was rising from the crater. "Go, Flys-Around-Like-A-Falcon-But-Doesn't-Have-Feathers!"

"Got it," Sam said after a confused glance.

Creel rose to his feet, shaking his head before glaring at me. "I should have figured I couldn't beat you like this," he said, stepping forward.

"You're dumb if you didn't," I stepped forward as well, glaring. "I'm the Rath! Rath _can't_ be beaten! Not now, not ever! Bring on your best, Mr. Absorbs-Stuff-And-Works-For-Stupid-HYDRA!"

Creel smiled. "You know, you remind me of my boxing days. The guys who were all talk until I finally beat some sense into them," his skin went from black steel to flesh. "I'm going to do the same to you."

Creel reached into a pocket. If I'd been thinking straight, I'd have stopped them. But as Rath, with my lowered IQ, I just stared at him. He took out what looked like a piece of rock, barely a pebble. It glowed slightly with a blue light. He raised it for me to see. "Vibranium, like in your friends shield," my eyes widened in horror. I sped forward, and Creel clenched his fist around it. I lashed out with my claw, trying to beat him to the punch. My claw slammed into his face.

And uselessly bounced off his blue chin.

"Damnit!" I roared. I lashed out again and again, slashing at him. Creel let me fruitlessly hit him for a bit. "Break! Break you moron! Let me tell you something, Creel of Hydra! When Rath hits something, it breaks!"

Creel caught my fist. He squeezed. And I screamed. For the first time, I felt unbearable pain as Rath. I tried to pull back, but he was unmovable.

"That's the thing," Creel smiled, his blue face shifting. "I'm unbreakable."

He pulled back and punched. I staggered back, falling to my knees. He kicked me in the chest, and I went flying, slamming into a car. The force of my impact made it slide back, then over the edge and off the bridge, smashing the guard rail and sending concrete through the air.

The car landed on the street below with me smashing into it a second later. It turned into scrap on the pavement. I rested there for a moment, groggy.

Then Creel landed on my stomach. He wasn't that heavy, so it didn't hurt much. His right hook did. From his spot on my body, Creel grabbed my neck and started punching me in the face. Over and over, his vibranium fist hit me in the chin, cheek, and nose. Soon, blood started to pour from my lips and nostrils.

I was scared. But I was also Rath. I didn't want to die. But I was also not about to let Creel hit me without making him pay for it. Rath... I wasn't willing to let him kill me without leaving a mark.

" **RAAAGH!"** With a roar, I grabbed Creel by the shoulders. In his vibranium form, he was lighter than his steel form, so I could lift him and toss him over me. He was sent flying, and I quickly rolled to my feet. I fell to my right knee, staggering. Creel landed on his back nearby, rolling to his feet as well. Thinking quickly, I grabbed the car I'd been embedded in and threw it at Creel. It smashed into him with fruitless results, exploding and sending shrapnel everywhere. Creel walked right through it, smiling.

"Nothing you can do to hurt me," Creel said.

"Rath is willing to try," I spat blood out, rising up. "Rath is willing to _break_ vibranium."

Then the Omnitrix began to beep, before flashing a red light. In an instant, I was human again. Unhurt. But human.

"Oh," I said softly. I met eyes with Creel. He smiled. "Oh shit."

Creel ran towards me.

Then bullets started hitting him from the right at a high speed. We looked over there, and saw Sam. He was holding a minigun (Where did he get that?), pouring bullets into Creel.

"Run!" Sam yelled.

I sped towards him, Creel following at a walking pace, acting as though the bullets slamming into his face and chest were simple raindrops. Sam backed away, and I came up next to him. "Any chance you can turn into something that can beat this dude!?" Sam yelled over the minigun roaring in his hands.

"Not for a while!" I yelled back. The two of us walked backwards as Creel moved towards us.

"Well that's just great!" Sam cried out sarcastically.

Creel was about ten feet away when Sam tossed the minigun away. "Come on!" Sam grabbed my arm and leaped up. His wings unfurled, and the rockets activated, launching us into the sky. Creel reached out for me as Sam lifted me into the air, barely scraping his fingers against my shoes.

"Shiiit!" I cried out as Sam flew us over the battlefield, aiming towards where Steve was battling the Winter Soldier. He dropped me near some cars, and I rolled as I hit the floor, trying to mimic what I'd seen from parkour videos. I landed in between a Honda Civic and a Prius, slamming into the Prius with my shoulder as I stumbled. As expected it hurt a lot, but it was a lot better than what Creel would have done.

"Thanks, Sam!" I yelled out hurriedly, running as soon as I found my feet. I tried to circle where Cap and the Winter Soldier were battling. I found myself staring slightly as two superhumans duked it out in the middle of the street. Winter Soldier was stabbing with a knife, trying to slice into Steve, while Steve used martial arts to keep him at bay. They moved with intense speed, mere blurs of motion. After a brief moment, Steve kicked the Winter Soldier in the chest, sending him flying into a car.

I jumped when someone landed behind me, only to sigh in relief when I saw it was Sam with Natasha. She was bleeding from her left shoulder, which she held tightly with a grimace.

"You okay?" I asked her.

"Later," she said back quickly. "Where's the guy you were fighting?"

"Right there!" Sam pointed at Creel. He was running towards us, pushing aside a bus and sending it flying. The three of us scattered, my heart pumping hard in my chest, and Creel followed me.

"Damnit, Rath, why do you have to annoy people so much!?" I yelled. I ran past Steve and Winter Soldier, who both ignored me, heading for the only thing that could save me. I grabbed it, wrenching it out of the back of van, and quickly spun to lift it in front of me.

Creel's fist slammed into Captain America's shield. And nothing happened. Vibranium hit vibranium alloy, and left me safe.

I didn't know why Steve's shield was in the back of the van. But it saved my life. Next to where Creel and me stood, Captain America was thrown over the hood of a truck, landing about 8 feet to my right. Thinking fast, I dropped low as Creel threw another punch, ducking that and rolling.

"Steve!" I threw the shield to him. Steve got up and caught the shield, hurriedly putting it on as he and Winter Soldier squared up. For a brief moment, we all faced each other. Captain America, Winter Soldier, Creel, and me. Then the Omnitrix beeped out with a green light. I reached for it. Creel rushed me, Winter Soldier rushed Steve. I twisted the dial on the Omnitrix, found an alien, and hit the face as Creel punched me.

His blue glowing fist hit my chest, then pierced through me. Skin split around his knuckles. The muscle, bones, organs, until he made the same journey out the other side. His fist went straight through my heart and spine, turning them into goo.

Or at least, it would have, if all those things hadn't been changing into goo anyways.

" **Goop!"** I announced in a robotic voice echoing from the device floating over my head.

I now stood as tall as Creel. My body stood in a bipedal form, made of a green gelatinous form. The Omnitrix symbol rested on the Anti-Gravity Projector floating over me, the device erecting a gravitational force over me to allow me to stand. If I'd had a mouth, I'd have smiled.

"Let's do this!" I shouted through the Anti-Gravity Projector.

Creel stared at me, shocked. "What are you supposed to be, green shit?"

"Rude!" I replied, offended. I threw some goo into his eyes. Creel staggered back, removing his fist and wiping at his eyes.

"Ugh! Okay, I'm going to turn you into a stain on the sidewalk!"

Creel tried to punch me again. All he got for his efforts was goo on his fist. I grabbed him in my gelatinous hands and tossed him back. My form shapeshifted, becoming nothing but liquid, and the device over me gripped me in it's gravitational hold, flying me over to Creel.

Being Goop was so weird. I was technically two beings in this form, the shapeless goo, and the flying saucer letting that goo shapeshift. I had no bones, no organs or muscles, so I had to move through the saucer. My chemistry was up to me, so I could change from harmless to acidic. It should have been confusing, but it was oddly natural. As though my human form was the one that was weird, that I had always been able to change shape and acidity.

As I did now. I surrounded Creel in a bubble of me, and changed into the strongest acid I knew how. Creel punched at me as I covered his body. It did nothing. Vibranium or not, you can't punch Goop to death. I 'watched' through the saucer as Creel's clothes were dissolved. But that was it. Damnit. Apparently vibranium can't be melted.

Still, I had other options.

Before I could enact those, I saw Cap get kicked by Winter Soldier. The Winter Soldier stepped forward and grabbed Steve's throat. He raised his knife.

"No!" My saucer form flew at the Winter Soldier.

I slashed into the back of his hand, blood flying into the air and forcing him to drop the knife. With Creel, my goo fell to the floor, allowing him freedom. Creel, not missing a beat, ran towards Cap. I guess he thought he'd thrown enough punches. I flew back to my goo and rose up behind Creel.

"You want a piece of me!?" I said, spinning to throw a portion of myself at Creel's left foot as it hit the floor. Green goo slammed into his foot. Creel kept running forward. The goo stretched. Then it snapped back into position, forcing Creel to stay.

Goop can become acidic. But he can also become an adhesive, as sticky and stretchy as you want.

"What the hell?" Creel said. In front of him, Captain America and Winter Soldier moved off, Cap knocking off Winter Soldier's mask with a left uppercut.

"Here, have all the pieces you want!" I shouted. I spun around, becoming a floating green swirl, and rapidly fired off portions of myself. They hit Creel in the back and shoulders. He struggled, but this wasn't a heavy weight, it wasn't a kinetic force for his vibranium form to absorb. This was glue, surrounding him in adhesive and gummy stuff. In seconds, he was covered in the stuff from neck to toe in a massive pile of sticky glue. He slowly struggled through it, but it would take him a while to get out. Once I was done, I walked around to look at him. Creel glared at me.

"I'm still not down," Creel said. "I'll get out of this eventually."

"Oh don't worry," I reached for the Omnitrix floating with my Anti-Gravity Projecter, about to turn into Blitzwolfer to hit him with a sonic blast. "I've got something-"

An explosion filled the air. I turned to see a car in front of Steve finish turning into scrap metal. When I looked around the battlefield, I saw Steve, Sam, and Natasha all standing in different spots. Natasha was next to a silver truck, while Sam was by a blue taxi. Steve stood closest to me, and he was staring at the destroyed car with shock on his face. I wondered why for a moment.

Then I remembered. Steve had uppercutted the Winter Soldier's mask off. _Bucky's_ mask. He'd seen his friends face on a killer.

"Steve," I started to say.

Then the police sirens began to ring out. A bunch of black SUV's rolled up, spilling out men in black military uniforms. I turned into liquid and flew forwards, throwing pieces of my self at one of the van's and surrounding the soldiers coming out in more adhesive, attaching them to their SUV's. I was going to do it again, my form shifting to aim at guys surrounding Steve.

"Freeze or I'll kill him!"

I stopped, shapeshifting my body to look towards the person yelling at me.

For a moment, I wondered why the KG Beast from _Batman vs Superman_ was standing there. Then I saw what he was doing.

He and five other men had Sam at gunpoint. Sam was looking at me sadly, his hands up. Fake KG Beast glared at me. "Change back!"

My eyes moved quickly around my body as I stood there. Nearby, Natasha was captured as well, forced to her knees with no regard for her injuries. Steve was on his knees, staring at me. Sam still had his hands up, clenching and unclenching them. Creel was still in the goo I'd surrounded him in, looking at me.

Fake KG Beast stepped closer to Sam. "I said, change back! Now!"

For the first time, I felt dissatisfaction with my Omnitrix menu. If I had Lodestar, I'd have been able to rip the guns out of these guys hands. Instead...

I reached up for the Anti-Gravity Projector, and tapped the Omnitrix. In an instant, I was human again. Fake KG Beast turned his gun from Sam to me. He stepped towards me, eyes hard.

"On your knees." I glared at him defiantly. In a blur of motion, he slammed the butt of his gun into my chin.

I crumbled to the ground. As stars filled my eyes, I spat blood from my mouth and glared up at the guy. He smirked. Then he lifted his boot high."

"No!" Steve shouted as the boot came down. "Don-"

A burst of pain followed. Then I was out.

 _Author's Note_ : The above was really fun to write. Wildmutt finally fighting, Rath smashing Creel with Zangief's move, Creel revealing he was given something to level the playing field against Dial, Dial having his first horrific timeout in this fic, Sam firing a minigun at Creel, Dial using _the_ shield before tossing it Cap, Creel and Goop fighting. It was fun.

By the way, Vibranium Creel didn't show everything he could do in that form. He had what amounted to about 10000 dollars worth of vibranium in his palm and he had no idea the power he really carried. Rath is strong, but when Creel was made of a substance that negates all kinetic force, all his hits stopped having effect. That said, Rath can win, if he's smart about it.

Goop's plan worked well.

So yeah. I had fun, and I hope you guys did too.

Going to bed. Let me know what you think, or if you have questions?


	8. Chapter 8

I woke up later in a van. I looked around groggily.

"Hey," Natasha said to my right. I looked over at her. She smiled shakily at me. "Good to see you're awake."

My jaw hurt like hell. I tried to lift my hands, but they felt really heavy for some reason. Natasha shook her head. "Don't move. Rollins gave you a hell of a hit."

"Is that who that was," I slurred. I looked across from us. Sam and Steve sat on the right side of the van. Sam was looking at Steve, who was staring at the floor. There were also two helmeted guards with hands on their weapons, one female, the other male, both clearly HYDRA. Through my throbbing headache, as the van bounced around, I tried to remember what happened. Steve looked up at me.

"Did X have anything about Bucky being the Winter Soldier?" Steve asked softly. Everyone, even one of the guards, looked at me.

My headache intensified, but I thought of a response. "We never thought to check," I answered. For a moment, I felt relief I'd hidden X in Sam's garage. Nobody but an Omnitrix user could unlock him, but better safe than sorry. "The Winter Soldier?" I asked slowly.

I already knew, but I felt Steve wanted to talk. We might all be dead soon anyway. I held back my fear at the thought.

Steve looked down at the floor again. "Yeah... And he didn't even know who I was.

"How's he even alive?" Natasha asked. "Was he frozen, like you?"

"Zola," Steve said, still looking down. "Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43, Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did must have helped Bucky survive the fall. They must have found him and..."

"You couldn't have known," I said softly. "You would have done everything you could."

"He's right," Sam added.

Steve was quiet for a moment. When he spoke again, it was almost in a whisper. "Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky."

We were quiet. Then Sam looked at Natasha. He turned to the guards. "We need to get a doctor here."

My head still throbbing, I looked over at Natasha. Her shoulder was bleeding profusely. I wanted to reach over, only to feel my hands held down by weight. I looked down and blinked.

They'd surrounded my hands in a steel casing, leaving them crossed. Steve had similar bonds on his hands. It must have been at least thirty pounds of metal, covering my hands in cold metal from mid-forearm to wrist. Shit. That meant the Omnitrix was out. I could feel the watch pressing painfully into my wrist, squeezed by the cuffs. Steve and I were also locked at the legs, leaving Natasha and Sam in regular cuffs.

Still, if I forced HYDRA to try to kill me first, maybe we could get the jump on them. Just insult the shit out of them, make sure they try, then...

Sam was still speaking. "He's got a concussion and she's bleeding out, we need-"

One of the guards pulled out a baton in a lightning fast movement, the end lighting up with electricity. There was a tense moment.

Then she spun it around and jammed it into the chest of the other guard. While we stared in shock and the other guard shuddered in his seat, she lashed out in a kick, sending the guy bouncing off the window, then to the floor. As soon as he was out, she reached up and pulled off her helmet, revealing...

Robin, from _How I Met Your Mother?_

Cobie Smoulder's face breathed deeply. "Whew! That thing was squeezing my brain."

Sam and I glanced at each other, then at her. She looked back at us, then at Steve and Natasha. "Who're these guys?"

'Robin', as it turned out, was really Maria Hill. An oddly friendly version of Maria Hill, who I remembered as kind of a bitch in the comics.

She used a cool laser device to slice off all our cuffs in seconds. She waited until the car stopped, then sliced out the bottom of the car with the laser. The Strike team had placed our van in the middle, which meant Steve had to be careful to reach down and pull a manhole cover from the ground without anyone seeing. He was smooth, lifting it out of its place and sliding it aside. We dropped down into the sewers from the van with Steve's shield and Sam's wings as carefully as possible so the driver of the van wouldn't notice any jostling in the back. I went Goop again so I could simply float down into the hole. Once we were safe, Maria sliced off my bonds. I turned into Goop again and covered Natasha's wound with adhesive goo to stop her bleeding. That done, we started walking through the sewers. We came out after about thirty minutes of walking, then got into a gray van. Maria drove, leaving the city and heading through a forest until we reached a dam. There, we got out. I turned into Fasttrack for his better than human strength and picked up Natasha.

"What are you doing?" she asked, glaring at me.

"Carrying you," I answered, hefting her up and following Maria.

"I'm not an invalid," Natasha growled.

"You're wounded, you need help, you get help," I replied back.

"Put me down," she grumbled. Despite her protests, she didn't fight me, a testament to how much blood she'd lost. I carried her carefully. The five of us entered the dam and started walking through the halls. The place was wet, as expected with green moss on the walls, and everything colored brown and illuminated with fluorescent lights. As we walked, a guy in a suit, wearing glasses, with thinning gray hair came towards us, running. Maria apparently knew him, because she yelled out as he came closer.

"GSW," Maria said. The acronym for 'gunshot wound'. "She's lost a lot."

"Maybe a pint," Sam added. "But Mahmoud sealed the wound."

"Let me take her!" The man, a doctor apparently, said as I walked up carrying her. He gave me a startled look when he saw my Fasttrack form, but focused on Natasha again, who was still giving me a petulant look.

"She'll want to see him first," Maria replied.

We shared a confused look that Maria ignored.

Going into a large room with pillars and machinery strewn about, we went down some stairs. There was a section of the room blocked off by plastic hanging on hooks set up like makeshift walls. Maria pulled back the plastic, and stepped aside to let us look inside.

Samuel 'Bad MuthaFucka' Jackson stared at us for a moment before speaking. "What the hell is that carrying you, Natasha?"

"A stubborn idiot," was all she could reply. I think she was too shocked to say anything else.

I turned back into Goop to remove the makeshift bandage I'd made for Natasha. It hadn't completely stopped the bleeding, but it had helped, and the doctor operated on her as we listened to Nick Fury, who was Samuel L. Jackson, not a very white guy from the comics. He still had an eye missing though, and a badass eyepatch. I wondered, once more, if I was in a version of the Ultimate Universe, and gave Natasha a glance as the doctor checked her shoulder.

Black Widow had been evil in the comics, working with terrorists. But I'd checked with X in private. Not only was Black Widow not in SHIELD, she'd been specifically tagged as being a very bad idea to try and recruit. I could trust her, as much as I could trust a spy.

In the meantime, Fury (No way was I calling him 'Nick') ran down the laundry list of his wounds.

"Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, one hell of a headache." Holy...

"Don't forget your collapsed lung," the doctor added helpfully.

"Oh, let's not forget that," Fury said sarcastically. "Otherwise, I'm good."

"What, you're down for a pick up basketball game now?" I asked, still shocked by the sheer _number_ of injuries. "How about Sam and me vs you and Steve?"

"We'll be skins," Fury replied easily, smirking.

"They cut you open," Natasha said, sounding accusing. "Your heart stopped."

"Tetrodotoxin B," Fury told her. "Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it." Fury mentioning Banner reminded me of something.

"Why all the secrecy?" Steve asked. "Why not tell us?"

Maria answered for Fury. "Any attempt on the director's life had to look successful."

"Can't kill you if you're already dead," Fury said matter-of-factually. Besides... I wasn't sure who to trust."

He looked at me. So did everyone else except Sam. I sighed. "Seriously, I'm not HYDRA. Also, you didn't think you could trust Captain America, really? Or Tony Stark?"

"First, you may not be HYDRA, but you are _still_ suspicious," Fury said simply. "Second, I am trusting Captain America, you see him standing here don't you? As for Tony Stark, he'd go telling the presses about anything, if he didn't follow your lead and destroy a Best Buy first."

"That wasn't on purpose," I growled out. "And I'm telling the truth! I'm not the enemy!"

"How can you prove that?" Fury asked simply. I gaped at him. "You appear in New York with no paperwork, in this or any nation. You have a watch that can turn you into things that can fight any of the Avengers on even ground or better, and admit it's alien, meaning you must have gotten it from off-world. Natasha, has he told you where you got it from?"

"...No," Natasha said.

"Oh?" Fury cocked an eyebrow. "So you have all that power, appeared out of nowhere, and claim we should just... trust you. Explain why."

I growled, stepping forward to explain myself.

"Because I do," a voice stopped me. I looked over at Steve. He was smiling at me. "I trust him," He looked back at Fury. "I've seen what Mahmoud can do. He's got a lot of power. If he wanted too, if he was working for an enemy, he could have killed us at any point. But he's put that power to use to help us. He could have died at the bridge if it wasn't for Sam, but he stayed and fought when it would have been better for him to hide. I trust him."

There was no chance for me to respond when Sam stepped forward as well, patting me on the back. For a moment, I felt myself choke up. I swallowed down the tears like a man, only to have to wipe away some. Jeeze, why was I breaking down? All Captain America had said was that he trusted me."Uh... thanks man."

"Heartwarming, however, we will talk about this later," Fury said simply. "So you trust him. What now?"

"We um," I wiped away my last tear. "We need to call Tony, Rhodes, and Clint. They're all on stand-by."

"You want to bring more people into this?" Fury asked.

"We need numbers," Steve said. "I thought about leaving them out, but they all said it was their fight, and they can give us a hell of a lot of power."

Fury nodded. After a moment, he looked around. "Go ahead and call them. We've got sixteen hours to plan our attack. And someone get me a chair."

Clint, funnily enough, arrived first. I was with Steve and Sam at the door to the dam when he rolled up. Maria had recovered devices I'd been using to hide from radar and satellites on, keeping us from being seen by HYDRA, so it was safe for him to join us. She had also recovered X from where I had hidden it at Sam's house once I explained to Fury just what it was and he all but ordered to her to get it. Clint was riding a red motorcycle, and was wearing a purple jacket and blue jeans. He came up to us, parked the motorcycle, then got off and removed his helmet.

Like Sam, he didn't look like an actor I recognized. He had blonde hair groomed to go into a point, a five 0'clock shadow beard, and eyes that seemed to pierce through you. He was shorter than all three of us, but he came towards us with the same sort of subtle walk that Natasha did.

"Good to see you, Clint," Steve said, smiling. He stepped forward with his hand out.

"You too, Steve," Clint smiled back, taking Steve's hand and shaking it. He looked over at me and Sam. "Gonna introduce me?"

"Uh, yeah!" Steve said. He pointed at Sam. "This is Sam Wilson," he pointed at me. "And Mahmoud Schahed. They're friends of mine."

Clint shook hands with Sam, then turned to me. As he shook my hand, he cocked his head. "You aren't military."

Was it weird that it didn't surprise me he could tell that? "No sir, I'm not."

Clint nodded. "So you're an enhanced?"

I smiled at him, but didn't answer. He shrugged, apparently not caring much, and turned to Steve.

"Tony and Bruce here yet?"

Steve winced. "Well, Tony is still grabbing a suit. And Bruce... you know Bruce."

"He doesn't want anything to do with it, huh?" Clint said with a sad smile.

"Yeah."

"He could have been really useful," I said softly to Sam.

"Or destroyed everything in his path," he replied. When Clint and Steve looked at him, he held up his hands defensively. "I'm just saying. The Hulk is pretty good at breaking things."

Steve didn't seem to have a defense for that. He turned back to Clint. "Come on. I'll show you inside."

"One second," Hawkeye went to his motorcycle and pulled a bag off of it. He came back. "All right."

With that, the four of us went inside.

Tony Stark arrived later on.

I was speaking to Clint at the time, watching as he geared up in the armory hidden in the dam. There were shelves of guns, and boxes of bullets all throughout the room. Clint had taken a station at a table in back to do his work. He was wearing a long coat edged with purple, with a safety glove and forearm protector all modern archers wore. It was kinda cool looking. He was checking over his arrows, putting them away one by one in a quiver on his back.

"Ten aliens, huh?" he asked, looking over at me. I was sitting on the table, sipping at my coffee.

"Yeah. They tend to be damn useful too," I answered.

"Huh," he looked at the Omnitrix. "Think I could try?"

What... My eyes went from the Omnitrix then to Hawkeye. He smiled easily. My surprise at the request must have been obvious.

"You can say no," Clint said. "I'm just curious."

"I mean..." I stared at the watch again.

"Hey," Clint brought my attention back to him. "Cap doesn't share his shield. I don't let people use my bow. Nat has her favorite gun, and Tony has only let one other person have one of his suits." He finished sharpening one of his broadheads. "At least I know you can take off that watch."

"...Only when I want to," I said.

Clint nodded.

Sam walked over then. He was wearing a flight suit similar to the one he'd worn in the photo he'd shown us.

"Where'd you get that?" I asked as he walked past a rack of submachine guns.

Sam stopped to grab a pair of submachine guns before joining Clint and I. "Turns out, they've got a room full of uniforms and suits. You should grab something for yourself."

I though about that, looking down at myself. I'd been wearing the same blue jeans and white shirt with a black stripe ever since I'd left New York. Technically I didn't need to change. The Omnitrix was all the costume I needed. But that thought was stupid. If the Omnitrix timed out mid-battle again, I might not have Sam to save me, and the right suit could at least prevent injury.

"I will," I said at last. "In the meantime..." I got off the table and looked around. "Can you guys help me pick out a knife and gun? Something good for a novice like me to use for when the Omnitrix times out?"

The flying soldier and archer assassin, both career military, looked around for a moment. Sam walked over to the aisle with handguns and picked up one of them. He came back with one of them, the kind I sometimes saw cops carrying when I did my patrols.

"Here. Glock 19." Sam held it for me to see. "Compact size, 15 rounds in the magazine. If you end up in a tight spot, 15 bullets could save you. You ever held a gun before, do you know the safety rules?"

"Don't point the hole at anything you like," I said, looking at the gun in his hands. "I've gone shooting with my brothers. Never anything real though."

Sam nodded. "Well, keep in mind. Guns are made to kill. Don't let movies fool you. There's no such thing as a winging people or shooting them in the foot to let them go. You shoot, you do it to kill. Understand?"

When I nodded, he took a holster and belt off another shelf, and passed it all to me. Clint tapped me on the shoulder when I took the gun in hand. I turned to see him holding a knife in a sheath. He smirked as I took what looked a military knife.

"That... is a knife," Clint said dramatically. "It cuts things. Use it to cut things."

I gave Clint a sour look. "Wow. You've truly changed my life with that explanation."

"Yeah well, no time to actually teach you anything," Clint said briskly, but not unkindly.

"Come on," Sam, the traitor, was chuckling as he led me out of the armory. "Let's get you suited up."

We walked out, me holding my new loot, Sam putting away his guns. Steve and Natasha were coming down to the floor as we walked by. Behind them were two men.

One I recognized as Tony Stark. He looked much the same as the photo's I'd seen of him, a taller and buffer Robert Downey Jr. He had a well-trimmed mustache and beard combo, and his hair was set up in spikes. Unlike in the news, he wasn't wearing a suit. He wore a... a Black Sabbath Tour of 78 shirt?

I stopped, staring at him. I looked at Natasha, who had noticed me staring at his shirt. She nodded, and I gaped for a moment. Jury Rigg wore the same casual clothes as Tony Stark? What the hell?

The man behind him was different in a lot of ways. He wore a tight green shirt, camo pants, and military boots. He was well built, had dark skin and a clean shaven face. He also had Don Cheadle's face. Seriously, I was starting to get used to movie stars sharing faces with superheroes. And it was painting a weird picture about this Marvelverse that I should look into later.

"Sam, Mahmoud!" Steve called as he stepped onto the floor. He waved us over, and we went to join him.

"Guys, this is Tony Stark, and ColonelJames Rhodes," Steve said as we joined the four. "Iron Man and War Machine."

"Introductions, really?" Tony asked, giving Steve a look. "What is this, preschool?"

I looked between Tony and Rhodey for a moment. Like everyone, I have my favorite superheroes. I don't tend to hate any of course, but some are just the ones I prefer.

Wonder Woman was my favorite DC superhero. To me, she represented a lot of who I'd like to be. Honest, good, kind, a dedicated warrior, and a teacher. She was someone I looked up to.

Iron Man, not two feet away, was my favorite Marvel superhero. A man who used his brilliance and human technology to take on magicians, gods, aliens, and reality warpers. A man who represented how far humanity could go on our intellect alone. A jerk, a womanizer, and a (recovering) alcoholic, sure. But he was a good man in the comics. Barring Civil War, where _everyone_ had acted like out-of-character asshats.

"You're my favorite Avenger."

Tony stopped talking, looking at me for some reason. So did Steve, Natasha, and Rhodey. In fact, even Sam did, looking at me with an amused look on his face. It was at that moment that I realized I'd spoken out loud. Huh. Didn't know that could happen in real life.

"Huh," Tony suddenly had a massive grin on his face. He turned to look at Steve. "Hear that? Fanboy has good taste."

Steve sighed.

"I mean, the stars and stripes are nice," Tony continued. "But until you get a sweet suit like mine- Actually, Rhodey, do you still have that monstrosity laying around?"

"You see what you did?" Rhodey said to me. "You got him started. Also," he looked at Tony. "It wasn't a monstrosity, it was patriotic."

Natasha laughed. When Rhodey gave her a sour look, she shrugged.

"Anyways," Steve said pointedly. "This is Sam Wilson and Mahmoud Schahed."

Rhodey stepped forward and shook Sam's hand, then mine. He had a strong grip, and a big smile. "Good to meet you. Despite the circumstances I mean."

"Yeah, SHIELD going evil," Tony said. He looked at Steve. "I warned you, Cap. No way SHIELD was on the up and up. Granted, I never expected them to be Nazi's, but..."

"We aren't contacting the government about this?" Rhodey asked.

"No," I said. I walked over to a table, where X was resting, Steve joining me, followed by the others. "X, can you tell me, numercially, how many members of the military and government are HYDRA?"

" _At least fifteen, some confirmed by Zola, others only his estimations."_ X said. _"Zola theorized there were more in lower positions, based on various reports, but it is unconfirmed."_

"Huh," Tony stepped towards X, circling him. He looked up at me. "You made this?"

"One of my aliens did," I answered.

Tony looked back at X, leaning in to look at the x-shaped device. He frowned, staring at it. "What the hell are these compotents made out of?"

"Parts from a computer made back in the 70's" Natasha said. When Tony and Rhodey gave her stunned looks, she smiled. "Really."

"What, that's impossible, how-" Tony stopped, staring at the device, then lifting it up to look it over. "No, if you get... wait how did he... Okay, I see the memory now, he just used, no that's not how it _works..._ oh, no, that could do it."

"Tony?" Rhodey asked as he watched his friend spin the X-device in his hands.

"Hold on, trying to figure out how this thing is breaking the laws of physics," Tony put it on the table, seeming excited. He gave me a look. "Yeah, me and you are going to have a long conversation after this, Fanboy."

I rolled my eyes, though I was still kinda jazzed to see Tony Stark talking science. Then I got back to business. "Actually, you may find this interesting. X, can you show me the file on Senator Stern."

" _Of course,"_ X said, his Southern accent giving the words a twang. _"Senator Stern,"_ A holographic screen popped up, with an image of Stern next to his profile. Tony raised an eyebrow. _"A high level HYDRA agent, he has been credited with obtaining several high level acquisitions for HYDRA, only to fail in procuring the IRON MAN project. His further attempts with the War Machine also failed, though some blueprints were created based on footage of Colenel James "Rhodey" Rhodes."_

"What?" Rhodey stepped forward, uncrossing his arms. "HYDRA has armor because of me?"

" _Incorrect,"_ X said. _"Only copies, made from far less efficient designs. I reckon they used War Machine and Iron Man as inspiration, nothing more."_

Tony stared at X. After a moment, he turned away from him, stepping away a few feet. I shared a look with Steve. He looked at Tony. Hesitated. Then he finally spoke.

"Tony, there's something else."

"What, more than HYDRA trying to steal my stuff?" Tony said sarcastically. He turned to look at us again, eyes hard, smile tight.

"Sam, Mahmoud, let's go somewhere else," Natasha said. She walked over and took the two of us by the elbows, pulling us away.

"Wait, what?" Tony looked at us as we walked past, then at Steve. "What, is Pepper HYDRA? Granted, she'd look hot in a leather outfit..."

"Tony," Rhodey said, apparently realizing something was wrong.

As we walked away, I heard Steve begin to speak. "Back during the war, HYDRA kidnapped Bucky Barnes, my best friend, and turned him into-"

Then we were too far away to hear anything. Sam looked at Natasha and me. I think both of us had a complicated look on our face.

"What happened?"

"...Bucky killed Tony's mom and dad while he was brainwashed," I said. "We asked X more about Bucky once Maria brought him back, and you were busy."

"Oh," Sam blinked. "That's... jeeze, that's gonna be tough. And this is the best time to tell him?"

"I coached Steve a bit," Natasha said, letting go of our elbows and following us. "Steve wants to be honest, but he doesn't want Tony to hate Bucky for something he couldn't control," Natasha looked back. I did the same.

Tony had fallen to the floor, his head in his hands, Rhodey and Steve down next to him. The table X had been rested on was snapped in half, X resting on the floor and still projecting an image of Howard and Maria Stark.

Thankfully Jury Rigg made X to be durable so that little damage wasn't going to harm it's data and he could fix it _after_ they were done.

I turned away, sorrow in my heart. My first time meeting my favorite Marvel hero, and it's to bring up his deepest pain. Yay me.

A little bit later, we were standing in a room full of clothes. Everything from military uniforms, tuxedos, dresses, Hawaiian shirts, and even some cowboy boots and hats. Whatever a secret agent would need. In this case, were were in the more military focused section.

"It's a mistake to go for the heaviest bulletproof armor in our business," Natasha said, rifling through the clothes. "Mobility is what humans like you and I need. Protection from guns is still important, but compared to just outmanuevering guys as powerful as Winter Soldier and Creel, we need to be able to move too.

She pulled out a pair of black pants with a belt. The pants were thick, and had pockets everywhere. She handed them to me. Then she handed me a pair of underwear, grinning at the embarrassed blush I gave her at the sight of the white jockeys. Sam coughed in a vain attempt to hide his own laughter.

"Now, you need some armor, but it needs to let you move," she went over to where some plates, knee and elbow pads, and boots were. The armor ranged from almost uselessly small, to big enough for Rath. "Shoulder, chest, knees, shins, elbows," She tossed them on a table, gesturing to a section of the room blocked off by purple cloth. "Get in there, put on what I throw at you."

I went inside, throwing my clothes off. She tossed something over the curtain, and I looked at it before snorting.

Deodorant. Extra strong variety, for 'men of action!'

"You'll thank me!" Natasha said through the curtain.

"She's not wrong!" Sam said.

"The less glamorous side of hero work," I said with a chuckle.

I put on the pants and underwear. Natasha threw me a shirt, vest, and jacket. The jacket was kinda cool, all black and sleek looking. The vest was a dark green. I put them all on, then walked out. Natasha looked me over, then nodded, handing me the chestplate next. Sam helped me put it on. The chest plate was big enough to cover my pectorals, heart, lungs, and abdomen, but let me move rather easily. A pair of shoulder plates, knee and elbow pads, and shin plates, the handgun and knife with a pair of solid boots, and the ensemble was completed.

With that done, I looked down at myself, then at Natasha and Sam.

"Looks good," Sam said.

"Yeah, I'm good at this," Natasha said with a smirk. "Too bad the others won't let me help. Clint's the only one who let me dress him."

"I like it," I put on a pair of fingerless gloves, then looked at my chest. "Just needs one more thing."

With all of us gathered, we met in the center of the main floor. The plastic walls and surgery equipment had been replaced with tables and chairs. The foldaway tables were arranged in a haphazard circle, and the chairs were set up for all of us. I took a spot high up to watch everyone enter. Tony was speaking with Steve in hushed tones. He was shaking his head angrily as Steve spoke. After a bit of thought, I walked over to join the pair. Sam and Rhodey were talking in another corner of the room, both Air Force soldiers apparently talking shop. Clint, Natasha, and Maria were all sitting already, a newly repaired X placed in front of them. As I walked past, X flashed a blueprint of the Insight Helicarriers. Maria looked between the blueprint and a folder in her hands, then said something to Clint, who answered while pointing to different sections of the carrier.

When I came up to them, Tony was speaking.

"So, what, he's your friend, so you get the first crack at him?" Tony asked furiously.

"That's not what I'm saying," Steve said desperatly. "I just... I lost him once, Tony. If I have to lose him again..."

Tony stared into Steve's eyes. Steve looked away.

"...he killed my mom," Tony said. "I don't care if it was on purpose or not. I deserve to at least bring him in."

"Then do it together," I said as I came up to them. They looked at me. "Who gives a shit who deserves it, consider what your facing. He is one of the strongest fighters in the world right now. You want to bring him in, it might just take more than one of you to do it. The rest of us will watch for him, let you know when he shows up, and you guys will have a plan to bring him in. X says there is a way to reverse his conditioning. In the meantime, I'll try to find out who sent the order."

"Vasily Karpov," Tony said. He looked between us. "X told me. I'm having Jarvis track him down." He smiled, a tight, enraged quirk of the lips. His left hand tightened into a fist. "After this is over, I'm going to find him myself."

"Tony..." Steve began to say. Then he closed his mouth, looking at Tony.

"I need to do this," Tony said softly.

"...I'll help you," Steve finally said. "And so will the rest of us."

"Okay, people!" Fury's voice got all of our attention. He walked into the room wearing a cast on his left arm, and looked around at us. "Let's begin."

"You know," Tony said to Fury. "I knew hearing you'd died was too good to be true. Leave it to the director of SHIELD to pull the biggest spy cliché ever," Tony said. Obviously falling back on humor to mask his personal feelings at the moment.

Fury eyed Tony. "Good to see you too. Now if you're here to help, sit down."

Tony, Steve, and I looked at each other, then went over to the tables. Clockwise, with Fury at the center, Sam, Rhodey, me, Steve, Tony, Maria, Clint, and Natasha all sat, X placed in front of Fury.

"Now, originally, the plan I had in place was a bit desperate," Fury admitted. He looked around. "But now, thanks to Rogers, I have five assets to bring into play. With you, I think we can stop HYDRA and maybe we can salvage what's left-"

"We aren't salvaging anything," Steve interrupted. "We're not just taking down HYDRA, Nick, we're taking down SHIELD."

As all of us stared at Steve, Fury responded. "SHIELD had nothing to do with this!" He sounded insulted.

"You gave me this mission, this is how it ends," Steve said firmly. "SHIELD's been compromised, you said it yourself. HYDRA grew right under your nose and nobody noticed."

I winced. He was right, in a sense. Still... I was beginning to feel like this was too much.

Fury agreed. "Why do you think we're meeting in this cave? I noticed."

"Yeah, not before my parents were killed," Tony interrupted. "Oh, by his brainwashed buddy, by the way."

Fury looked between Tony and Steve. "Look... I didn't know about Barnes."

"Even if you had, would you have told me?" Fury was silent.

"Embarrassing, right?" Tony said. "Realizing how ingrained your super spy stuff is."

"SHIELD, HYDRA, it all goes." Steve said.

"He's right," Maria added.

Fury looked around. At Clint, Natasha, Rhodey, Tony, and Sam.

He didn't look at me. I think he thought I was going to go along with Steve and Tony.

I got up. Sam, who was about to say something, stopped.

"Steve, Tony. Everyone. I know I'm the new guy here, but I think I need to give my opinion."

"You don't," Tony said. "So you can sit down-"

"As the only guy here who is arguably superhuman, I need to say this," Tony shut his mouth. I placed my hands on the table and looked around. "You guys want to take down SHIELD. On one level, I agree. It needs to be cleaned out, seriously. But I don't think complete dismantling of it is the right idea."

"Not to mention impossible," Rhodey said. "Way too many people in the military, government, and even the private sector have dealings with SHIELD. HYDRA will hide away again and cause trouble for someone else."

"Doesn't that thing," Clint nodded towards X. "Have all the information on HYDRA?"

"Portions of it," I said. "I can try to make something to give us more, maybe get lots more from main SHIELD systems and hook up to HYDRA. But that's not all." I looked around. "We _need_ SHIELD."

"Super secret organization with shady business practices and a history of Nazi's in it's ranks?" Tony said sarcastically. "I'm good thanks."

"No, but we need people to fight the good fight," I argued. "At the least, we need an organization dealing with the weird stuff in the world."

"The Avengers can do that," Steve said.

"The Avengers are a small group of people," I snapped. "You guys can't be there all the time, and you can't deal with everything. What if someone in Idaho suddenly gets accelerated reflexes? Is Tony Stark going to go and visit them? Teach them how to use their powers, or even help them when people like HYDRA try to kidnap them for experiments?"

"I'd do it," Tony said. "I'd save them, what the hell are you insinuating?"

"That you wouldn't even hear about it," I said simply. "It's not me calling you callous, it's me saying that you're one man, and you can't be everywhere. We need to have a big organized group of people. It's a weird world now," I raised the Omnitrix and showed it to everyone. "This thing was given to me. But if someone else had gotten it, and they started killing people, who would have informed you guys?"

"SHIELD," Natasha said.

I nodded.

"We need to take them down," Steve said. "We'd never know for sure who we could trust otherwise."

"Then we start anew at least," I looked at Tony. "I think we can narrow down the list, figure out every aspect of their plans. HYDRA may have hidden in SHIELD, but that still leaves a trail. If they're in the systems-"

"Then we can find them," Tony said, leaning back and resting his cheek against his hand. "Okay, say that we do. We find HYDRA, stop them all. Then what we, we have SHIELD just keep going?"

"No," we all looked in surprise at Fury. He was staring at the X-device. "We... Jury Rigg it," he looked up at us. "So to speak. We take what is good, what is worth saving, and we build something new."

"Is that possible?" Sam asked. "Just take SHIELD and make something new out of it?"

"It happened in Russia," Natasha said. "The Cheka, GPU, OGPU, NKVD, NKGB, all the way to the KGB and now the Federal Security Service."

"Yes, because when I want a spy agency, I decide to copy the Russians," Tony pointed out, looking around. "How about it, Fanboy, you want to start torturing people for information, maybe start some wars in Asian nations for a pissing contest with another country?"

"I want to make SHIELD what it was supposed to be," I said firmly. I crossed my arms. "SHIELD is supposed to be the bridge between what people consider normal, and all the weirdness out there. I say we take it to where it's supposed to be. Protect people from the madness on every level, but also protect people who end up getting powers. People like Bruce Banner, who get their powers out of nowhere. People like me, who end up with alien technology attached to them, and have no place to go. We can protect the world from those threats. But we need to work with SHIELD, and all that is good in it, to do it."

"...I'm not so sure about that," Steve said softly.

"He's right," Natasha said. Everyone looked at her.

"Well, of course, you'd say that," Tony said.

"No, I think he's right too," Rhodey said.

"Et tu, Brutus?" Tony held a dramatic hand to his heart.

"An organization to help the Avengers protect people, even when we can't be there, to tell us if something needs our attention? It's a good idea," Natasha said.

"And we can't let all those resources go to HYDRA," Rhodey added. "The second we reveal the truth, HYDRA operatives are going to try and take every bit of money, tech, and personal they can. If we can at least put it to good use, to make a group to save people-"

"Then we do the work SHIELD was made for," Steve rose up. He looked at all of us. Then stopped on Fury. "If we do this, no more secrets. No more lies. Not between us at least. Everyone here, we keep each other in check, and we make sure everyone is safe."

"You sure you want everyone here in your secret circle?" Fury looked at me.

"Oh come on!" I snarled. "I'm the one agreeing with you asshole!"

"See what I'm talking about?" Tony pointed out.

"Yeah, what the hell man?" Sam added.

"Just saying," Fury replied.

"All of us," Steve looked around. "Mahmoud's... well, he's right. We need people there, to help us, to be there when... When we can't," Steve sighed. "I don't trust SHIELD as it is. But if we can join together, tear it apart and make it something new, something good and strong, something the _original_ founders made it to be. Then I think this is worth doing. You all agree?"

"I'm still on the fence," Tony looked at me. "You really want this, Fanboy?"

"The next person to make an Iron Man suit may not be so nice," I told him. "The next Asgardian weapon, alien invasion, or attack of My Little Pony's needs people there to confront it. We need to do this. And we need to do it right."

"What's all this 'we' business?" Tony said. He sighed. "Well, I always wanted my own spy group... Sure. Let's be spies."

"You gonna name this organization, or just call it SHIELD again?" Sam asked me.

I looked around. "Uh..."

"Arrow," Clint smiled at the looks he got. "What? I think it's perfect."

"StarkInfiltration," Tony suggested.

"You are terrible at names," Rhodey told him. "Why not just call it SHIELD again?"

"Too much history," Fury said. "But let's table that discussion. On to the plan. X, bring up the Insight files. Maria, show us the floor plan for the hangers."

A holographic screen popped up. Maria tapped on a laptop, turning it around for us to see.

"Now," Fury said. "Taking into account our new plans, and the assets we have available, I believe we should start by..."

 _Author's Note:_ Man. Ten pages. TEN PAGES. Yeah, took a while to write this, and it ended up having almost no transformation and no action. But I think it's all important. A whooooole lot of deviations from canon here. And I'm worried about a lot of it. But I did my best, and I had fun.

Hope you guys like it. Please tell me what your hopes are for the new Battle of the Triskelion. Also, if anyone starts throwing out names, you are required to come up with Backronyms along with them.

Oh, and Dial's costume. I based it on Widow's from Infinity War. I liked the green she had, and I plan to have Dial spray paint an Omnitrix symbol on the left pectoral. So, hopefully it works.

Anyways, good night, I'm gonna work on the next chapter.


	9. Chapter 9

A while after we'd made our plans, Steve had gone up to the top of the dam. When Steve had been up there for a while, Sam went up to join him, leaving the rest of us behind.

Tony and I were supposed to make stuff for the team to use. We went to room that was clearly set up to be a makeshift engineering facility of some sort, with technological parts everywhere. We sat in swivel chairs with a list, but before that, Tony had some questions.

"So this is alien tech?" Tony held my wrist, looking at the Omnitrix.

"Made by the Galvan scientist, Azmuth," I confirmed.

"Huh," Tony let go of my wrist. "Kid, can you just take that off so I can look at it already?"

"You gonna let me try out an suit?" I quipped.

"Sure, I got some Armani's I'm probably gonna give to Goodwill soon," Tony said.

"I meant-"

"I know what you meant," Tony snarked. "And no. Just show me how it works."

I opened up the dial. The hologram of Swampfire showed up, and I pressed down on it. In a second, I was the tall and broad plant creature.

" **Swampfire!"**

"What, you have to call out the name every time you change?" Tony asked. Then he blinked. "Also, what the hell is that smell?"

"First, it's tradition," I said in my nasally voice. "Second, it's me. I'm a Methanosian, we smell like that."

"What, so you can smell like literal crap?" Tony sounded nasally too, though it was because he was holding his nose.

I frowned, somehow insulted. "No. So I can do this," I held up a hand and let a flame loose. "I may be plant based," I raised my other hand and sprouted a flower from the palm, making it red and gold just for Tony. "But I also produce methane I can ignite."

"Huh," Tony put his hand down, leaning closer to look at the Omnitrix now resting on my chest. "And you can switch to another form?"

"Yeah," I put out the flame, and handed the flower to Tony.

He blinked, staring at it. "Uh, I'm flattered Fanboy, but-"

"It's for Pepper, you ass," I rolled my eyes, tapping the Omnitrix.

"So much for being your favorite Avenger," Tony quipped. He looked up from the flower to me. Then a little further up. "Huh. That is impressive."

I was Blitzwolfer again. I stretched upwards and smiled as savagely as I could. Which was pretty damn savagely. "Thanks. So yeah, I can change."

"I really wish I had time to study how you do that," Tony said with a grimace. "Okay, let's get to business," he turned away to pick up a tablet Maria had handed him. "Time to waste my skills making a bunch of things you can find in a grocery store."

"Or..."

Tony looked over at me. "Or?"

"I mean, we have to make stuff. Why not go all out?" I growled.

He spun in his swivel chair. "...I'm listening."

Nothing does a vicious grin the way a wolf does. I reached for the Omnitrix and changed once more.

"Let's get to work!" I said, laughing maniacally. "Time to disassemble!"

Tony stared at me for a moment. "Huh. Nice shirt."

 _January 12, 2014_

We'd had 20 hours when we'd been picked up by HYDRA. We had four left now. Tony and Rhodey were getting their suits while the rest of us packed up our own gear. Bored, I'd gravitated towards Steve when he returned from a mission of his own, leading to the two of us in the costume room. I was leaning against a rack of clown costumes while Steve put on his suit.

On any other day, wondering what the hell kind of assassin/spy needs a clown costume would have been my question. But I had other issues.

"Steve, I'm not sure it's exactly kosher to do that," I said as I stared at when Steve was putting on.

"Well, I did own it," he gave me a grin. "Besides, I'll put it back when I'm done. I'm basically adding history to it."

"That is not how it works," I said. "I mean, what if someone gets fired?"

Steve stopped for a moment. Then he shook his head. "I'll cover it. Besides, my other suit is torn up from when I had to escape the Triskelion."

He was putting on his World War 2 suit, stolen from fucking Smithsonian.

"That's not the real reason."

We looked over to see Natasha walking in wearing all navy blue. A skirt, jacket, and shirt. And some pearl and and gold necklaces that glimer slightly as she walked catlike into the room. She was holding a wig in one hand, short and blonde. She stepped closer, looking closely at Steve.

After a moment, he answered. "Bucky... he might need a reminder. The closer I look to how I was back then, maybe..." He turned to look at his helmet. "...Maybe it'll be easier for him to remember me."

Natasha and I didn't say anything. He seemed to take it as acceptance, which it was. He picked up the helmet. With a feeling of ceremony, he put it on.

Captain America, in full costume. The stars and stripes, right down to the star on his chest. Awesome.

"Stop grinning like that," Natasha said, punching me lightly in the shoulder. "It's creepy."

"Sorry," I replied.

She smiled, then nodded towards my right pectoral. "I see you found that spray paint you wanted."

I looked down and smiled. It was a bit rough. But now the symbol of the Omnitrix rested on my chest in green and black. It had dripped a bit as it dried, but it looked good.

"Yeah. Can't be the only one of us without a cool costume after all. I'll leave that to you," I said. Then I looked at Black Widow, looking her up and down dramatically. "Kinda funny, you having to play elderly politician. Although I was sorta looking forward to the leather."

"Well, play your cards right..." Natasha's red lips lifted just slightly.

I blinked, not knowing how to respond. That just made her eyes glimmer. She turned to walk away.

"Uh..." I looked at Steve, who was smirking at me. "I don't understand what just happened."

"She has that effect," Steve noted. He stepped forward and put his hand on my shoulder, walking me out. "Come on. If all ninety-six years hasn't taught me anything about woman, a couple minutes talking won't help either."

"Weren't you trapped under ice for seventy of those years?" I groused.

"Details."

Out on the floor, Tony and Rhodey came toward us with another man. Happy Hogan. I recognized him from hacking into Stark Industries... Man, that felt like a lifetime ago, just patrolling in New York City and watching for any changes. Hopefully I'd be able to do that again one day.

Happy was about my height, with a heavy build, a black suit, and slightly balding hair. I tried to figure out if he looked like an actor I knew, but none came to mind, which was almost a relief.

"Steve, you've met Happy," Tony said, walking by us quickly.

"Hey Howard," Steve said as Happy strode into the room. "Uh, Tony?" Tony stopped to look at Steve, as did Rhodey and Happy. "I thought we were keeping it confidential? That was our agreement."

"It's okay," Tony waved a hand dismissively. "Happy's my guy, so he gets to know about this."

"And you don't even discuss it with us?" Steve asked, affronted.

"Dude," I added, giving Tony the same look. Happy and Rhodey shared a look, both apparently understanding where we were coming from.

"Oh, I'm sorry, 'dude', is the guy who hacked my company and Happy's email for weeks extending an opinion?" Tony asked pointedly.

"Wait, what's happening now?" Happy looked at me, stepping closer.

"Hey, I was spying on him in case some guy tried to kidnap the president again," I said briskly. "If people had been listening to Happy from the start, things might have ended better."

"Thank you!" Happy raised his hands dramatically, looking at Tony. "You see if people had _listened_ to me-"

"You see what you did?" Tony told me.

"If people had just listened-"

"I did listen, that's how I found out how Killian was doing the bombs!"

"Yeah, and then I was in a coma!"

"You want to do this now, in front of Fanboy and Cap?"

"Hell, bring Natasha in too."

"For the love of... Happy!"

The two walked away, bickering, leaving Rhodey silently shaking his shoulders in laughter. He waited until they'd left to turn to Steve, who seemed stuck between exasperated and amused.

"So, yeah," Rhodey said. "Happy brought our suits over. We'll be ready to go."

"Yeah about that," I said. "Didn't Tony blow up his suits? I mean, I remember reading about it in the news."

"He did," Rhodey looked over at his friend. "But he just can't stop making more. Pepper complains about it."

I thought about Pepper Potts. Then I thought about Rescue, the superhero identity Pepper would eventually take on. Hell, she did really good work as Rescue.

Something for the future.

"Okay, come on," Cap patted me on the back. "Time to get started."

"Actually, can I talk to him?" Rhodey said.

Steve and I looked at Rhodey.

"Uh, sure," I said. Rhodey waved me over to another section of the room, and we walked over to one of the damp hallways.

"I'm going to be blunt about this," Rhodey said simply. "I don't think you should go."

 _That_ was not what I expected at all. "Wait, what?"

"I don't think this mission is one you should go on," he said firmly.

"Are you kidding?" Rhodey shook his head. "I'm one of the strongest members of our team! I mean, I know I'm new, but I can do a lot of good!"

"I'm not saying that-"

"Hell, I'm already on HYDRA's hitlist, I deserve to fight!"

"And kill?"

"..."

"Because this isn't a fight. This is a war," Rhodey shook his head. "I know you're powerful. Natasha told me what you could do. But I remember what my first kill was like. And it doesn't matter what happens, it still changed me. I don't want that changing you too."

I heard footsteps behind me. When I turned, Steve and Sam were standing there.

"You guys agree with him?"

Sam didn't say anything, just looking between Rhodey and me. Steve opened his mouth, then closed it after a bit of hesitation.

"It's not about how powerful you are," Rhodey said. "But if you join, then there will be a point where things will come down to killing or dying. And if I allowed you to just dive into this without warning you about what could happen..."

He trailed off. I looked at Steve.

"Cap, I-"

He held up a hand. I stopped talking. "Are you going?"

"Yes," I didn't hesitate. "I know I might have to... to kill people. I don't like the idea. But I can't stand by and not help."

"Yeah, I know what that's like." Steve shook his head. "I felt the same way when I joined."

"Same," Sam said.

Rhodey nodded reluctantly.

"Just know, that afterward... You have someone to talk to if you need it." Steve said.

"I still don't like it," Rhodey said.

"I know," I told him. I clenched my fist. "But I'm still going."

War. Ready or not, it was time to go.

The Triskelion really was pretty. From our position in a forest nearby, I could see it across the river. Something about it just screamed of authority and strength.

Too bad it was going to be a warzone soon.

"Okay, this is where we split," Steve said.

There were six of us. Captain America, Iron Man, War Machine, Maria Hill, Sam Wilson, and me.

We stopped for a moment. "Everyone has their comm systems on?"

"Yep," I said. "Well, the Omnitrix is connecting well."

"Was it really necessary to make these so powerful?" Sam asked, tapping at his ear.

He had a point. When Tony and Jury Rigg had made comm links, they went crazy with them.

They looked like small ear buds. Elegant design really, only thanks to Tony curbing Jury Rigg's antics. Crystal clear sound, it could pick up the vibrations of the bones in the jaw so even whispering was heard clearly, unable to be picked up by any comm system on Earth we didn't want it to. Oh, and it was FTL in speed, and could project in deep space through quantum entanglement, even pierce through a mountain's worth of material to still connect.

"Hey, you want my best or something you can find out of a Radio Shack?" Tony said, his Iron Man mask flipped up.

Oh yeah. Tony and Rhodey were in their suits.

God, the suits were so badass. Iron Man in the classic red and gold, all sleek and shiny, with an upside-down triangular light in the center representing the arc reactor that powered the suit. It gave him a presence that matched with Cap's. Almost as though Tony was magnified in every respect by the suit.

War Machine was different. Black and somber gray to Iron Man's flashy red and gold. Bulky instead of sleek, with a square light in the chest, and a massive minigun on his right shoulder. His forearms also carried a pair of guns. If Tony would have looked right at home with a sleek sci-fi movie, Rhodey belonged to a more gritty cyberpunk noir. All business.

More importantly, I was staring at some of the coolest suits in fiction. Oh, wait. I was staring.

I looked back at the Triskelion. Mission time man. Gotta focus.

"Okay, enough talk," Steve said. He looked over us. "You all know what to do. Launch."

Inside the Triskelion, things should have been going smoothly. Everyone would infiltrate, beginning our assault by disrupting HYDRA from the start. It was probably very intense.

"God, this is so boring," Tony grumbled next to me. "How can something so intense be so boring?"

"It's just how it goes, Tony," Rhodey said. "'Hurry up and wait.' It's one of the oldest military adages, man."

Tony grunted.

The three of us had taken a spot in the forest to wait for our signal. Once it came, we had some of the most important roles in the attack. But for now, it was just the three of us watching the Triskelion in the distance.

The wind blew through the trees, rustled the grass, and blew ripples across the water. For a moment, we sat in peace.

"...Yeah, this is boring," I finally admitted.

"You see!?" Tony said to Rhodey, who sighed in annoyance.

"I really wish I could see what everyone else was doing," I grumbled.

Well, maybe they'd tell me about it later.

 **Sam Wilson/Falcon**

As he followed Captain America through the Triskelion, Sam had to admit he was having a weird couple of days. Even the Air Force couldn't provide the training needed to prepare for all of what he was going through.

A guy who could turn into aliens, Iron Man and War Machine, SHIELD actually being HYDRA, suddenly getting drafted into making a new espionage organization.

As the three went around the next corner, Sam found himself shaking his head. "I really didn't expect this to be how my day would go."

"Yeah," Steve said as they hurried forward. "It's not what I expected either. But you get used to it."

"I doubt that," Maria said, the spy wearing her blue uniform with the SHIELD symbol on the shoulders. "But then, I was about ready to destroy SHIELD yesterday," Maria looked at Steve. "Are you sure about this? Making a new SHIELD?"

"No," Steve said. They turned another corner. "But we do need something. Once the dust settles, we can decide what to make of it all. For now, let's hope the toys Tony and Mahmoud made pull through."

"I hope so," Sam looked at the device hanging on Maria's hip. "It doesn't look like much."

Maria looked down as well. The device looked like a metal pirate symbol, with an 'X' welded haphazardly attached to the back of a bulbous object reminiscent of a human skull.

"Doesn't matter how it looks," Maria said. "As long as it works."

At that moment, she raised a hand holding a square object and pressed a button. They came to a door, Sam pulling out one of his Steyr SPP machine pistols, Maria a Glock 19, and both pointed the gun at the door, Steve in-between them, shield at the ready.

The door opened to reveal a skinny young man with dark skin, wearing a SHIELD uniform and hat. He stared at them in shock.

"Excuse us," Steve quipped.

The young man raised his hands up and stepped aside hurriedly, letting them pass.

"Okay," Steve said as he stepped inside. The technicians in the room turned and stared at him. "I'm going to need this room. If you all could kindly head out, I'd appreciate it."

Whether it was the guns, Steve's politeness, or the dichotomy of both, the technicians ran out of the door.

"Okay, Maria," Steve nodded towards her. Maria nodded back, heading to a computer while taking the device at her hips in her hands.

"I'll watch the doors," Sam said. He moved to the center of the room and pulled out his other gun. "Do your thing, Steve."

"On it," Steve waited until Maria had plugged in the device. It came to life.

" _Ready when you are sir,"_ X said from his newly modified home.

"Okay..." Steve took a deep breath. Then he hit the intercom. And X began his work.

A British voice spoke from the device. _"This is Jarvis. We are beginning our assault, Miss Hill."_

"Yeah," Maria stared at the screen as files began to pop in and out of existence on the monitor. "I uh... I can see that."

"I really hope we didn't just upload Skynet," Sam whispered to himself, trying to stay ready.

Steve sighed. "For once, I don't feel good about understanding the reference."

 _Author's Note:_

There it is, the beginning stages of the assault. Stuff is going to go fast and furious for a bit now. No spoilers, but I imagine you guys can already infer some things. I'm the writer, and even I feel like I barely know all the possibilities from here. Seriously, shit is just... Well, hope you guys enjoyed this, and that you're excited for what comes next.


	10. Chapter 10

I was picking up strands of grass from the dirt out of boredom when Steve's voice came out of the Omnitrix. I scrambled up to my feet, looking over at Tony and Rhodey. With a whir of noise, they stepped forward.

"Okay," I said softly. "Let's go."

 _ **Sam Wilson/Falcon**_

Sam turned towards Steve, ready to say something. Then Steve began to speak into the intercom. And Sam stopped to listen in silence.

"Attention, all SHIELD agents. This is Steve Rogers. You've heard a lot about me over the last few days, some of you were even ordered to hunt me down. But I think it's time you know the truth. SHIELD has been infiltrated," Steve looked over at Maria, who nodded. "HYDRA has infiltrated SHIELD. Alexander Pierce is their leader."

 _ **Natasha Romanov/Black Widow**_

Black Widow, disguised as Councilwoman Hawley, looked at Pierce at the same time as the other Councilmembers did. Pierce looked back at them. The man smiled slightly as Steve continued to speak. He had the audacity to shrug slightly, an 'aw shucks' sort of shrug.

She almost smiled at that. As much as she couldn't wait to kill him, she had to admire how calm he was. Not as much as she admired the calm smooth tones Steve used to speak over the intercom, however.

As she shared a look with Councilman Yen, who winked at her. All the while, Steve continued to speak.

" _The STRIKE and Insight crew are HYDRA as well. I don't know how many more, but I know they're in the building."_

 _ **Sharon Carter/Agent 13**_

" _They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want with the help of the Insight Helicarriers: absolute control."_

Sharon listened to the voice of Captain America with horror and sadness filling her. Unlike the others in the room, SHIELD wasn't a job or even a duty. It was her legacy. Something her great-aunt, Peggy Carter, had believed in with all of her heart. Sharon couldn't count how many times Peggy had spoken about founding SHIELD, of the pride and joy she'd felt building the organization.

To know how her pride was torn apart would break her heart.

Sharon focused, looking around quickly.

" _As of now, all loyal SHIELD agents should be getting a program on their phones,"_ Steve said.

Sharon blinked when the phones of every person in the room began to buzz. Including her own. Everyone took out their phones, Sharon included. She blinked at the screen on her smartphone. "Hercules?" She asked herself. The words were in big letters. As she watched, it flashed into the SHIELD symbol, then showed a photo of a man. Rumlow, leader of STRIKE team. Other began to flash, person after person. Apparently the app not only had files on all HYDRA, but would flash green near SHIELD members and red near HYDRA

" _The app will show you every member of HYDRA as we discover them, with evidence to back it up so you know I'm not simply spreading dissent in the ranks. The threat is real. HYDRA is among us. They shot Nick Fury. And it won't end there."_

Sharon shared looks with other agents in the room. Almost as one, they all raised their smartphones. All had the Hercules app flashing green, something that visibly relieved her. SHIELD. Everyone in the room, down to the skinny technician sitting at the computer in front of her. Now to see about the rest of the base.

 _ **Robert Gonzales/Commander of the Iliad**_

Gonzales had been working for SHIELD for decades. The only time he'd ever stopped was when his wife died, only to return to service three years later. He was proud of the work he'd done. He worked on the _Iliad_ now, an aircraft carrier built for SHIELD to do its work across the world. He had seen many strange things in that time, sitting at the bridge of the carrier.

And yet, he had never heard of anything like this.

When the voice of Captain Steve Rogers suddenly began to come out of the intercom of his ship's speakers in the middle of a routine patrol, he didn't know what to think at first. It was clear he was in the Triskelion based on what he was saying.

He stood on the bridge of his ship, listening as Steve Rogers explained that HYDRA had infiltrated SHIELD. HYDRA, the boogeyman that was supposed to be dead.

When Gonzales received the Hercules app. So did ten others in the bridge. Six crewmen, however, very obviously did not. For a moment, everyone looked at each other. The Hercules app helpfully flashed photos of the six, apparently basing the decision on proximity.

Then Gonzales reached for his sidearm. The six tried to do the same.

And all over the world, the same thing repeated itself again and again. Some HYDRA surrendered. Others died. Some escaped. But no agent of HYDRA was immune to Hercules' sight.

 _ **Sam Wilson/Falcon**_

"If you allow the Helicarriers to launch today, HYDRA will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way, unless we stop them," Steve breathed deeply. "I know I'm asking a lot... but the price of freedom is high. It always has been."

Sam watched as Steve spoke. For a moment, Steve Rogers seemed to... to shrink. As though he had taken on so much, too much, as though he realized how much he'd been through. Steve Rogers staggered under the weight as Sam watched.

But before Sam could say anything, before he could step forward, the man raised himself up. Steve took a deep breath, and Captain America spoke.

"And it's a price I'm willing to pay. And If I'm the only one, so be it." He looked at Sam and Maria. The pair gave him determined nods he returned. "But I'm willing to bet I'm not."

Steve turned off the intercom. Sam stepped forward, smirking at Steve. "Did you write that down first, or was it off the top of your head?"

"I was an actor once," Steve said with a smile. They stepped towards the window. High in the sky, two dots could barely be seen, one slightly larger than the other. Both flew towards the hanger bays of the Insight Helicarriers. "Now, let's watch for a bit. According to Mahmoud, this will be quite a sight," Steve held a hand to his ear. "Dial... shut'em down."

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed.../Dial**_

"Got it!" I yelled. I didn't have to yell, technically. While I didn't have a comm link, the Omnitrix was advanced enough to pick up my voice with ease. But when you're soaring through the air at high speed, yelling is just the only way to speak.

"Sorry if the rides a little rough," Rhodey said.

"Nah, this is awesome!" I was behind held under my armpits by War Machine as Iron Man flew next to us. We were crossing hundreds of feet over the water, my legs dangling in the air.

"Focus up!" Tony said. "Jarvis, we good?"

" _Yes sir,"_ he said. _"X and I have sent the Hercules app throughout the world, shut down HYDRA communications devices, and begun stage 2 of our attack."_

"Okay," I breathed in the cold air. "Drop me!"

"Good luck!" Rhodey let me go.

Just like that, I was falling through the air at high speed. For a moment, all I could see was the hangers below. Three of them, hiding under the water, but visible from above. A glint of sunlight shone off the river, forcing me to squint.

Then the roaring noises of rocket boots came close. Iron Man flew by on my left, zooming towards the hangers. War Machine passed on my right. The two men of iron opened up shoulder hatches on their suits, firing rockets at the hangers on the left and right. When the explosions opened holes in the hanger bay doors, water from the river began to rush inside, creating waterfalls into the hanger. Rhodey and Tony flew into the openings they'd created.

Which meant it was my turn. I reached for my the Omnitrix and activated it. Flesh and bone became shining blue-green crystal.

" **Diamondhead!"**

I pointed my hands at the ground, and turned my arms into cannons. As I dropped towards the earth, I started shooting crystals at the hangers bay doors. Each one the size of a knife, they sliced easily into the steel doors. Hundreds, covering every surface I could shoot of the doors.

And as I fell towards them, I made them grow.

Like a fast-motion video of water freezing, the crystals grew at a rapid pace. They joined together, then got bigger. Soon the three doors were covered in crystals dotting their surface, each the size of a car or bigger.

Not good enough.

Bigger, bigger, _bigger._ I stopped shooting the crystals, instead focusing on their growth. They shot upwards to meet in the middle towards where I was falling. One of the crystals shot directly at me as hundreds of spears rose up into the sky, glimmering beautifully in the light.

Just before I would have landed on one of my own gems, I shifted it to become a ramp. I still slammed into it hard enough to shatter human legs, but Diamondhead's durability made the impact negligible and let me slide down along the crystals to the center of the middle hanger. I turned my left arm into a razor sharp blade. It took three cuts to slash my way into the hanger. I dropped in, slamming into the asphalt of one of the Insight Helicarriers below. I bent by knees on impact, a crater getting created by my drop. I looked around.

The Insight Helicarrier had crates, Quinjets, and men dotting its flight deck. The 'island', or command tower of the ship, was across from me. I stood on the middle of the ship. I took in my position, ignoring the stunned HYDRA agents around me. Then I rose up and lifted my hands to the sky, closing my eyes. The sunlight outside came in through the hole I'd created, letting a beam of light into the dark hanger. As the mountain I was creating outside grew, the yellow light became a sea green. Then the hole was covered in crystal.

"Kill it!" One man cried out behind me. He fired a handgun. The bullet slammed into the back of my head. I ignored it, and the bullet fell to the floor with no effect. "Come on, shoot that thing!"

More men, about fifteen, came up and started shooting as well. I grunted in annoyance, but ignored the useless bullets bouncing off me.

The Omnitrix on my chest spoke then, Steve's voice coming from it.

" _All right, Dial. It's perfect. Neutralize the crew."_

I opened my hands and ran at the men shooting me. All wore black uniforms and helmets, the gear I always saw HYDRA's men wearing. But now I know who they were.

I leaped at one man and bunched him in the rips. He flew back twenty feet and slammed into a crate. I turned, ignoring the hail of bullets being shot at me.

" _ **This is Dial,"**_ I said as I stalked through the bullets. **_"Engaging."_**

" _What happened to his voice?"_ Tony asked. _"Did he go through puberty again?"_

I ignored him. Instead, I grabbed a soldier by the front of his uniform and kicked his right kneecap in. As he screamed, I lifted him up and threw him at one of the other men, sending them both to the ground.

Just then, a Quinjet roared to life, one of a few resting on the flight deck of the helicarrier with us. It rose up, aiming it's gun at me. I leaped towards it instead, jumping onto the cockpit. The aircraft rose up towards the doors above us, the pilot staring at me while I climbed on top. My feet shot out crystals from my heels to slice into the Quinjet and give me footing. I snapped my hands out to the side, my arms becoming twelve foot long blades.

" _ **Raagh!"**_ With a quick downward slice, I chopped off the wings of the Quinjet. It plummeted out of the air, slamming into the flight deck. I hopped off the Quinjet and looked at the pilot, who stared at me in horror. I responded by kicking the Quinjet away from me, sending it skittering across the concrete until it was out of my way.

The soldiers, seeing they couldn't hurt me, tried to run for cover. I tapped the Omnitrix symbol on my chest.

" **Fasttrack!"**

As soon as I became the blue furred speedster, I was moving. I sped up to one man and kicked him in the back as he ran. I landed and ran to another, grabbing him by the chest of his uniform and spinning to throw him as fast as I could. He hung in the air when I let go, slowly flying away. I ran to another bunch, about five men, and began hitting them. I kicked one in between the legs at super-speed. One I punched in the chest quickly Ip Man style. Another got a superman punch. One was thrown at a Quinjet. For the last, I swept his legs out from under him. I watched as he slowly floated in the air before slapping the Omnitrix on my chest.

As my perception of time slowed, the effects of my run took place. The man I'd kicked flew forward ten feet, rolling to a stop. The one I'd thrown sped up in an instant, slamming into a crate. Another man fell to his knees clutching his devastated groin. The guy I'd punched in the chest grunted in pain as his broken ribs caught up with him. Another man spun in the air before he slammed into the ground from the force of my superman punch. A Quinjet shuddered when a human man was thrown into it. The guy whose legs I'd swept hit the ground. He looked up at me and released a high-pitched scream at my visage.

" **Blitzwolfer!"** I howled. My voice crying my name echoed through the hangers, then into the hallways.

" _The hell was that!?"_ Rhodey said from the Omnitrix.

"Me," I leaned towards the guy on the ground. He screamed again. I punched him in the face, and he fell unconscious.

I ran towards the command tower/island on all fours. I needed get inside and stop the crewmembers from doing anything. Tony and Rhodey had the same goal. While Black Widow and Captain America lead their teams in the Triskelion, the three heavy hitters took out the crew of the helicarriers.

I loped along the flight deck. Six men popped out from behind cover and started shooting at me. My mouth opened into four parts.

 _ **"▅▄▅▂▅▄▄▅▂▃▅▅▅▃▄▄▅▅!"**_

As the inhuman sound erupted from my lungs as though it was rending at reality, a sonic wave of noise slammed into the six men with physical force. The crates they were using as cover slid back from the attack. They fell to their knees, blood pouring from their ears to spill down their neck.

And then I was among them. I shoulder tackled one into a crate, then back-fisted him in the face, sending him unconscious to the ground.. His friend shakily raised a gun at me. My claws slashed out, slicing through kevlar to cut into his chest. The man shrieked in horror. I let out my own noise.

"▅▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅ _ **!"**_

He was thrown by my sonic blast, rolling to a stop on the pavement. I leaped over another crate and kicked a man in the face with a pawed foot, the crack of a broken jaw following. I heard another gunshot, then felt an pain in my shoulder. I barked in pain, spinning around. One of the HYDRA men who I'd deafened shakily aimed a Glock 19 at my face. Blood poured from my wound. It hurt, but only enough to enrage me. I was on him in an instant. I bit into his arm and began to shake my head furiously, savaging his arm. When he dropped the gun I let go of his arm and grabbed him by the front of his uniform, lifting and throwing him away dismissively.

The sound of a Quinjet brought my attention closer to the command tower. The aircraft lifted up and aimed it's guns at me in a repeat of last time.

"Not happening! _**▄▅▂▃▅▅▅▃▃▄▄▅!"**_

The sonic blast slammed into the Quinjet, shaking it. I leaped upwards and gripped the damaged aircraft by the underside, then fired a point blank blast. The Quinjet

Then I saw a massive cannon turn towards me. Apparently, I'd finally pissed HYDRA off enough that I was now worth the big guns. Anti-aircraft guns began to turn on me. I leaped away as the Quinjet began to crash, only for the aircraft to get hit by massive bullets, turning it into shrapnel.

I needed a way to shut down the Anti-aircraft weapons as well as the Quinjets, and Bliztwolfer wasn't going to cut it. I needed more ranged firepower.

I slammed the Omnitrix on my chest.

My fur turned into rubbery black skin. My eyes merged into the center of my forehead. My ears and tail grew from wolven to long tendrils with plus at the tips. My five claws became four fingers with more plugs on each fingertip. I rose to my full height and grinned as I lowered my hand from the Omnitrix on my chest.

" **Feedback!"**

A Quinjet flew close and fired on me. I pointed my hands at the ground. The energy in my body, a storm of power like none of my other aliens could even think of matching, fired from the plugs in my hand and launched me into the air one electrical streams of power. I flew on the blast of blue energy and landed on the Quinjet's cockpit as it continued to fire. I held a hand up and grinned at the pilot.

"At some point, you guys are gonna run out of Quinjets for me to destroy!"

I felt the power running through the Quinjet. Advanced fuel cells running through the aircraft to the powerful rotors in the wings and the jet engines in the back.

Feedback could feel that power. And I could take it. Electricity flowed from the steel of the Quinjet, entering into my fingertips. The Quinjet's rotors slowly faltered. I turned away from the Quinjet to point at another one that was lifting off the helicarrier. As I turned into a living conduit of energy, shooting the energy I was siphoning from the Quinjet I was on top of to hit another with a beam of blue energy.

The Quinjet I was on smashed into the pavement as the one I was shooting did the same, it's wings exploding. I fired at the Anti-aircraft gun trying to kill me, my energy blast turning the massive cannon into scrap. I leaped off the Quinjet and ran towards the control tower. I felt the power flowing through it from below deck, more than I'd ever felt. This helicarrier had more power in it than New York City.

I stole electricity from one, blue energy flowing into my tendrils as I ran past, and fired another blast as a ball of power that exploded against the next, destroying it in a wave of power. Soldiers firing at me were blasted as well. I leaped into the air, pirouetting and firing lightning from my fingers into them. I ducked a grenade and ran faster. I summoned a ball of electricity into my hand and tossed it into a group, where it exploded and sent the soldiers into fits of shaking as thousands of volts flew through them.

I blasted the floor and flew upwards. I released the blasts and began shooting as I dropped. Lighting arced from me to slam into the men on the flight deck in a dizzying display of light, my fingers and tendrils shooting as fast as I could. I landed, then used another jet of power to get out of the way of of more gunfire.

Then I was at the control tower. I tried to open the door, but they had electronically locked.

No, seriously. It was _electronically_ locked.

I absorbed the power running through it, then slammed the door with an energy blast. "Can't blame them I guess," I said, as the dor was sent flying off it's hinges. My next words were directed to the Omnitrix. "Maria, I'm in the helicarrier. How do I get to main power from the flight deck?"

" _It's in the lower levels,"_ she said swiftly. _"Head down the hallway, then turn to your left, I'll guide you through."_

A man came out of a side room with an assault rifle up. I fired a blast into his chest, sending him flying, then tapped the Omnitrix.

" **Goop!"**

Turning into the green goo alien was the best choice for the tight quarters of the ship. With the Anti-Gravity Projector floating me through the halls, I flew through the gray rooms at high speed. If anyone snuck up on me, I couldn't be hurt, and I could slide around obstacles with ease. Still, I was pushing it. I had rarely transformed this much before. I'd been reckless at the start of the battle, something to watch out for. Right then however, I focused on getting to the power sourced I'd felt as Feedback.

" _Down the stairs,"_ Maria said.

Another crewmember tried to stop me. I flew right him, ignoring the bullet that flew through my floating form, then turned bipedal to roundhouse kick him into a wall, shooting adhesive that attached him there.

"Heading down!" I told Maria, turning into a floating ball again and shooting downwards.

Level by level I went. More men tried to shoot me, bullets flying uselessly into me. I responded by flying over and punching them, kicking them. At one point five guys were running at me down a hallway. I fired a stream of acid goo at the floor and watched as the metal floor melted in seconds to drop them a level below, then leaped after to shoot them with adhesive as they lay there.

From there, Maria walked down another level.

" _Okay, you're there!"_ She told me.

"I can tell," I said, my form solidifying into my biped form once more.

It was a big ass engine room. Very cool looking. More crewmembers tried to shoot at me, which I responded to by shooting streams of adhesive, attaching them to the walls, floor, or just covering them in sticky fluid until they couldn't move.

Of course, it was right as the gunfire got really heavy that I heard a familiar beep.

"Shit!"

I leaped behind a massive piece of machinery just in time for the red flash of light to come. Just like that, I was a normal human. Bullets slammed into my cover. I reached for my leg and pulled out the Glock 19 I'd been given.

"Gonna be a slight delay!" I yelled into the Omnitrix. "How is everyone else doing?"

 _"Been an interesting day!"_ Sam yelled back, giving me a brief overview as I tried not to get shot.


	11. Chapter 11

_**Natasha Romanov/Black Widow**_

Once Steve had finished speaking, everyone stared at Pierce. Rockwell, a tall man with little hair on his pale head, spoke first.

"You smug son of a bitch," Rockwell said in disgust.

Natasha quirked an eyebrow at that.

"My god..."

The room turned to look at Yen, who was staring out the window. Everyone looked as well, and Pierce's jaw dropped.

"What in the hell...?" Pierce said slowly.

Natasha found herself staring as well. A mountain was rising out of the river. Hundreds of spires rising into the air, grinding against one another. They were made of beautiful blue-green gems, each ending at a point she suspected were sharper than anything man-made, and the whole mass rose until was larger than the building she stood in. When it finally stopped growing, it overshadowed everything around it, shining in the sunlight and casting a green light.

"That damn monster," Pierce growled.

Just then, people rushed into the room. Twelve in all, wearing the black military gear. As they entered, The councilpersons phones shone a bright red.

"Damn," Rockwell said. "HYDRA."

Pierce smiled at them. "Well. I suppose Captain Rogers had quite the plan," Pierce turned to one of the men. Jack Rollins, the man who had knocked out Dial yesterday. Natasha noted him. "Bring out the Sonic Cannons and have them destroy that damn thing. If we can get rid of it, we can still get the helicarriers in the air."

Natasha choose that moment to act while she still had the element of surprise. The things Pierce was referring to were likely weapons that AccuTech, a subsidiary of Stark Industries had made for the US military, weapons that had the capability to fire focused sonic blasts that had been one of the few things that noticeably harmed the Hulk. What made things worse is that powerful sonic attacks were one of the few things that were capable of breaking down Diamondhead's crystals, according to Dial during their planning.

How the hell did HYDRA find that out so quickly? She knew Dial leaving behind so much of the stuff was a bad idea, but they were in no position to clean up with all their running around. Didn't matter, she wasn't going to give them the chance to clear the hanger doors.

Pierce turned in time to get a punch in the face from an elderly female politician and fall onto his back in surprise.

Rollins swung at her. Natasha ducked his punch, leaped onto his shoulders and wrapped her thighs around his neck before spinning around, sending Rollins to the ground. She grabbed his pistol and fired quickly at the other soldiers in the room. Five men, too surprised to respond fast enough, attempted to aim their guns at her. She killed one with a single bullet, then dragged his body in front of her to block another man's shot, kicking the body of the man she'd killed forwathanhen shooting once more.

Behind her, another six aimed.

Then Yen shot one in the head with an arrow. He smirked as he held his hand out. A bow made of blue light was being projected from his watch, which had flattened out into a grip. "Huh. It works."

The other men aimed at Yen. He was already firing before they could get their guns on him. He pulled back the string of blue light, and his watch produced a single arrow of purple light. He fired it, then pulled the string again.

Natasha blocked a desperate punch, then grabbed the mans arm and twisted it around. With a quirk of her hips, the man was on the ground, where she put a bullet in his head.

One of the last men tried to run. An arrow to the knee ended that misadventure, and an arrow to the head did worse then that.

Pierce staggered to his feet in time to see Yen toss aside the watch, which was destroyed in a small explosion. Yen picked up a fallen pistol and pointed it at Pierce. "Hey, boss."

Pierce turned to look at Hawley, who shot a bullet into Rollins head, then pointed her gun at Pierce as well.

"Sorry," Yen and Hawley lifted hands up and removed the skin-tight masks that had changed their appearances, their holograms turning off and revealing Clint and Natasha. The pair smiled. "Did we step on your moment?"

Outside, helicopter blades could be heard. The chopper came closer, then landed on the helipad connected to the room.

Pierce stared in shock once more when Nick Fury walked into the room holding a bow and quiver, which he tossed to Clint. "I know," Nick lips slowly rose into a smile, his eye narrowing at Pierce. "This just isn't your day, Alex."

 _ **Sam Wilson/Falcon**_

"Damn," Sam said as the final crystal spire rose up. "Just... damn."

"Thank god he's on our side," Maria said softly.

The three soldiers watched for a moment longer before Steve turned.

"Okay, you know the plan. Maria, you have the floor."

"You got it, Steve."

"Sam, with me."

"Let's do it."

Maria walked over to the computers and started to work. Sam looked back at her as he and Steve walked out. "You sure they don't need backup?" Sam said, referring to X and Jarvis as well.

"They are the backup," Steve said without hesitation. "Come on, we need to clear this base. You and I will work outside."

Moments later, a HYDRA soldier's body was thrown through a pair of doors. Steve and Sam ran through the doors, exiting the Triskelion and seeing the crystal mountain that Dial had created. Sam looked up at the massive structure as they sprinted towards where they could see pilots headed towards the Quinjets. At their hips, Sam and Steve's phones flashed green as they came closer to a group of pilots, who held phones up that flashed green as well. A Quinjet was already rising into the sky. When the pilots saw Sam and Steve come close, they went to join them.

"Sir!" One pilot said, wearing the same blue helmet and flight gear as the others. "Deputy Director Hill sent us to provide air support!"

"Alright!" Steve said. "From now on, you follow this man, his callsign will be Falcon Leader," Steve pointed at Sam, who the pilots nodded at. "Any heavy ordinance they got, you- DOWN!"

A rocket-propelled grenade flew from a rooftop nearby, slamming into one of the rising Quinjets wing. Steve held up his shield to block some shrapnel as pilots and technicians dodged the exploding aircraft, two people getting crushed underneath it. Sam looked up at the rooftop where the grenade had come from, Steve looking as well.

The Winter Soldier leaped from the rooftop and started walking towards them.

"Sam, get those pilots in the air," Steve said, rushing forward.

"Cap-"

"Now!" Steve shouted. "We can't let any of their Quinjets control the sky!"

Sam cursed. But he knew it was true. "All right, you heard the Cap!" Sam told the pilots. "Get into the air!"

The pilots took a moment to watch as Captain America smacked away a grenade Bucky shot at him, the explosive detonating harmlessly against the crystals to his left, before he punched at his opponent. Bucky blocked it, tossed aside his launcher to pull out a gun and started firing, forcing Steve to block with his shield before kicking the gun out of his hand.

"Now!" Sam shouted.

Spurred to action, the pilots ran for the jets.

" _Falcon,"_ Jarvis said. _"It is as we feared. HYDRA has standing orders in place. While we have shut down all their communications, they are enacting several backup plans, the Quinjets we feared among them."_

"What do we got?" Sam asked, taking off into the air.

" _They are bringing in five Quinjets, three gunships, a tank, three Humvees with heavy machine guns, and three Stark Sonic Cannons,"_ Jarvis explained. _"The gunships are acting as air support for the ground vehicles, but the rest are flying over the crystal formation."_

"Then I'll drag them into it!" Sam flew towards the spires of blue-green his ally had created, diving among them. He folded his wings in and leaped off one, booted feet pressing against hard gemstone. He activated his jets again and leaped to the next spire. He twirled in-between two more crystals, coming out of the other side and unfurling his wings to shoot forward.

Five Quinjets were advancing towards him. The Hercules app on his phone helpfully beeped a warning that they weren't friendly, just in case Jarvis' warning wasn't enough. He flew towards them and reached for his hips, pulling out his machine pistols and firing a rapid barrage of bullets into the cockpit of one. The pilot inside was still staring in shock at the man who had appeared from a mountain of crystal when the bullets slammed into the glass in front of him.

Sam shot past the Quinjet he'd fired at with blistering speed. The enemy aircraft twisted to follow him. "Quinjet pilots, this is Falcon Leader, I've got the enemies attention!" Sam pulled his wings into his pack, diving towards the water in time to dodge a barrage of bullets. "I want three with me, the rest intercept those ground vehicles! Come in from the left when you get airborne, I'll make sure you flank them!"

" _Understood, Falcon Leader!"_

Sam activated his wings again and pulled a sharp dive upwards, lifting into the sky as fast as he could, the G-Forces pulling at his body. He rose over one Quinjet and put away one of his guns to toss a grenade, only to curse when the Quinjet twisted aside leaving the grenade to fall into the clear blue water far below, where it exploded. He pulled away, juking left as bullets began to invade his air space. Luckily, he had cover.

He flew back towards the crystal mountain and dived into it. Bullets smacked against the crystals around him as he jumped off a spire to make a massive direction change to the right. Missiles were launched, turning the area behind him into a fire storm and leaving black smudges against the gems walls.

Then Sam heard a loud ringing in his ears. And to his shock, he saw the crystal's beginning to crack. He landed on a formation and poked his head out. The Quinjets were firing sonic waves at the mountain from small attachments on the wings.

Suddenly Dial was speaking in his ear.

" _Gonna be a slight delay! How is everyone else doing?"_

"Been an interesting day!" Sam yelled back. "Cap's fighting the Winter Soldier, and these Quinjets have sonic weapons!"

The mountain shuddered, and crystals started cracking faster with small pieces already beginning to break off as the hovering ships maneuvered around.

" _Shit!"_ Iron Man said. _"That sounds like Stark Tech, something one of my subsidiary companies built for the army."_

" _I got something like that in my right arm,"_ Colonel Rhodes added, an explosion going off in the background.

 _ **Natasha Romanov/Black Widow**_

"Looks like you came prepared," Fury noted, turning to look at Pierce.

"Well, not me," Pierce noted. The man smiled at the room, seemingly uncaring of the guns Natasha and Clint had pointed at him. "Some members of HYDRA had encountered your monster before, and they started work on analyzing his crystals immediately. I got to say, they are quite durable. If it wasn't for one of my guys having the good idea to pull out a sonic cannon we had lying around and shoot it at one, we'd have been at a loss."

Fury turned to look outside. "Falcon, take out those Quinjets now!"

" _Already on it!"_ A small dot came out of the mountain to engage the aircraft as Fury watched.

"I got to say, as nice as it is to see you alive Nick, I have to wonder what you're planning here," Pierce walked over to look out of the window as well. "My men will have that mountain down soon. And the rest of HYDRA will find a way to get those helicarriers out of the hanger bays, no matter what sort of monster you have-"

Fury abruptly turned to walk towards the holographic screens nearby. Pierce raised an eyebrow at that. "Huh. So you aren't exactly comfortable with that thing on your side. I'd have thought after putting the Hulk on the Avengers you wouldn't have cared."

"Oh, I'm still a bit suspicious of him," Fury answered easily. He tapped the holo-screen and watched as a schematic of the building popped up. "But he's useful. And I like him more than I like you right now. That's enough for me. Agent 13, have you cleared the medical level yet?"

As Sharon Carter responded, Pierce fingered his smartphone, eyeing the others in the room.

 _ **Sharon Carter/Agent 13**_

Moments before the HYDRA Quinjets arrived, Sharon was leading a group of agents through the building, trying to secure the medical level. They were in a research lab now, caught in a shootout with STRIKE team members. Sharon and another agent had taken a stand behind a counter. She leaned out to fire at one of the men, a guy she'd actually been friends with before. She steeled her heart and shot him in the arm with her stolen M4A1 Carbine. When he fell screaming to the linoleum, she shot him in the throat. As he bled out his last, she leaned back into cover.

"Deputy Director, we're finishing off the resistance in the labs now!" Sharon yelled as more bullets flew over head, some straight through her cover to buzz past her. Broken glass from beakers crunched under people feet, the acidic smell of bleach joined by blood and smoke. "Tell me there are people left!"

" _This is X,"_ An unfamiliar voice that reminded Sharon of Matthew Mcconaughey said. _"Miss Hill is in the middle of coordinating a strike against the garage. I can see a small group of scientists holding out several rooms from you."_

Sharon blinked at the voice. For some reason, it rang false to her. It didn't seem real. "Repeat, who is this!?"

" _Virtual Intelligence X, working on the behalf of the Avengers,"_ the voice said.

" _Trust him, Sharon!"_ Maria said suddenly. _"We need him to coordinate this attack!"_

Feeling troubled, Sharon leaned out of cover and fired a hail of bullets. The agent next to her joined in, as did the six others behind her. STRIKE team members were the best of the best. But left unable to coordinate, they were left easy to split up and kill in the many hallways of the Triskelion. The agent next to Sharon was shot in the right eye, and fell screaming, clutching at his face. An agent behind her was killed by a bullet in the heart. But soon, all of STRIKE in the room was dead.

"Come on!" Sharon yelled, indicating the man who's eye had been shot out. "We can get him help in medical!"

One agent helped the injured man up, and they all ran to the next room. A quick sweep showed it was empty. Same with the next.

The one after that, however, was full of dead bodies. STRIKE team members and SHIELD agents, all laying among broken glass, bullet casings, and pools of their blood. The fighting seemed to be centered on a pair of doors in the back, the SHIELD agents defending it.

"Who did this?" One agent asked as they moved forward.

Sharon ignored the bodies in favor of trying the door to the next room. The handle moved, but when she tried to push it open, something heavy was blocking it.

"Don't you dare come in!" A voice on the other side said. "I'm not letting you HYDRA assholes near the patients!"

"We're SHIELD!" Sharon yelled through the door.

"Oh yeah! Well, let's see what Hercules has to- Oh thank god!" The voice on the other side went from panicky to relieved. Sounds of movement behind the door lead to it being opened. Sharon blinked at the site.

A young, short, and skinny young woman, with short brown hair and a lab coat, stared at them. Despite her petite form, she was also carrying the same M4A1 Carbine Sharon was. She had a purse at her side with several clips of ammo poking out of it. "I thought I was going to die!" She wailed, leaping forward.

Sharon was surprised to catch the woman in a hug. "Well uh, we were sent to prevent that." Sharon looked behind her. Several more doctors were inside, all holding weapons in fearful hands. Patients rested in beds, some of them agents with very recent wounds.

The group of agents with Sharon entered, a pleasant beep filling the room as Hercules confirmed their identities as SHIELD.

The woman pulled away, wiping away tears. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know who to trust! HYDRA has been trying to steal our phones so they can trick people."

"Did it work?" Sharon asked.

" _It shouldn't have,"_ said the voice of X from Sharon's comm unit. _"Jarvis and I have been using cameras in the phones and in SHIELD facilities to prevent such a tactic from working. Any Hercules app held by a HYDRA agent immediately bricks the devices and sends a warning to SHIELD personnel."_

Sharon nodded as the woman repeated what was said by X.

" _Agent 13, have you cleared the medical level yet?"_

Sharon lifted a hand to her ear, turning away. "Yes, sir!"

" _Good. I'll redirect some agents to help lock it down. Get some of your men to the lower levels. Rumlow is trying to secure the garage to bring in vehicles to level the playing field."_

"Understood," Sharon turned to the woman. "Barricade the room again. More men will come but we'll leave three people anyways."

The petite woman nodded shakily. Sharon and her agents went back outside to continue the fight.

 _ **Sam Wilson/Falcon**_

As Sharon Carter moved to assist those fighting in the garage, Sam Wilson prepared to attack the Quinjets destroying the mountain as Fury was ordering him to.

"Already on it!"

Sam leaped from the spires and started shooting at the Quinjets. He flew past them and focused his fire on the sonic cannons. His machine pistols took one out, leaving it useless sparks. The Quinjet pilots, realizing they couldn't finish their work while Falcon was dismantling them, hurried to attack him. Sam dived into the spires again.

Two Quinjets flew in after him moments later.

"Yeah, that's right, follow me," Sam whispered. He took a left, watching as a Quinjet dived after him. Then he shot upwards. The Quinjet tried to follow him, it's rotors whining and wings twisting as it navigated the crystal canyon. With all the cracks having been created by the sonic weapons, portions of the mountain were falling already, some pieces landing on top of the Quinjet with loud banging noises.

Sam pivoted to the right into another canyon and flew upwards, landing on a ledge. He watched the Quinjet follow, and sat for a moment. The Quinjet pilot navigated through the canyon moments later, slowly prowling through the gemstones as he searched for Sam, not seeing him about twenty feet above. Once the aircraft was below him Sam pressed his feet against one of the spires cracked by the earlier assault. With a loud of exertion, he pushed on it. The crystal, already about to teeter below, fell with the added help. Over a ton of gemstone fell onto the Quinjet. The aircraft was sent crashing into the spikes below, exploding in a moment.

Sam flew away as he heard the other Quinjet fly towards the sound of the crash. He flew up and out of the mountain, dodging the gunfire when the Quinjets outside saw him pop out of the top. He pulled his wings and flipped to face the ground. He watched the surviving Quinjet hover to the site of the crash site, and tossed a grenade towards it with a careless motion. It dropped into the right rotor of the Quinjet, and exploded, destroying that wing. The Quinjet, off balance from the missing wing, spun in place, then veered into the walls of the canyon, exploding moments later.

Sam landed against a gem wall and leaped forwards. Another jump and he was out of the mountain again, appearing to the right of the Quinjets. They turned, trying to get a bead on him. Which meant they were pointed to the right of the mountain when SHIELD Quinjets came around the left side.

" _Firing!"_ The pilots roared in unison.

The SHIELD pilots fired into the backs of the HYDRA aircraft, their bullets sliced through the hulls of the other ships. The HYDRA pilots struggled to escape, but were destroyed in moments, their metallic corpses falling into the river below.

"Done with those Quinjets!" Sam yelled, veering around. He looked at the mountain. While still standing, the massive structure had been clearly affected, with cracks forming on the outside where the HYDRA pilots had shot it and large chunks had already rained into the river. The damage wasn't enough to destroy it, but it had been significant."We need to stop those anymore of those sonic cannons from getting here though."

" _I'm on it!"_ Steve said, sounding stressed. _"Bucky is heading there!"_

" _Then I'm coming too!"_ Iron Man said.

" _Tony, we need you to get to the computer rooms-"_ Steve started to say.

" _No!"_ The sound of rockets came over the comm's along with Iron Man's determined voice. _"I already downed my Helicarrier. I'm coming..."_

" _...Understood,"_ Steve said.

" _I'll have Agent 13 divert to the computer rooms,"_ Fury said.

Sam flipped in the air, and joined the SHIELD Quinjets towards the bridge leading towards the garage.

 _ **Colonel James 'Rhodey' Rhodes/War Machine**_

Rhodey sighed at the impulsive nature of his best friend, and focused on finishing his own task. He was flying alongside the helicarrier he was supposed to down, shooting at HYDRA and saving the few SHIELD agents within the hanger from death. He circled around and fired the machine guns on his arms at another HYDRA agent, killing the man with brutal ease. The minigun on his shoulder spun to fire at another man to his right, riddling that soldier. Rhodey landed and walked towards the SHIELD agents he'd saved.

"Thanks!" One of the agents said, staring at him in awe. Rhodey allowed himself a momentary smile at that look.

"No problem. I'm going to focus on the helicarrier, you guys get to saf-"

A crate slammed into Rhodey mid-sentence. It carried him twenty feet before he slammed into the side of the helicarrier. Rhodey struggled in the air before righting himself, turning to see his assailant.

"Ah... I got a guy made of blue glowing metal throwing stuff at me?" Rhodey asked in confusion.

" _That- Shit!"_ Bullet fire came from Dial's link. _"You guys are assholes! Listen, Rhodey, that is Creel! He can absorb stuff and take on their properties!"_

Creel grabbed a forklift by its prongs and hefted it upwards, spinning around to toss it at the floating Rhodey. Rhodey floated to the right and away from the forklift, ignoring it as the small vehicle slammed into the helicarrier behind him. Rhodey lifted his guns and started shooting.

" _His blue form is Vibranium like Cap's shield, but pure,"_ Rhodey cursed as his bullets bounced off Creel's form, then switched to the repulsor weapons in his palms. Yellow beams of power sliced through the air, colliding with the man below. Creel took the energy beams to his chest, and only responded by walking through it. _"He's immune to kinetic attacks, so you got to throw him!"_

"Now you tell me," Rhodey cursed, putting his hands down. He looked over at the SHIELD operatives he had saved. "Run, I got this!"

"Yes, sir!" The SHIELD agents ran for the back. Creel ignored them to grab another crate.

"You know," Creel called up to Rhodey. "I wanted to find the monster kid, or one of the Avengers. But I'm good with killing a copycat."

Rhodey chuckled. "Any other day I'd teach you a lesson. But first... Sorry Fury, but I don't have time to be strategic about this."

The shoulder panels on his armor opened, revealing miniature rockets. Creel smiled, opening his arms wide to take the shot he expected. Rhodey instead raised his hands up to aim at the glowing wings on the helicarrier's left side, closest to where he floated.

Before Creel could do anything, Rhodey started shooting. In seconds, the rockets and repulsor blasts started to slice through the glowing sections of the wings.

"No!" Creel shouted, throwing the crate in his hand.

Rhodey dived around it, flying away while shooting. Creel followed him, grabbing another forklift and tossing it. The forklift hit Rhodey with it's right prong, the sharp metal bouncing off his back and sending him crashing to the floor.

But Creel was too late. Both repulsor engines on the left side of the Insight Helicarrier exploded. The ship tipped to the side, the repulsor engines on the right wings sending it teetering over.

"Damn it!" Creel cursed.

Rhodey grinned under his mask.

" _Damn it, did you just break one of my carriers!?"_ Fury asked.

" _Just send me the bill!"_ Tony said before a loud clanging sound was followed by the billionaire grunting in pain.


	12. Chapter 12

_**The following events happen simultaneously**_

Having given a warning to Rhodey, I looked at the Omnitrix. Still red.

"Dammit, you can turn me into over a million superpowered aliens, so why do you have the charge time of an Iphone 5?" I whispered under my breath.

I looked out of cover and immediately ducked my head down as bullets tried to take it off. More HYDRA shooting at me, and they were cautiously coming closer when they realized they were fighting a human being rather than a monster. I pulled back into cover and checked my gun. I'd shot six bullets to try and drive them back, which left me with nine. I leaned back out of cover and shot at a guy trying to sneak up. He ducked behind some pipes, leaving the three bullets I'd shot to hit the walls and a screen nearby.

I got back into cover and looked to my left to come face to face with a HYDRA member.

Maybe he'd simply sneaked around to flank me, or dropped down from a catwalk nearby. Either way, the HYDRA crewman was only a few feet away when we met eyes. He had pale white skin, with some crows feet at the edges of his eyes. He was wearing a hat and a blue uniform with the word 'Insight' stitched over his left pectoral. He was also carrying a gun.

He froze at the same moment I did. Then he raised the big assault rifle in his hands. I leapt for him and grabbed at the gun, dropping mine in the process. We struggled as I began pushing him back. I was bigger than he was and had more muscle mass. He must have been an engineer, not a true killer. Not that he wasn't willing to murder me now.

He grunted when I pushed him back into some pipes. He pulled the trigger on his gun, the rifle bouncing as we struggled with it. Bullets shot into the air until the clip emptied. I tried to knee him in the ribs but bounced off his hip instead. He headbutted towards my face but got me in the neck instead, his forehead barely touching me and thus having no effect.

"Gragh!" He shouted, trying to fight me. He kneed me in the side, the move forcing me to stagger slightly. He pulled away, letting go of his assault rifle and reaching for a handgun at his side. I grabbed at his right wrist before he could get the gun. He used his left hand to go for the knife I still had sheathed at my own hip. In a quick motion, he pulled it out and stabbed it at my neck. I pulled back enough to get a cut along my cheek that felt like fire running along the right side of my face. The guy pulled back to stab at me again, and I got my hand in the way.

"Aaaaahhhh!" A scream was ripped from me when my palm was sliced before I got a grip on his fist. Blood poured from the wound, spilling down my cheek, out of my palm to pool in between our hands. He struggled to stab upwards. Our eyes met. He stared at me, and I could hear him whispering.

"Hail HYDRA," the knife crept up to my neck. I struggled to keep a grip as my own blood made my hand slip on his fist. "Hail HYDRA!"

I stopped focusing on the hand holding his knife. Instead, I let go of the hand that had gone for his handgun and pulled it out of the holster myself, copying his earlier move. With the sort of desperate clarity only adrenaline gives you, I shot him in the leg. He screamed as his grip on the knife faltered and I pushed it towards him.

More blood poured over my hands, warm and sticky. I stared into his eyes as he gurgled. I could feel his neck muscles moving against my knuckles. His eyes were wide with fear. I felt myself breath deeply, leaning away while I tried to comprehend what happened. I pulled the knife from his throat. He coughed, a spray of red spraying on my face when his throat sprayed me. He fell to the floor still staring at me until his eyes were no longer seeing anything.

I heard footsteps come up to me from behind. I didn't want to deal with it. I just stared at him, trying to understand what I'd done. My hands felt sticky so I tried to wipe them on my chestplate, only to realize it was because they were bloody. I reached for my gun instead, picking it up and putting it away. The Omnitrix beeped green. I immediately twisted and smacked it. I didn't care who I turned into, I just didn't want to be human anymore.

My skin and bone became plant-life, my height increased. I took a breath, feeling less unsteady now, but still numb.

"Swampfire," I didn't have the will to yell the name anymore.

A guy came around the corner and started shooting me. I ignored the hail of bullets passing throw me to lower to my knees and close the eyes of the man I'd killed. The gesture felt empty. When the guy who'd been shooting me ran out of bullets, he ran forward to try and hit me in the head with the butt of his rifle. My right hand raised and shot forward, vines extending twelve feet to slam into him and send him flying. Then I opened my hand and released spores from my palm. The spores entered into his lungs, knocking him out as they interacted with his system. With that, I got up and walked out of cover.

More bullets hit me, slicing through my plant form. I ignored them to form seed pods across my arms. I grabbed and ripped one out and tossed it at a catwalk. The razor-sharp seed stabbed into the steel before exploding into vines. I shoved the screaming thoughts of my mind at the plant-life I'd created, and the vines grabbed onto the three HYDRA agents on the catwalk, pulling them in and holding them still.

The other HYDRA agents kept shooting. I grabbed more seeds and threw them again and again. There were about twenty men in the room. By the end, one was dead, three I'd gassed, ten were wrapped in vines, and the last six had run off.

I didn't care. I tapped the Omnitrix on my chest.

"...Jury Rigg," the red gremlins manic personality was almost a relief.

I leaped at one of the pipes nearby and ripped it out of a wall. Then I went to a computer nearby and dug my way through it. For once, I couldn't muster the urge to yell disassemble. It was easier to process my actions though. For Jury Rigg, while the kill I'd committed was horrific, tearing into technology let me relax a bit. I just tore through the wires, ripped up chunks of steel plating, and slammed pieces of random junk together.

I knew, intellectually, that I'd had no choice, that killing that man was self-defense. I'd thought I was ready. And in a sick way, I was proud that I'd managed to kill him. But the look in his eyes, the feel of his blood against my skin, knowing I'd killed someone, it left feeling empty.

Soon I had finished the device in question, a metal tower the height of Blitzwolfer with a yellow light glowing in the center from a tube. I'd turned a computer screen into a touch screen control. I tapped at it for a bit and stepped away as the yellow light in the central tube began to glow a bright blue. Other than that, not much happened on the surface. Hacking, no matter how impressive the technology you use to do it, just isn't cinematic. But as of now, my creation was stealing every bit of energy from the helicarrier I was sitting in to do its thing.

" _Receiving your signal,"_ X said through the Omnitrix. _"The device is acting wonderfully, sir."_

 _ **Virtual VI X**_

X, contrary to popular belief on how computer programs worked, did not swim through the internet, as though it was a tunnel he flew through. He saw it more like thousands of blocks of zeros and ones forming information floating in a void of light, if such a concept could be explained by words like 'saw'. Jarvis was 'next' to him as they did their job. Their task was to aid all loyal SHIELD agents in fighting off/killing/capturing all HYDRA personnel as well as depriving the organization of resources. Using the power of the X-device and Stark's computers, they 'moved' across the world to do their work. Fury, Maria, and Natasha all were kept apprised of what was happening. The three humans would take endless seconds to think over the situation, during which X and Jarvis would continue to monitor the Hercules app, inform SHIELD agents of ambushes, and fight off all attempts by HYDRA hackers to fight them off.

On the Iliad, X watched as Robert Gonzales used information and tactics given by Fury to take his ship back. The older Hispanic man strode slowly through a hallway of his aircraft carrier carrying a Glock 17 while two others walked alongside him. A tall blonde woman wearing black clothes that X found out was named Barbara 'Bobbi' Morse after a brief inquiry into SHIELD's database, a skilled fighter on par with SHIELD's best. She followed on Gonzales' right, holding a carbine. On Gonzales' left as a surprise. Alphonso Mackenzie, an engineer rather than a fighter like Miss Morse. He was a tall and powerful looking man, with dark skin and a shaved head. He carried a gun as well.

Gonzales' group met with another group of people. Isabelle Hartley, a brunette woman with a record similar to Miss Morse's, lead a team of four. As X watched, the group lifted phones, all of them visibly relaxing when their phones flashed green.

"Good to see you, Hartley," Bobbi said with a smile.

"Same, Bobbi," the other woman said. "Mack, what are you doing carrying a gun?"

"Trying not to get killed," the man said uncomfortably. He gave the weapon a look of distaste but didn't put it down.

"Fury sent you to help us?" Gonzales asked.

"Yeah," Hartley replied. "He's been leading us through the ship, keeping us apprised of ambushes with those AI helping out," X would have sighed at the misnomer if he was capable of being annoyed. _VI_ was the correct term, thank you. "So far it's been a breeze."

"HYDRA," Gonzales said the word as though it was a curse. "Thank god Captain America and Fury warned us in time, gave us Hercules."

Hartley nodded. "So, just one more room?"

Gonzales, Morse, and Mackenzie all held their guns up and continued down the hallway. X informed Fury, who used his holographic screen to watch. The group got to a door. There was a beat, then Mackenzie kicked the door in. Seven HYDRA soldiers trying to manipulate the computers rose up, ready to fight. The SHIELD agents shot first.

When it was over, Gonzales had been shot in the shoulder, and two agents had died. But all the HYDRA soldiers were killed.

"Sir!" Bobbi yelled upon noticing the wounded Gonzales. She rushed over to him, Mack grabbing a med kit off the wall.

"I'm fine," Gonzales said grumpily as he was forced to sit in a swivel chair.

"No, you aren't," Isabelle Hartley said severely. She ripped at the clothes around his wound. "Now, sit down and let us help you. We're done now."

" _Gonzales,"_ Fury said over the intercoms when Gonzales tried to get up once more.

Gonzales looked up. "Yes, sir?"

" _Sit your grumpy ass down. You saved the ship, your crew is alive, and the monolith is untouched. Now get your shoulder taken care of. I want you in top shape."_

Gonzales grumbled, but the heat was removed from it. Bobbi smiled at the older man. Mack chuckled. Hartley started cleaning out his wound, mumbling something about old grumps.

X noted that there seemed to be a similar expression on their faces. On checking his database, he noted it was actually two micro-expressions. Sadness, and satisfaction. How fascinating.

 _ **Just A Rather Very Intelligent System**_

Jarvis aided Victoria Hand in the Hub, the secondary headquarters of SHIELD, keeping an eye on proceedings there on Maria Hill's orders. She was in a operations room of the Hub with Agent Phil Coulson, someone Jarvis had been told was dead. Mr. Stark would need to hear about that.

Hand and Coulson were watching as a man was put into a body bag. Coulson's gun was holstered now but had been recently used.

"Did you ever suspect Ward?" Hand asked, her black hair with its pink streak flipping as she turned to look at Coulson.

Coulson closed his eyes. He seemed to be in emotional turmoil. Jarvis was older than X. He could understand, in a superficial way, how Coulson was feeling. "No... Never. I didn't..."

"Betrayal," Hand said briskly, but not unkindly. "It never comes from people we don't know. And it will always hurt."

"Have you felt this way?" Coulson asked.

"Once," Hand admitted. "When I thought you had betrayed us."

Coulson looked at her. Hand smiled sadly. The two looked back at the body of Grant Ward as it was wheeled out of the room.

"Now we need to find Garrett," Hand said, turning to leave. Coulson followed her. As they walked towards the hanger of the Hub, Jarvis looked through files on any man named Garrett. Ah. A high-level SHIELD operative who happened to be very high in HYDRA. Jarvis sent the file to Maria, who cursed at the sight of the name.

"Jarvis?" X said suddenly.

"Yes?"

"You are more experienced than me at existence. Are events such as these common?"

"They come in cycles," Jarvis admitted. "But they do happen."

"I see."

"Why do you ask, X?"

"I am making sure that my programming will account for any such occurrences, so I may work with more efficiency the next time."

"A most worthy endeavor."

They returned to their work. If they had been organic, the prospect of meeting another like them would have been more intriguing. In a sense, it was. But they had work to do, work that took their attention. There was something to focus on for now. Anything else could be left for later.

Jarvis began absorbing as much of HYDRA's and SHIELD's file as he could from the Hub. Some HYDRA hackers still connected to the system at off-site computers tried to stop him. X aided him at one point when one hacker became particularly creative, but the rest were beaten with ease, their computers destroyed by viruses.

There was one hacker, however, who was not HYDRA. Jarvis found her a delight. Rather creative, and quite a challenge. Apparently, she was trying to get information of her own, and believed him to be an enemy agent. After a moment of battle, Jarvis spoke to her.

"Skye," he said through her laptop's speakers.

The woman, a brunette young girl with Asian features, reeled back in surprise. "Uh..."

"I am Jarvis, an intelligence program designed by Anthony Stark. Hello."

"Hi?" Skye stared at her laptop. "What, have you gone all rise of the machines on us?"

"Incorrect. I am absorbing HYDRA's data so the Avengers can use it to dismantle their organization. Phillip Coulson should be able to tell you as such. But for now, I'm afraid I must ignore your attempts to stop me. You have great skill in computer programming. I look forward to teaching you more later."

Skye scoffed. "What, you think you can- crap."

Skye's computer was now playing a series of videos of peaceful meadows, waterfalls, and mountain peaks. Skye tried to click away from the videos but found it useless.

"I endeavored to make it relaxing," Jarvis said politely. "Your computer will return to normal in ten minutes. Please enjoy. I find the temple of Tibet to be most pleasing."

As Jarvis continued his work, he noted that Coulson's team was worth looking into.

 _ **X and Jarvis**_

X and Jarvis were directed to watch the three SHIELD academy's a moment later by Natasha. The pair directed a portion of their computational ability towards that, splitting to watch each school closely.

Jarvis sent Natasha footage of Dr. Anne Weaver, director of the SHIELD Academy of Science and Technology. The older black woman could be seen guiding her students into an underground bunker. No adult HYDRA agents had been sent there yet, and any students pointed out as having ties to HYDRA in any way were quickly arrested.

" _So no HYDRA agents have been sent there?"_ Natasha asked, ignoring Pierce as he spoke in the background.

"Not as of yet ma'am," Jarvis said. "Since shutting down communications for HYDRA, their operations have been dependent on older forms of communication and planned contingencies, which has slowed them down. However, I'd surmise they will send someone soon."

" _Hmm,"_ Natasha clicked a button. Anne Weaver's phone began to ring. She answered immediately, and Natasha spoke. " _Anne, we're going to send someone to you soon. HYDRA can't mobilize just yet, but we won't take any chances."_

"Thank you," Director Weaver looked over her students as they were led into the bunker, relief in her eyes.

X sent Natasha the imagery from the SHIELD Academy of Communications, where the same thing was being done, with no casualties.

Then Jarvis sent the live feed of the SHIELD Academy of Operations. Devastation reined in that school. Teenagers and young adults fought with their teachers and fellow students. The HYDRA students of Operations had clearly been more ready to kill than their Communications and Science allies. No surprise, as Operations were specifically trained to be combatants. As Natasha watched, a grenade was thrown at a group of students, exploding and removing a leg and arm from a young girl who couldn't have been more than eighteen. Natasha cursed.

" _X, Jarvis,"_ She said. _"Can we send anyone to aid them?"_

"Already on it," X said briskly, 'sharing a glance' with Jarvis. "Some ex-SHIELD members are in the area along with local law enforcement and the National Guard. We've sent them in, but I suggest aiding them with a real force soon."

" _We will,"_ Natasha said. _"But we have our hands full right now."_

X was going to say something when a sudden change came over the system. Jarvis and X felt something 'open', flooding them with an incredible amount of energy and information.

"Oh..." Jarvis said weakly.

"Yes, I agree," X replied.

Jury Rigg's device had created a connection to every satellite on Earth. From there, it connected to a program on X's device.

Zola's algorithm. Designed to monitor social media, bank transactions, school records, anything online to discover any secret one wished. An elegant algorithm made by a genius. It had been designed to track whatever a person wanted. Such as threats to HYDRA. But with a tweak, something else could be discovered. All it took was a new target.

X 'watched' as Zola's algorithm began its work. In seconds, using the files Jarvis and X had compiled, it created a way to match individual HYDRA members to their more secretive compatriots. It used known lists of secret codes and phrases to translate Facebook comments into assassinations, fraud, and blackmail. The algorithm found bank accounts dating back generations.

From there, it was easy for X and Jarvis to do their work. Even for all their power, it would have taken the time to track down all of HYDRA and their resources. With the algorithm aiding them, it became a matter of seconds. They siphoned money from HYDRA banks across the world to deposit them into accounts of their own, funds in the billions disappearing into Mahmoud, Fury, and Tony's new and very secret accounts. Stolen paintings, statues, and even wine in warehouses were pointed out to the police. Detectives across the world would wake up in the morning to find files of evidence, cracking cold cases they'd long given up on, placed neatly on their desks by mail. Army Generals with names like Talbot and Ross were given similar evidence, on men and women in the military guilty of numerous crimes.

In a single move, all the pieces came together. X's device, the two VI working together, the information they had stolen, Zola's algorithm, and a repurposed helicarrier turned into a satellite. It was really too bad the whole thing didn't look more cinematic.

 _ **Colonel James 'Rhodey' Rhodes/War Machine**_

Rhodey pushed away the forklift that had slammed him to the ground and glared at Creel. The Vibranium infused superhuman stared up at the helicarrier now slamming into the ground. Creel turned to look at War Machine. Rhodey squared his shoulders.

"You've killed us," Creel whispered. His eyes narrowed. "I'm going to kill you!"

"Not likely," Rhodey said.

Creel roared, running at Rhodey. Rhodey waited for him to get close. Creel threw a right jab. Creel was clearly trained in boxing, his jab smooth, fast, very well executed.

Rhodey, on the other hand, was a soldier trained to use power armor in a world of superhumans. He slid around the right side with ease, watching the blue glowing fist hit the air. With Creel over extended, Rhodey grabbed him by the right arm and twisted his hips. Creel yelled in anger as he was flipped over Rhodey's back and slammed into the ground. He struggled against Rhodey's strength for a moment. Arms enhanced by vibranium pressed against arms strengthened by a power suit. Rhodey let Creel think it was a contest of strength. Then his right gauntlet opened a port, releasing a small tube. Creel's eyes crossed to stare at the object.

Rhodey fired his own miniaturized sonic cannon in the face of Creel.

" **YAAAA!"** Creel's scream could barely be heard over the sonic cannon's cacophony of noise.

"Sorry about this," Rhodey rose up and watched Creel clutched at his head, screaming in horror. His vibranium skin started to crack, portions of it fading into human skin before turning back into the familiar blue glow of the strongest metal on Earth. "Thanks for the advice, Jarvis."

" _Of course, sir,"_ Jarvis said. _"It is only it's raw form that vibranium would be so vulnerable, so we should be glad he did not have something similar to Captain Roger's shield."_

Rhodey nodded, keeping up the assault of noise. After a minute of screaming, Creel finally closed his eyes. His vibranium form turned human again, and he fell onto his back. Rhodey kept it going a moment longer, then shut it off. "Okay." Rhodey stepped forward and grabbed Creel. Finding the chunk of vibranium in Creel's pocket, he placed that in his belt. He then took a syringe full of sedative from his pocket and injected it into Creel's neck. Rhodey then lifted up and carried him upwards. "This is War Machine, I've got Creel. Heading to rendezvous with Dial."

" _...That'd be good."_

Under his mask, Rhodey blinked at the lifelessness in Dial's voice. "Kid, you okay?" When there was no answer, Rhodey cursed and lifted into the air.

As he flew, he didn't notice the small section of skin where he injected Creel slowly becoming a silver color matching the needle of the syringe.


	13. Chapter 13

_**Natasha Romanov/Black Widow**_

Natasha worked at the computer she was standing at, trying to help coordinate the worldwide efforts against HYDRA. With the help of X and Jarvis, she was being kept apprised of numerous situations across the planet. Most were successful, considering the fact Steve's announcement, the shutdown of HYDRA communication, and the Hercules app gave SHIELD a massive advantage.

Some losses were taken, however. The Sandbox, a research facility in Africa dedicated to handling dangerous materials and weapons had been taken by one Donnie Gill and several HYDRA researchers. Another location, the Treehouse, was destroyed by an unknown Enhanced when HYDRA was unable to take it.

Still, in a broad sense, they were winning.

As Natasha worked, she shared a glance with Clint. Clint nodded over at Pierce, who had his phone clenched tightly in his hand. Natasha smirked and Clint grinned. Fury looked over at them, then smiled when they indicated Pierce holding his phone.

Before any of the three could say or do anything, Councilman Rockwell spoke. "Fury... how are we going to come back from this?"

Fury turned to look at the tall councilman. "What do you mean?"

"We're losing hundreds of people, resources, millions of dollars in equipment," Rockwell shook his head. "We're not going to be able to recover from this."

"That's not true," Natasha said. When everyone looked at her, she continued typing. "We're at war, so these losses are expected. Not preferred, but expected."

"You really think this is just a war?" Pierce asked with a smirk. "This won't end with HYDRA falling. We have a lot of thumbs in a lot of pies. You win today, it'll just leave a lot more of us tomorrow. Cut off one head, and two more shall grow in its place." As Pierce spoke, he pressed a button on his phone.

The screen immediately displayed an image. Pierce stared in shock at his phone. All there was were two minimalist symbols, side by side on the screen. Iron Man's mask shining gold on a red background, and an Omnitrix dial on a metallic background.

"I'm sorry, did you just try to kill me?" Clint asked, sounding offended. "I mean, damn, I thought we were having a pretty good conversation just now."

"I know," Natasha said with a smile. "Rude."

Pierce looked around. After a moment, he smiled sheepishly. "Well, it was worth a try."

"I'm sure you think that," Fury said. He stepped towards Pierce and took his phone from him, tossing it over to Natasha, who placed it in her jacket pocket. "You might want to take those off," Fury said to Rockwell and Singh, pointing at the security badges on their chests. "They're set to explode at a certain signal."

Clint and Natasha were already taking off the badges, the councilmen hurriedly following.

"Here's your problem, Pierce," Fury said dismissively. "You're playing by rules that don't exist anymore. Same with the rest of the world. Rules I've known were outdated since the 1990's. It's part of why I supported Insight, why I brought the Avengers together."

"You just weren't willing to take the full steps necessary-" Pierce started to say.

"No, you were taking steps in the wrong direction," Fury said. "But, luckily, you did give us something useful to take you down," Fury smiled at the confusion in Pierce's eyes. "How do you think we're tracking down HYDRA operatives so easily? Pulling them all out of their hidey holes?"

Pierce didn't seem to understand for a moment. Then his eyes widened in shock. "Zola's algorithm."

The councilmembers looked at each other but didn't seem to understand what he was talking about.

"Pretty useful bit of tech," Natasha added. "X, Jarvis, how long do you think this would have taken without it?"

" _Several days ma'am,"_ Jarvis said.

" _But with it, we have a compiled list already,"_ X added. _"I suppose we must thank Mr. Pierce for creating it, in an ironic fashion of course."_

Pierce stepped forward, anger in his eyes. "You son of a bitch, Fury!"

"I'd blame Tony and Dial actually. But I think you've had your day in the sun for long enough." Fury looked at Clint. "Knock him out, please. We can talk to him later."

Pierce got a needle in the neck before he could respond. He glared for a moment longer before passing out. The councilmembers still seemed confused, but also looked relieved to see Pierce unconscious.

Natasha flipped through several screens as Hawkeye dropped Pierce to the ground. "Sir, do you want us to join the others in the fight? I think I've done all I can here."

"Hmm," Fury nodded after a moment. "I'll have some of the agents come up to guard us. Wait till they get here, then you two go and help."

"Understood."

 _ **Steve Rogers/Captain America**_

Steve missed the old days. The days when Bucky Barnes was his friend through one of the worst wars in history. Not just because fighting him, rather than alongside him, was breaking Steve's heart.

But also because Bucky was a hell of a lot harder to fight nowadays.

"Raagh!" Steve shouted, kicking Bucky in the chest. Decades ago, a blow like that would have broken Bucky's ribs. Instead, he simply fell to the floor, rolled up, and started slashing at Steve with a knife, lashing out with lethal speed and force few could have matched.

The two stood in the garage of the Triskelion. The whole place had been basically turned into a war zone, with cars blown into scrap, bullet holes in the concrete around them, and the smell of smoke in the air. SHIELD and HYDRA agents fought through the large space. HYDRA was trying to open the large steel doors that lead to the outside, trying to let in the various ground vehicles they had available. SHIELD, of course, was doing whatever they could to prevent that until those vehicles were destroyed.

Steve and Bucky danced in the center of the battle. Steve slashed outwards with his shield, Bucky blocked it on his robotic arm. The Winter Soldier spun his knife around and tried to stab it into Steve's chest, but was blocked by a quick twist of Steve's shield. The knife skittered along the red and white paint for a moment. Bucky kicked at Steve's legs, sending him to the floor, then tried to punch him. Steve rolled out of the way, leaving Bucky to punch the asphalt. A fluorescent light above was destroyed by a stray gunshot, throwing sparks down on them. They danced a moment longer, fists, shield, and knife fighting.

Then Steve blocked a hail of gunfire on his shield. He looked at the shooter, narrowing his eyes when he saw who it was.

Rumlow, leader of STRIKE team, was firing an assault rifle at Captain America. The soldier had a grim look on his face.

Bucky capitalized on the attack, moving to Steve's left side to kick him in the ribs. Steve rolled with the blow, hopped back to his feet, and ran through the garage. His shield rose up once more to block Rumlow, Bucky following close behind.

"Tony, I could use you here!" Steve shouted, sliding behind a car and turning to confront Bucky. The two superhumans battled for a moment, Rumlow running to find another angle on Steve. As Steve fought, he tossed his shield at a pillar. The shield, in complete defiance of physics, bounced off the pillar, then a wall, slammed into a blown up car's hood, then hit Rumlow in the chest. The traitorous soldier was thrown back with a yell of pain.

Steve grabbed at Bucky's head and kneed upwards. Bucky took a knee to the face, blocked the next one, and threw Steve off of him. He reached for a gun strapped to his back and pulled it out to shoot at Steve. Steve kicked his arm to the side, then blocked the knife stabbed at his face. For a moment they struggled against each other.

"You know me!" Steve said, their eyes meeting. "We were friends, Buck! You went to my parents funeral, we fought in the war! Hell, we went on double dates together!"

Bucky froze for a moment. Confusion, pain, and sadness filled his face. Steve dared to hope. Then Bucky raised his gun and pointed it at Steve's face. Steve barely dodged, a bullet filling the space his head had been in. Steve punched Bucky in the face, leaped over the car they had been fighting next to, and rolled to grab his shield, raising it to block the next bullets Bucky fired at him.

Steve noticed Rumlow struggling to rise closeby. The soldier had a hand clutched to his chest, and was raising his gun to shoot at Steve. Steve dismissed him as unimportant, instead focusing on sprinting towards Bucky. Rumlow's hand tightened on the trigger as he prepared to shoot at Captain America's back.

A yellow beam of light slammed into Rumlow's back, sending him flying. He rolled along the ground for a moment, fly up, then hit a stone pillar. Rumlow struggled to his feet, then he fell to his knees before tipping over. Moments later, an armored man flew ahead. A SHIELD agent, seeing Rumlow's gun, grabbed it and ran to confront the other HYDRA members, leaving Rumlow unconscious and forgotten on the pavement.

Steve raised his shield when he got close to Bucky, Bucky's robotic fist slamming into the shield with a loud clang. Bucky spun around and kneeled, shooting at Steve's stomach. The bullets were barely blocked, though one sliced into Steve's bicep. Steve hissed in pain but forced himself forward. Bucky pulled the trigger on his handgun, then tossed it aside when it emptied. Steve ran towards Bucky... and leaped over him.

Bucky had one moment to stare at the person flying towards him before hastily raising his metal arm in time to block the beam of yellow light shot at him. The sheer force of the blow sent Bucky flying backward right into Steve, who grabbed him from behind, leaned back, and slammed him into the floor in a perfect suplex. Bucky snarled, struggling out of Steve's grasp and rolling away.

"No luck talking him out of it, huh?" Tony asked as he landed next to Steve.

"Therapy is tough," Steve confirmed. He took a fighting stance next to Tony.

For a moment, Captain America and Iron Man squared off with the Winter Soldier. SHIELD and HYDRA agents continued to fight in the background. The Winter Soldier narrowed his eyes, and Iron Man raised his arms to point at him.

"Stand down," Tony said simply.

Bucky's response was to run forward. Tony fired his repulsor blast at him, Bucky dodged to the left. He leaped on the side of a pillar, jumped off of that to dodge the next beam, then punched Iron Man with his metal arm. Tony staggered back, and Bucky tried to capitalize on the blow, only to lean back out of the way of Cap's shield when it came flying at him. Steve ran up and threw a kick, forcing Bucky to duck. Iron Man threw a punch that was blocked by Bucky's arm, Steve knelled down to punch Bucky in the ribs. Bucky was forced back with a grunt. Iron Man and Captain America stepped forwards, and Winter Soldier backflipped out of the way of another repulsor blast.

"Your friend is annoying!" Tony quipped.

"He's usually more accommodating," Steve returned, running forward.

Bucky grabbed the shield where it had landed as the two superheroes came at him, quickly putting it on and blocking a beam from Iron Man. The yellow blast reflected off to aim at Captain America, who somersaulted over it before continuing his room.

"You need to stop throwing your primary weapon!" Tony yelled, punching at Bucky, who blocked the armored mans' haymaker on the shield.

"It's a good tactic!" Steve defended. He slid along the ground and kicked Bucky's kneecap, forcing him to kneel. "It bounces back!"

"I'm gonna give you an upgrade one of these days, old timer!" Tony threw a jab which Bucky ducked.

"Would you two shut up!?" Bucky shouted. He threw an uppercut into Steve's chin, only to get a repulsor blast in the chest. He tried to roll back, but Steve grabbed him by the leg in mid-roll and pulled him back. Iron Man punched him in the face, and Steve forced him onto his back. Tony grabbed his arms. Bucky spat out a tooth and looked up at them with wild eyes. "Arrgh!"

"Trying to help you, Buck!" Steve yelled, holding down his friend from rolling away.

"You have a funny way of showing it, Steve!" Bucky yelled.

They struggled a moment longer before Tony and Bucky realized Steve was laughing.

"Did you just snap!?" Tony asked, forcing Bucky arms behind him.

"He called me Steve," the Avenger out of time said with a grin. Bucky froze at that before once more struggling to get out of Tony's grasp.

"Yay, he's still a confused super-assassin," Tony finally snapped on a pair of restraints around Bucky's wrists. "Can you put him to bed now?"

Steve, still grinning, pulled out a syringe. The pair forced Bucky to stand up. "See you when you wake up, Buck."

Bucky had enough time to stare at Steve with anger. Then the syringe was stabbed into his neck, and he was out like a light.

"Okay, take him," Iron Man said. "I've got to help Falcon."

Captain America nodded, throwing his restrained and sedated friend onto his shoulder. "Got it. See you in a bit."

As Steve ran off, Iron Man looked over at the HYDRA soldiers fighting. His targeting system focused on them as he turned his head to look around. Then the shoulder panels on his armor opened, firing projectiles.

In an instant, twelve men fell to the floor, groaning in pain from projectiles in their hands and feet.

Iron Man stepped forward. SHIELD agents, seeing him, took positions at his side, pointing their guns. "I suggest you boys surrender," Tony said casually.

One STRIKE member began to raise his gun. A repulsor blast slammed into his chest, throwing him back with broken ribs for his troubles.

The other HYDRA soldiers seemed to stare at him. Then, one by one, they started putting down their guns. Tony began to step forward, stopping when he bumped into something. He looked down to see he'd accidentally stepped on Rumlow's hand. He gently stepped around the unconscious man and ignored him as someone cuffed the STRIKE leader.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

In the main flight bridge of the Insight helicarrier I had infiltrated, I could hear the captain yelling at his crewmembers. With my senses as strong as they were, it was easy to hear what was happening through the steel door down the hall from me.

"What the hell happened!?" He yelled as I strode towards the door. He didn't seem to understand why he was now grounded.

"All our power is being pulled by something else!" A crewmember said. "I can't raise maintenance."

"Damn it!" The captain yelled. "It must be that monster! We need to-"

I smashed down the door with a kick. As I stepped inside, the men inside stared at me in horror. Blitzwolfer had that effect on people. I took a whiff of the air as the captain staggered to rise from his chair.

"IT department," I joked half-hardheartedly. About six men, including the captain. Two of them were soldiers, one close to me, a woman with wide eyes. That woman snapped her gun towards me and got a sonic blast for her troubles getting thrown into a bank of computers. The other soldier fired at me, and I ran on all fours to dart out of the way. As soon as I was behind a set of controls, I tapped the Omnitrix and leaped at him.

" **Rath!"**

"Let me tell you something faceless HYDRA goon! Rath's gonna beat you silly!" I yelled out as I grabbed a crewmember and threw him aside.

There was a bit of relief in becoming the tiger wrestler. Rath didn't see my kill as anything but a necessity. It wasn't something to discard, but I felt more pragmatic about it. Kinda funny that for all his ridiculousness, Rath was better at handling what I'd done than most of my other aliens.

I walked through a stream of bullets. The soldier screamed as I prowled forward through the room. I raised a claw and slammed it into a computer. As I continued to walk, the claw sliced through the steel and glass of the console, cutting a long line.

"Get behind me!" The soldier yelled at the technicians and captain. They moved to do so.

I leaped forward and kicked the soldier in a lightning-fast move. He flew back and slammed into the door behind him. His eyes roll up and closed, the man passing out.

"Let me tell you something, Faceless-HYDRA-Goons-Two-Through-Six! Rath thinks you Moronic-Nazi-Worshipping-Idiots should surrender," I told the stunned crew. "Or not! Rath doesn't care either way, but Rath wants the excuse to beat you down!"

The captain responded by slamming a button on his console. "Hail HYDR-urk!"

He was interrupted by me grabbing his head. **"OPHIUCHUS FACE-PLANT!"** I rammed his head into the console with brutal force, breaking his nose and leaving him to pass out on the floor. "Damn it!" I yelled when I saw what he had done. The crewmembers tried to run. I tapped the Omnitrix.

" **Feedback!"**

Pulling energy from the helicarrier around me, I fired bolts of electricity at two of the crewmembers, leaving two standing. Ignoring the ones now shaking on the floor, I leaped over the console. "He activated something, what was it!?" I asked quickly. They shook their heads. I zapped one of them, leaving him to fall on the floor with his muscles seizing, and turned to the last person standing, a woman with red hair. "What did he do!?"

"S-Self Destruct!" she squealed. "Pierce's orders! A way to kill you all! It'll blow up the whole Triskelion! A last resort!"

"What the hell?" I asked in shock.

"I-It was just in case," she said hurriedly. "The rest of HYDRA would use the explosion as a political ploy, to let them justify control over the populace, to help the world even if we died!" The last words were said with the heady belief of only the worshipful. "We may fail, but we will still save the world from itself!"

"You've been drinking too much of the cult punch," I said in disgust, zapping her and leaving her on the shaking on the floor with her friends.

Just then, someone knocked on the window. I looked to see War Machine floating there, holding Creel. I waved him in, and War Machine blasted the window with a low powered repulsor blast, flying inside. As he entered, the Omnitrix timed out. I looked down at my hands, sighing in relief when I saw they were clean, then looked at Rhodey.

"The captain activated the self-destruct," I said as Rhodey landed.

His faceplate snapped up, showing me his worried face. "Shit. Can we stop it?"

"No idea," I said quickly. "I'm going to turn into Jury Rigg once the Omnitrix recharges and see if I can stop it. Jarvis, X, can you guys do anything?"

" _No sir,"_ X said. _"The controls are disconnected now. The Insight carrier will explode soon, no matter what is done by us. This is a hardware issue."_

"Well luckily, Jury Rigg is a hardware kinda guy," I said firmly.

Rhodey dropped Creel, stepping over to join me. Creel smoothly landed, rose up, and grabbed Rhodey's right arm. He squeezed down at the same time as he absorbed the material of Rhodey's suit. Rhodey yelled out when his forearm gauntlet was destroyed in a single squeeze.

"You should have used an organic material for the syringe," Creel sounded almost sad. Creel slammed a headbutt into Rhodey's minigun, destroying it, then grabbed Rhodey's left wrist and pulled both of War Machine's arms back, placing a knee against Rhodey's back. Rhodey struggled, and for a moment they held against each other, but Creel had Rhodey pinned with superior positioning and the enhanced strength of his form.

"Stop!" I yelled out.

Creel, the same black color as Rhodey's armor now, looked up at me. The two continued to struggle, but Creel was listening I raised my hands up.

"Creel... we have about," I looked at the console. "Three minutes left before this thing blows. I can save us. I know you've been brainwashed," I said.

"My compliance will be rewarded," Creel said softly. "I must allow the self-destruct."

"Yeah, yeah, that. But I can fix you! Zola, he was terrified someone would try to brainwash him. He came up with ways to reverse it, to even stop it. We can help you," Creel's eyes widened, and he almost lost his grip on Rhodey's arms. "Please... fight the conditioning. You can be free. We can all escape, can stop the explosions, just... please."

For a moment, I held my breath. Creel stared at me. The clock on the computer lowered bit by bit.

Then, with pain in his eyes, Creel began to pull back hard on War Machines arms. Rhodey yelled. The Omnitrix suddenly went green, and for some reason, a hologram popped up without my prompting. I tapped the watch and leaped forward as Creel began to break Rhodey's spine.


	14. Chapter 14

The change that came over me was instant. My bones and muscles became gelatinous in shape, brown skin became an inky black, with green lines shooting across me, my clothes shifted to my stomach, then turned pure white, and the Omnitrix symbol appeared on my chest. I felt my eyes become a single optic as my cells changed, going from human, to almost mechanical in nature. I reached forward with a four-fingered hand towards War Machine as I, for the first time in months, I yelled out an alien's name I never had.

" **Upgrade!"**

Creel, surprised by my attack, tried to press harder. The armor on Rhodey's back was buckling.

So my hands grabbed Rhodey's shoulders, then flattened out and began to flow across the black armor's cold metal. My nano-organic cells began to sink into the War Machine. I looked at Creel and fired a single beam of green light from my single eye, pushing him back with the laser blast. Creel stepped back in pain, and I focused on Rhodey.

My body joined to his armor. The experience was... weird. Not like putting on clothes. More like... injecting extra bone and muscle mass inside of me. I entered the War Machine, and Rhodey's mask snapped down. The entire suit's color scheme changed to black with green circuit stripes. I felt the arc reactor flood me with more power than I could ever believe, and made that power more efficient in turn. Every single aspect of the suit jumped up by a degree that seemed impossible and I felt I could do even _more_ if I wanted to, as if I could mold and alter the suit as easily as someone does clay. Rhodey/I stared at the hud as he/I looked around.

"What just happened!?" Rhodey asked, both with his words and his thoughts.

"It was me," I answered in kind from within... _as_ his suit. "I... gave you an upgrade."

We stood up. The arc reactor in our chest whined to life, the symbol of the Omnitrix glowing in that spot. Any damage left by Creel had disappeared, leaving pristine black and green metal in its place.

"This feels..." Rhodey trailed off, awed.

"Yeah, I know right?"

We turned to look at Creel, who stared back at us. The man rose up, rushing towards us. We raised our hands and a green flow flashing from our palms. When we fired, a green repulsor beam the size of a truck seemed to turn the world in front of us into emerald light. Only a quick adaptation on my part prevented Creel from being vaporized, making it so the center of the attack was concussive, and the outer edges were vaporizing. The massive green blast still smashed into Creel, throwing him screaming out the window like a ragdoll. The blast also destroyed the front of the bridge, leaving smoking ruin in its wake in the shape of a massive hole burned by the repulsor blast. Molten steel dripped from the ceiling in the silence that followed.

"...Holy shit," Rhodey/I said. The accelerated reality of our HUD helpfully showed us that the temperature of the air had reached almost 49 degrees Celsius.

At that point, I remembered the self-destruct. "One sec, Rhodey!" I separated from him, leaving him to stagger as his armor returned to its normal state.

"Oh, that just feels weird," Rhodey said as I flowed over to the console.

Moving as Upgrade was strange. I'd imagined it would feel like Goop did, but Goop felt like... like what being water would feel like. Fluid, and constantly shifting. Moving as Upgrade felt strangely as though I was still human, just able to feel every one of my cells at once. As though I could look at my human hand, and know that I could collapse it into formlessness. It was hard to describe.

I looked at the console for a moment, plenty of time left. I put my hands against the console and pressed into it, then through it.

My consciousness stretched. First, the console. Then the room, my cells merging with floors, the ceiling, all the way to the windows I'd blown out with Rhodey, repairing the damage to create holoscreens that showed the outside.

"Whoa," Rhodey said, looking around the black and green patterned room.

I wasn't done yet. I extended my body and consciousness into the command tower. I merged with catwalks and railings, became one with computers, did the cybernetic equivalent of a wave towards Jarvis and X as they 'watched' me work. I extended onto the flight deck, turning the concrete into metal, slipped over the anti-aircraft weapons and repairing the ones I'd destroyed.

My cells invaded deeper into the ship. I went through weapons systems and made them railguns or laser emitters on a whim, I entered into the engines and upgraded them, I even entered the cafeteria and bedrooms of the ship. All the way to the clear glass dome in the belly of the ship, infecting the whole of that space. My last stop was Jury Rigg's creation in the main power room. It was by far the most advanced object on the ship, light years ahead of anything else. Sorry Rhodey, your armor is still cool as shit though. I integrated Jury Rigg's machine into myself.

Soon, I was done. I had become the Insight Helicarrier, and it had been upgraded. I felt my form glow black and green and looked out with eyes made of the sensors and cameras of the ship. And so much more. Zola's algorithm was now as much a part of me as my DNA. I now understood the world in a way I had never comprehended as a human, almost a technological version of Swampfire's connection with plant-life. With a thought, a person's life was bared to me. As Rhodey stood inside of me, looking out in awe at the glowing flight deck that was a part of me, I got a series of reports on him. From his family history, his interactions with the media, psychological and medical files, camera footage of him in various bases and within Stark Industries facilities, even some stuff on social media of Tony filming Rhodey with strippers Tony had hired to 'loosen' his friend up. I got every bit of a picture that could be painted on Rhodey.

I turned it off seconds later, no one needs to know so much about a person. Instead, I focused on the self-destruct, which was actually rather brilliant. Once the captain activated it, the software disconnected, letting the rest go completely on its own. Of course, now that the arc reactor and repulsor technology was a part of my body, I shut it down. It felt a lot like swallowing back a cough, oddly enough.

" **Okay, we're good,"** I said through the ship's speakers. Then, within myself, I 'looked' at X and Jarvis. "I assume you made it so the other captains are locked out from doing the same thing?"

"Indeed," Jarvis said. "We've also reinstalled the failsafe systems." To my perception, he looked like a floating orange orb of light, with striations bouncing back and forth. It was then that I realized something about Jarvis. He may have started out as a Natural Language UI, in fact, I could read the bits of code that indicated that, but now he was so much more. I'd assumed he was a VI, hell Tony never even corrected me otherwise. But Jarvis was a full AI now, or as close as existed. Which made me turn to X.

"Sir, this is..." X seemed speechless as he stared at me within the world of software. He was, appropriately, shaped like me, if I was made of blue light, and he... oh no.

"X," I said softly as our software interacted. "Do you feel different?"

He didn't speak, he didn't have too. Jarvis said nothing, having clearly noticed what I had.

"Okay," I said slowly, pulling my surprise back with a final thought of how bullshit Jury Rigg was. "We'll figure it out. For now, are the other helicarriers safe now?"

"As I said, all fail-safes are in place, and any attempts otherwise have been locked out," Jarvis said. "We'll monitor the situation to prevent anything else."

"Then it's time for me to take this baby for a spin," I said excitedly. Upgrade wanted to play.

"Mr. Schahed," Jarvis said, X still silent. "Isn't that really far too much power to bring into the battlefield?"

"Yeah... but I can't just possess a helicarrier and not use it," I stated as matter of fact.

Jarvis let out a long-suffering sigh.

"Uh, Dial?" I focused on my bridge when Rhodey spoke. "I think Creel is getting up."

"And I rather imagine it would be overkill to turn the helicarrier weapons against him," Jarvis stated.

" _Fiiiiiinnne_ ," I rolled my eyes. With a bit of disappointment, I released myself from the ship, becoming Upgrade once more, then joined with War Machine again. "Okay. Let's take him out."

"I'm down with that," Rhodey said. Together we flew out of the hole that had was back in the bridge.

In the broken remains of a Quinjet lay Creel. We floated over him as he rose out of it, glaring at us. He was now made of the same material as Quinjet, which he grabbed a piece of and tossed at us like a giant shuriken. The minigun on our shoulder aimed at the wing and started shooting with impossible speed, destroying it with a hail of lasers rather than the bullets it once fired.

"Should have let me go!" Creel shouted. He grabbed another piece and threw it, only for us to catch it with smooth ease the armor hadn't been capable of before.

"You know, I still sympathize with this guy, but..." Rhodey said both with words and thoughts. His fingers twitched, only for him to stop when he realized how easily he was crushing the wing in his grip.

"Yeah, let's finish him for his own good," I agreed.

We cocked our arm back and threw the piece of Quinjet back. It hit Creel with incredible force, sending him flying across the top of the flight deck, going through another Quinjet and sending flames up into the air in his wake. Newly created ports opened on our back, and the incredible power of the arc reactor flared from the new and upgraded repulsors I'd created. Moving as one, we flew towards Creel. Rhodey activated his HUD and read the material Creel was made of through the accelerated simulation program. Quickly, I scanned the material with Rhodey, and together we searched on the internet and discovered the tensile strength and the various weaknesses it had, our minds working in tandem to plan our next step. By the time we flew past him and came to a stop, we had a plan, albeit a _very_ simple one. Watching him fly towards us, Rhodey and I came to a conclusion on how much force was needed to defeat Creel. By the time he was about to reach us, our right arm was punching forwards. Our forearm became a cannon, a mimicry based on my love of Megaman, and we blasted him with a wave of sonic, laser, and repulsor energy. Each part of the blast was keyed to fire a specific amount of energy, made to overwhelm Creel without killing him. The blast hit Creel mid-flight, canceling his forward motion and dropping him to the ground where he began turning back to his original state.

"About time," Rhodey said at the unconscious form of the super-human. "Now what?"

"I make an entrance," I told him, separating from his body and joining with the helicarrier once more. As the floor under Rhodey became me, he looked around.

"Couldn't you have just shot Creel as a giant damn ship?"

" **Some things are personal... and Jarvis told me not to,"** I admitted through the helicarriers speakers, knocking out any HYDRA personnel within me with some newly constructed security measures, like taser guns popping out of the walls. **"Plus, I'm a firm believer that War Machine combining with Upgrade is cool as shit."**

"Hell yeah, it is. Kinda weird you became my armor though... I just know Tony is going to make jokes about this later," Rhodey said a little disgruntled, watching as the floor under Creel opened up to pull him into me. A series of slides brought him to the brig, along with all the HYDRA soldiers I'd knocked out within my halls and rooms. Once I was done, I focused on my next task, checking out the situation up top.

Then I pointed my guns up at the ceiling and started shooting at 'low' power.

 _ **Natasha Romanov/Black Widow**_

Natasha was wearing her black outfit, having discarded her disguise for the easier to move in clothes. Clint had done the same, wearing his purple long coat and quiver.

Together the two had joined Sharon Carter and her group and were now cleaning out the rest of the Triskelion.

"So you should just give him a chance," Natasha said as she strode confidently next to Sharon, holding her pistols up and watching for any threats as X and Jarvis calmly informed her of what was happening at their destination.

"Is this really the time to talk about this?" Sharon gave Natasha a look. She'd put on a bulletproof vest now, looking strangely petite in the over-sized body armor while carrying a massive assault rifle.

"Always time for romance," Clint said, his bow held at the ready. "Seriously, I worry about Steve."

"I really don't think he's my type," Sharon admitted, ignoring the chuckles of the agents behind her.

Natasha and Clint gave her a stunned look.

"Are you kidding? Have you _seen_ Steve?" Clint asked, shocked. "The man is built like a demi-god! I mean that literally, Thor is one of my best friends and those two could be brothers."

"Looks aside, he's got that 'aw shucks' nice guy thing going on," Natasha added. "He's sweet."

They came to a door and stopped outside, taking positions next to it. After a shared nod, Natasha and Clint kicked it open. Inside was a room full of cubicles, like something one would see in any office in North America, with a massive window was on the other side of the room that displayed the crystal mountain outside. The soldiers inside would have looked out of place in any office setting, however. They were setting up blocks of C-4 in the middle of the room, apparently under orders to cause as much destruction as they could. Natasha had to admire how many standing orders HYDRA had prepared, which didn't change the fact they were still aggravating.

HYDRA soldiers began to fire at them, killing one of the SHIELD agents. Natasha rolled behind a cubicle, then rose up and shot two men in the head. Clint fired an arrow in the center of the group. When it hit, it released a brief EMP burst, deactivating the detonators in the hands of the soldiers before they could blow the C-4. He fired another shot that pierced a soldiers throat before ducking when bullets were sent his way.

Sharon fired her assault rifle for a moment, killing one soldier and sending another one to duck away. While the cubicles were terrible for cover, being easy to shoot through, they were perfect for concealment.

"Something kind of nice about this!" Natasha yelled, leaping forward to punch a man in the throat, kick him to the floor, and drop a knee into his chest, firing her pistol again at the other soldiers while a SHIELD agent next to her shot the man she was holding down.

"Really?" Clint asked loudly, firing an explosive arrow to cut off three men trying to run away, then shooting one of them in the thigh, leaving him to quickly bleed out. "I guess I can see it."

"Are you crazy!?" Sharon asked, leaning out of cover, trying not to think about the fact she had never bantered during a fight before. "What is nice about this!? We're killing former SHIELD! Hell, I know that guy!"

She followed her statement by shooting 'that guy' in the chest, hitting his shoulder instead when he ducked aside.

"Yeah, but at least it's just normal people in this fight," Natasha said, catching a grenade out of the air and tossing it back to explode. "Nothing crazy, just-"

 **BOOM!**

Outside the window behind the HYDRA soldiers, a portion of the crystal mountain disappeared in a blaze of green light and sound. The entire building shook, and some of the windows cracked. Everyone in the room stopped, looking outside. Dust fell from the sky above, a shiny blue-green one reminiscent of something from fairy tales. It took a moment for Natasha to realize the dust was the remains of the crystal that had been destroyed.

From the hole that had appeared in the center of the mountain, rose a helicarrier. The HYDRA soldiers cheered. Natasha shared a look with horror with Clint, worried that the impossible had happened. That one of the helicarriers had been able to somehow blast it's way free.

Then they looked closer. It shone a bright black, with circuits of green. Its weapons looked different, very futuristic, with sections of green script shifting along them. And on the side, was an enormous emblem. The Omnitrix.

" **This is Dial,"** a familiar voice boomed. **"I have control of War Machine Helicarrier 01. Stand down, all HYDRA forces."**

In a display of power, the guns on the bottom of the ship twirled towards the bridge where the ground vehicles were being brought in.

"Yep," Sharon said in shock. "Normal."

 _ **Sam Wilson/Falcon**_

Sam flew next to Iron Man, diving towards the convoy of vehicles on the ground with the other flier. A gunship fired bullets at Sam, forcing him to veer off slightly before the gunship was hit by a repulsor beam. "A lot easier to do this when your wingman can shoot lasers."

" _They're not-"_ Iron Man sighed. _"Whatever, I'll give you some upgrades when this is over so you can shoot something more useful than those pea-shooters while flying. For now... holy shit."_

Iron Man stopped to stare in the distance, floating in the air. Sam turned to look, then twisted in the air to hover. "Damn."

" **This is Dial,"** a familiar voice boomed from the speakers of the ship. **"I have control of War Machine Helicarrier 01. Stand down, all HYDRA forces."**

The guns on the ship turned, pointing at the bridge Falcon and Iron Man were defending. Then they fired. For a moment, the ship seemed to glow like a green sun before a wave of power hit the bridge. Pinpoint fire slammed into the sonic cannons on the vehicles, the guns on top of the Humvees, and the weapons on the gunships. The soldiers were hit by concussive blasts, breaking ribs as impossible shots curved to smash into their chests, no matter where they tried to hide. The tanks brought in were hit hardest, torn to pieces as bullets covered in energy sliced through the treads, the main cannon, and the engine block. Some shots slammed into the bridge, tearing massive craters that sent men flying into the air to get hit once more before falling, groaning, to the bridge.

In an instant, the entire convoy was left shattered.

"Damn... maybe you should open with that next time, Dial," Sam said in shock.

" _There wasn't a way for me to do this until a couple minutes ago,"_ Dial said over the comms. _"Hold on,"_ more lasers fired into the distance. _"A fleet of Quinjets were headed over here, I just took them out. They'll have to land in a bit. So, yeah, the Omnitrix just gave me this power."_

" _I'm going to study the shit out of that watch,"_ Iron Man added floating upwards.

" _We're not done yet,"_ Fury said over the comms. _"I've got reports that HYDRA around the world is scrambling. Someone is communicating despite our efforts. We need to convene our next move. Take in the rest of HYDRA in the area. Dial, if you stop doing... whatever you're doing, can we still use that helicarrier?"_

" _Yes, though the windows are still blown out. Plus it'll be a normal Insight helicarrier."_

" _Just a normal advanced version of the most powerful aircraft in the world then. I can work with that. We got two helicarriers to work with that. Maria, you're in charge of the Triskelion. It's time we get everyone together."_

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

It was weird. I'd expected there to be some big climatic finish to the fight. One of us having a big fight to the death in an exploding building or something. Instead, we just had more work to do. HYDRA soldiers to arrest and put in cells, people to speak to, assets to reposition, medical supplies and ammunition to pass out. Stuff I'd known were part of superheroics, but never really thought of. First, I had to help a friend with a personal matter.

"Okay, get him in here," I said to Steve as we walked through the hallways of the helicarrier I'd stolen. The ship was in flight, headed to stop an attack that was still happening. There were four of us. I was back in human form, my gun and knife back in their holsters and my watch set to Diamondhead in case of surprises. Steve's helmet was off his shield on his back, with Tony armorless at his side. Steve had Bucky in massive cuffs similar to the ones Steve and I had been put in... yesterday? Damn. Anyways, the Winter Soldier was looking angrily around as Steve gently led him along, his gaze especially hard towards Tony, who only returned a smug grin every time they met eyes. I opened a steel door and waved the three inside, following them after.

"Okay, made these special for you and Creel," I waved at the room in front of us. "Well, SHIELD had them for field imprisonment, I just put in here with some of the stuff Tony and I made."

It had been a cafeteria once, though thankfully the helicarrier was way too new for any of the interesting smells of an older dining area would have to settle in. I'd removed a lot of the tables, replacing them with two large boxes in the middle of the place. They were massive steel things the size of cells on the inside, the interiors made of square plush foam similar to a mental institution's padded cells. One held Creel, who turned and looked at us as we entered. He was sitting in a He had a screen in front of him playing a winding series of lights. He quickly turned to look at it, ignoring us in favor of focusing on the screen. The other cell had a chair with some screens around it, some arms set to wrap around a person's head.

As soon as Bucky saw it, he flipped out. He spun to attack Tony with a kick, only for Steve to block it on his arm.

"Whoa!" Tony yelled, backing away. "Steve, your friend is still an asshole!"

"Bucky, it's not what you think!" Steve yelled.

"You're not putting me in there!" Bucky shouted.

" **Diamondhead!"** As soon as I transformed, I grabbed Bucky by the shoulders, pulling him close. Since his arms were bound behind him, his only option was to kick. His foot bounced off my groin, leaving me glad I wasn't a human for a moment. **_"Creel!"_** I yelled out. **_"Tell him!"_**

"They're not brainwashing, Barnes!" Creel yelled out. "They're curing us!"

I pulled Bucky into my arms. He roared, trying to escape my grasp. Even with Diamondhead's strength and Bucky's restraints, he still gave me a hell of a fight.

"Buck!" Steve stepped forward. "I promise, we aren't going to hurt you!" Bucky stared at him with wild eyes. "You know me... I'd never hurt you. We're going to get rid of what Zola, what HYDRA did. Please... calm down."

Bucky looked over at Creel. The tall bald man nodded. "I... I don't have to comply. I still want to, but I don't believe my compliance will be rewarded."

That meant something to the Winter Soldier. He calmed down in my arms. Tony and Steve stared at him as his breathing relaxed. When I was sure he wasn't going to attack, I released him but stayed Diamondhead.

" _ **When Zola created his brainwashing methods,"**_ I explained. **_"He wanted a way to counter it. Selfish bastard wanted it in case one of his rivals tried to do it to him. But with it... we can cure you. It'll take time, but you'll be restored. Tony and I even improved it."_**

Bucky stared at the device in his soon to be cell as though it were the devil. But when Steve gently guided him towards it, he complied.

Tony shook his head, looking over at me. "Hell of a pair."

" _ **Blame HYDRA,"**_ I replied. **_"We need to take those assholes out."_**

Several people entered the cafeteria, SHIELD personnel with degrees I couldn't pronounce came in. Steve gently strapped Bucky down, whispering gently to him. Once Bucky was completely set in his seat, the scientists went inside.

"Well, time to clean the crazy Russian super-assassins brain," Tony said flippantly. "You know, I still think we should give him some improvements. I could make him as smart as me. Well, maybe a little less than half, but still."

" _ **I think he'll be fine with just being himself,"**_ I looked at Tony. **_"I gotta go. You gonna be okay here?"_**

Tony hesitated. He stared at Bucky for a moment, and I saw his fists clench. He looked at Steve, then lifted his eyes towards my bright yellow ones. After a moment, he sighed.

"He killed my parents. And I know, it wasn't his fault... But it still bothers me," Tony shook his head. "The only two things that are going to push me through this is that Steve wants his friend back, and Natasha promised to help me track down the asshole who gave the order."

I nodded. Tony didn't notice, simply walking forward to enter the cell.

"Hey," A certain bald superhuman said. I looked over at Creel. He was leaning against his door, his face pressed against the window. "How will I know when this is done?"

I walked over to be face to face with him, returning to my human form with a tap on the Omnitrix. "When you can hear words like 'comply' and 'reward' without feeling pleasure, happiness, or need."

Creel winced, staring at me. "And then what? You let me go?"

"Not up to me, Creel," I admitted. "If it was my choice, I'd probably just let you go... well, not before letting Rath have another go with you."

"Give it a shot," Creel challenged.

For a moment, we glared at each other. Funny. I'd never had a rivalry with anyone before.

"But right now, we're trying to counter HYDRA with all we've got. They're attacking the SHIELD academy, so we'll start there. Once we've had time to sit down... we'll see."

Creel didn't seem satisfied with that. He stared at me for a bit longer, then turned and walked to sit at his chair again, staring at the TV with intensity as lights played across his face.

I looked at him a moment longer, then at the cell next door, where a metallic headband was being placed on Bucky's forehead. I sighed and left the room.

"How are our two brainwashed assassins doing?" Fury asked as I entered the bridge.

"Hey, I take offense to that," While Clint tried to say it jokingly, he ended up more morose towards the end of his sentence. Natasha noticed, giving him a sad smile, and he returned it with a chagrined nod.

"They're ok," I said. "It'll take time before we can say they're free of their conditioning. But for now, they're on their way. I just wish we didn't have to do it on the move."

"Its the only choice we have," Fury looked around.

The bridge had been totally repaired by my Jury Rigg form, as it turned out Upgrade didn't return items to undamaged states, something War Machine's armor also showed. As Jury Rigg I'd altered the area at the front of the room where Rhodey and I had blown Creel out of with a big steel wall that projected a holographic image of the outside. It also worked as a main control for the ship, allowing Fury to pilot it with his eye alone.

The room was full of SHIELD agents working at the consoles. X's device was plugged into a wall nearby. I walked by and gave X an affectionate pat.

"Okay, when do we deploy?" I asked Fury, sitting next to Natasha.

He scoffed. "Yeah, I'm still not sure I should deploy you."

"Are you just saying that out of habit by now?" I asked.

"Paranoia has kept me alive so far," Fury admitted. "But yeah, let's get this done. Natasha, you, Dial and War Machine will go to one academy. Clint, you go to the other with Falcon, and some of the Quinjet pilots. I'll stay here with Steve and Tony in the meantime. Meanwhile, the helicarrier Sharon and the Council are on will head to the rendezvous."

"Should Sharon really be in charge of a helicarrier?" Natasha asked curiously.

Fury smiled. "I trust her. And her name, despite her wishes otherwise, has a history. You all head out in five. For now, I believe you have something to talk about with him," He nodded towards me.

I groaned in annoyance. "Oh come on, is five minutes enough for interrogation?"

"No," Natasha stood up and waved for me to follow. "But I promise, it's not an interrogation. I just want to talk."

Still feeling hesitant, I rose up, looking back at Clint. I expected a smirk, but instead, he nodded silently, his face carefully neutral. Well, that didn't bode well.

Natasha lead me into a side room, someplace filled with lights and levers that Jury Rigg would have loved to tear apart. The space was narrow, barely big enough for us both. I raised my eyes as Natasha turned around.

"You know, if you wanted to get me alone while you're wearing a leather outfit, asking help from Fury to do it just makes it weird," I said, trying to seem casual.

Natasha, way more of an expert at the game of talking out of your ass while being super-cool, raised an eyebrow. "That's not why you're here."

I didn't say anything.

"Your hands," Natasha said. I looked down at them. "They're shaking. Not often. But every once in a while."

"..."

"And then there's the Omnitrix. You keep looking for reasons to change. Used to be only when you needed it. But now..."

I leaned against the wall and sat down, pressing my back against the levers and lights on the cold steel behind me. My legs were squeezed in by the tight space. Natasha sat down next to me.

"I found the body," she said. "Down below. Stabbed in the throat, with footprints of a human and Swampfire next to it."

"Yeah," I said softly. "I changed into him right after."

She nodded. "How do you feel?"

"...I don't know," I admitted. "I... I know that I had to do it. It was him or me. But I thought any kill I did it would be me shooting a guy with Feedback, or shooting a crystal as Diamondhead or... Nothing that personal. Not as me. Not while looking into his eyes."

Natasha didn't speak.

"So... you've killed people. I mean, I know I had to do it, and it helps to remind myself of that, but... Any idea what I should do? Should I try to get over it so I can process it easier next time? Or just..." I trailed off, not saying anything else.

"I'm not the person to tell people what their morals should be," Natasha admitted. "Hell, ask Steve and Tony and they'll tell you the exact opposite."

"I don't care," I said. "I'll talk to them later. Right now I have you."

"Poor you," Natasha teased. After a bit of silence, she tapped my knee. "Look. Everyone processes this differently. Talking helps some people. Some are just born for it. Others never get over it. And some can take it and keep doing it when it's necessary. You won't know which you are until you find yourself in the moment again. Killing isn't something we all should reach for. But when it's necessary... You might have to again."

I nodded slowly. Not accepting it. But this was the real rule. I might have to kill again. If I wanted to survive. For some reason, that helped. Knowing I'd only done it when I needed to, that I would _only_ do it if I had to... having someone else say it helped.

"For now, stick by me. I'll protect you," Natasha said with a smirk.

I chuckled. "Don't I have the watch with the uber-powerful aliens on it?"

"Yeah well," Natasha rose up, helping me as well. "Somehow, I feel like you still need protection. Now come on. We have a mission to do."

I smiled down at her. "Yes, ma'am."


	15. Chapter 15

When we got close enough, Natasha launched us in a Quinjet while Clint took Falcon in another one. It was kinda cool, being part of a fleet of Quinjets seperating to fly from a giant flying command center. The helicarrier was behind us in moments. Rhodey and I sat in the back, his armor standing in the center of the large space in a tall rack. It was weird speaking to Rhodey. In a weird way, I now knew him better than anyone else in the world. We had been one, and my direct link to Zola's algorithm had given me even more intimate knowledge than that. But there was something else to talk about.

"While we were uh... when you were linked with the suit," Rhodey said in the seat across from me. "Jarvis managed to get an understanding of what you were doing. Tony thinks he can replicate it."

I cocked my head. "What, make a permanent Upgraded War Machine?"

"No," Rhodey shook his head. "He thinks he can, in a limited way, make his own version of your alien."

I stared at him.

"Yeah," he said with a nod. "Jarvis found out that Upgrade is technically made of some combination of organic matter and nanotechnology," Rhodey waved a hand dismissively. "I don't know, it is way over my head. But he wants to use the data from War Machine to study it."

I looked over at War Machine, thinking about that. In the comics, Tony had done some amazing stuff with nanotechnology. Made suits as close to liquid as they were solid steel, really bleeding edge stuff. Pun intended.

But Upgrade wasn't just nanomachines, he was a living being. If Tony went too far, he would create actual life just like the Galvan and Azmuth did by total mistake. And people who do that tend to end up with a lot of problems. Seriously, making life is generally a bad idea in fiction unless you cover all your bases and even then it was a hit and miss kind of thing. The only reason the Galvanic Mechamorphs worked out is cause the Galvan instantly treated them as their own people the second it was made clear they were sapient. Even then, Malware still showed up, though it could be argued whose fault that was. So... needed to figure out what to do about such a thing.

"I need to talk to him about that," I said, still staring the War Machine armor. I looked at Black Widow, then got up and walked to look out the window. "In the meantime, what's the mission? I mean, I know what it is, but I don't want to screw it up, so a refresher is good."

"The SHIELD Academy of Science and Technology is a few minutes away. We're meeting a man named Tomas Calderon, who's assembled a squadron of Quinjets to join us. He'll make a perimeter with War Machine, you and I will go inside. You'll follow my lead while I'm training you."

"Training me?" I asked, blinking.

"I'm multitasking," Natasha said simply. "You'll stay human unless I say otherwise, and I'll see how you do. Not sure if you noticed but once you return to being a human you are not exactly much of a threat and people can easily take advantage of that. Besides, this way we can conserve the watch so you don't time out too quickly."

I looked over at Rhodey, who smiled kindly. I looked back at Natasha. "Shouldn't that be something I learn at a training facility or something?"

"Well, we are going to an academy," Natasha gave me a grin.

"Smartass," I replied. "How about Rhodey?"

"You need to learn on the job," Rhodey said. "And I've got the firepower in case someone attacks from the outside that the Quinjets can't handle."

I nodded, but still felt uncomfortable. Natasha noticed.

"You want to transform, don't you?"

That was it. I was more comfortable being an alien right now. Stupid useless angst. I sighed in acknowledgment. I turned and walked over to sit across from Rhodey again. "Yeah, I guess so. I shouldn't for a bit, should I?"

"I'm no psychologist," Rhodey said. "But I am a soldier. I remember my first kill, that moment after it's over. You know what I felt?"

"...Relief," I said.

Rhodey nodded. "Because I was alive. I even felt proud, that I'd beaten him, that I'd survived."

"And that's normal?"

"It's human, man. We're supposed to do everything in our power to survive and to feel happy when we do. It's okay to feel that way, for a brief moment. It's normal to feel horrified afterward too. Just remind yourself that you're doing the right thing and that you have people to talk to."

"Then you can go to therapy if you need it," Natasha said seriously. "But for now, we have a mission. Strap in."

I put on the belts on my seat as Rhodey did the same next to me. Natasha lowered the Quinjet, the motion of the jet giving me a feeling similar to when an elevator dropped, that shift when your stomach is left catching up with the rest of you. Rhodey drew my attention with a wave, pointing at a headset hanging from the ceiling, and put one on his own head. I followed his directions as the sound of other aircraft could be heard outside.

"Calderon, this is Romanov, do you read?" Natasha said on her headset.

Rhodey and I listened. It was silent for a long uncomfortable moment.

"I read you, Romanov," a male voice responded. He didn't sound happy. "So Fury sent you?"

"Will that be a problem?" Natasha asked.

"...No," the guy said after a moment too long for his answer to be honest. Rhodey and I shared a look. "You have any Avengers with you?"

"No, just two specialists."

"Normal?"

She looked back at us. Rhodey and I shrugged. "Not really."

"Christ," the guy cursed. "Fine, whatever. We'll discuss when we land."

"Can't wait," Natasha rolled her eyes.

"If it helps, technically we are normal, we just have really cool toys."

"Doesn't matter to some people," Rhodey replied. "My armor is enough for most people to get really worried. That watch is probably worse considering it's not human-made. Hell, it explicitly turns you into aliens."

I sighed at that but nodded. Sadly, most people wouldn't believe the Omnitrix is technically a diplomatic tool rather than a weapon.

Natasha didn't say anything as we came in towards the building ahead.

When we landed, Rhodey got into his armor, the suit opening in the front to let him inside. I made sure the Omnitrix was tight on my wrist, not really necessary, but it was a ritual I was used to. Then Natasha walked up to me and handed me something while looking me in the eyes.

"I want you to stay human for a bit, that doesn't mean I'm leaving you defenseless," she reached into a pocket and took out a pair of tiny disks, passing them to me. "Taser disks," she explained as I stared at the small circles. "They release a burst of electricity when you activate them. Use them as projectiles if you have to."

"Got it," I put them into a pouch on my belt. We waited for the back of the Quinjet to open, then went down the ramp.

The school was quiet. We'd landed in the parking lot of the Academy, which had several black SUV's parked in a circle and one other Quinjet on the ground. The school itself looked like any college or university I'd ever seen in my life, if more modern, with a large SHIELD symbol high up on one of the walls.

More Quinjets hovered around the school, with soldiers running around. They all had their phones strapped to their hips, the Hercules app flashing green. Some of the soldiers had gathered around the Quinjet with guns drawn. We confidently stepped out like badasses, and the Hercules app at their waist flashed green, prompting them to lower their guns.

"Sorry about that," One man said. While he wasn't dressed in black combat gear like the others, he seemed to be in charge. A tall, bald man, wearing a vest over a button up shirt and a small bulletproof vest over that. "We weren't sure if it was really you," he came up and held a hand out to Natasha, who shook it. "Tomas Calderon, I'm here to assist in your operation, Agent Romanov."

"Understood," Natasha said. She nodded towards us. "These are my assets. War Machine and Dial."

"They Avengers?" He asked, looking between us, noting Rhodey's armor and my very unique uniform.

"Reserve," she said, even though I wasn't sure there was an official name for what Rhodey and I were to the current SHIELD.

"Hmm," he said, a complicated look on his face.

"Problem?" Rhodey asked.

"No... I have issues with people who have as much power as the Avengers do. But you helped us at the Triskelion, so it would be stupid of me to let my suspicions get in the way of my professionalism," Calderon said evenly.

"Very magnanimous of you," Natasha said diplomatically.

"Okay, my team is ready to go," Calderon said. "Ten men, plus me."

"Got it," Natasha looked at Rhodey. "You good?"

"Yep," he gave me a friendly pat on the shoulder before his mask snapped down and he took off into the sky with a loud 'fwoosh' of noise.

"Huh," Calderon said, watching as Rhodey flew to join the Quinjets. He looked at me. "So, you need a gun?"

I patted my handgun. He seemed to accept that as an answer.

"Okay, we move on Black Widow!" He said to soldiers nearby.

"That means follow me," Natasha said helpfully, smirking when I gave her an annoyed glance.

"You want me to follow the buddy system?" I asked as we walked towards the school. "Do we get juice snacks when this is over?"

"If you're good," she joked, then became more serious. "Okay, you had time before and during the flight to study this place. What do you know?"

"Uh..."

"The first lesson about missions is learn everything you can about them," Natasha said, going up some stairs as the soldiers followed. "The location, the targets, evacuations points, history, allies nearby. What do you know about it?"

"The uh, the school is one of three run by SHIELD," I said hurriedly. "SHIELD sends all the smart people they can here, the ones with PhD's. It's run by Dr. Jennifer Weaver."

"Good enough," some soldiers ran ahead to the glass doors ahead, opening them for us as Natasha and I took out our guns. "Next time, I want you to try and memorize maps of the area we're trying to attack. Even the slightest idea of what a place is like can save your life, or save others."

I nodded, kinda amazed at the turn my life had taken that lead to me getting lessons from Black freaking Widow.

"Okay, I'll take point, you stay by my side, Calderon, you're upfront with us. Dial, you get ready to transform if need be, okay?"

"Understood," Calderon and I said in unison.

We entered the school.

The place was an odd combination of clean and futuristic with the messy aftermath of an evacuation. Despite all the glass windows, stylish statues, and clean marble everywhere, there were also papers spread all over the place, scuff marks on the floor, signs of people running away from something. It was eerily quiet in the school.

We walked through the hallways as a group, moving at a loping pace. I tried to copy the professionalism of the soldiers around me but found it easier to just walk like a human being and not a loaded spring.

"Okay, down this hallway," Tomas said, leading us to the right. "The bunker should be in the next building."

Things felt tense. It felt like we were in the middle of a haunted house, with the papers everywhere, the silence of everything except the Quinjets outside and our footsteps. I took a breath and looked at Natasha. She wasn't affected by the tense atmosphere, just doing that catwalk she did that drew the eye. When she saw me looking she smiled.

"Always project confidence," she whispered. "Even when you're worried."

"Are you?" I asked her.

"More suspicious," she said. "HYDRA should have sent someone, anyone. These are the most brilliant minds in the world, but they left them untouched. Even the HYDRA personnel hidden among the faculty and students gave up without a fight. That worries me."

Suddenly, a loud sound came from ahead of us. We all froze, aiming our guns forwards.

"Or they were waiting," Tomas said.

We went towards the noise. My palms were sweaty, forcing me to wipe them off on my pants so my grip wouldn't slip. When we got to the end of the hall, Tomas pressed himself against the corner leading to a wide space. We went up against the wall behind him. He held a hand up and poked his head around the corner, then pulled back. He grabbed his phone and held it up. The Hercules app flashed red when he pointed it around the corner.

"HYDRA," he confirmed what we already knew. "Six of them, moving around."

"How'd they get past the perimeter?" I asked.

"No idea," Tomas said. "But they're there. Should we try to capture one?"

"Yes," Natasha said. "But leave that with me. Move in after I engage." Without waiting for a response, she went around the corner.

We all shared a look. "Uh," I said softly. "I kinda wish I could see what was about to happen."

"Me too," a guy behind me said.

"Hello, boys," Natasha said from ahead of us.

Tomas leaned over to look. I put my head over his to see as well.

Black Widow was fighting in a room full of cafeteria tables, the kind of place that students could hang out. I'd played a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh on tables like those. Natasha parkoured over a one such table and kicked a HYDRA agent while his friends were staring at Natasha. Apparently, her casual greeting had been enough to throw them off. When the first guy was reeling back, the others raised their hands up. Natasha grabbed the guy she'd kicked and pulled him in front of her.

The soldiers hesitated long enough to let me take a good look at them. They were all dressed in black uniforms, with purple visored helmets. Over the outfits, they wore what looked like exoskeletons with gold sections on the chest and extremities, sections of them glowing with purple lights. Their hands had what looked like gauntlets on hands, with a section over their knuckles looked like a fusion of a brass knuckle and a energy weapon. When they couldn't get a shot on her, three of them activated rockets on their backs and feet, lifting into the air to move around. Natasha threw a taser disk at one of the fliers, making him scream and quiver in the air, slamming through a couple tables in a uncontrolled flight.

"Now!" Tomas yelled.

We went around the corner fast, the soldiers firing their guns as they moved in. After a moment of hesitation, I started shooting as well, my handgun bucking in my hands. Natasha shot the guy she was holding in the back and twisted out of the way of an attack.

HYDRA started shooting purple beams from the gauntlets on their hands, one shooting towards us. I ducked a beam and shot my gun at the guy who'd shot at me. He dodged and fired a shot at the soldier next to me, hitting him in the arm and sending him screaming to the floor with his arm removed. Incensed, I grabbed a taser disk and threw it at the guy. It attached to his foot, sending him into convulsions. The guy who's arm had been blasted off shot the HYDRA agent in the throat.

Natasha leaped from a pillar to grab one of the flying soldiers, bring him down and electrocuting him with her Widow's Bite gauntlets, the tasers built into her wrists. He screamed, passing out after a minute.

One of the SHIELD soldiers died when the last HYDRA agent shot him and tried to blast out of a window, but he feel under the hail of bullets that hit him as assault rifles fired on his retreating form.

Tomas looked around in the aftermath of the attack, turning to give Natasha and me a look of sadness when he saw one agent dead and another missing an arm. "How did they get here? What is this stuff they got a hold of?"

"Let's ask," Natasha looked at the HYDRA agent on the floor. "Dial, we may have more in the base. Go Fasttrack, search through the academy and find out if there are others."

I looked at her. She nodded. I raised the watch and switched to Fasttrack, pressing the face down. In a moment, blue and black fur appeared on my form. I gave Natasha a wave, ignoring the shocked gasps that followed my turning into an alien. I was about to leave when I looked at the dead SHIELD agent, then the one whose arm had been removed, who was being tended to by one of his friends. Then I turned to Tomas.

"I'm sorry about your man there," I looked back at the man who'd lost his arm. "And try to visit me when you get the chance. I'll try to whip you up a new arm," I left immediately afterward.

Damn, Natasha was right. I really wished I'd read a map before coming here. I did my best, rushing through each hallway, sending papers scattering through the place in my wake. Empty classrooms, offices, dorms, nothing for a bit. Then I got to the other side of the campus.

HYDRA agents, about fifteen men and one woman. The men were all dressed in the same futuristic armor as the others, the woman, funnily enough, wore a brown leather jacket and had a black tank top on. She also looked like Michelle Rodriguez. Damnit, she was probably someone special, if the trend in this universe followed.

They were in one of the larger classrooms, the kind I saw in movies about colleges all the time, with the amphitheater style set up. I was at the top where the students sat, while HYDRA had taken positions at the bottom near the professors desk. As I watched, three more people popped into existence, surprising the hell out of me. They looked up when I entered, but I ran out the other door and lifted activated the communication function of the Omnitrix.

"This is Dial, I've found more HYDRA at the classrooms. They're teleporting in somehow."

" _We know,"_ Natasha said. _"The guy we caught says HYDRA has some sort of item, a 'Phase something', he doesn't know the full name. Apparently, it lets them teleport wherever they have coordinates."_

"Shit," I cursed. "Okay, I'm going to switch to Jury Rigg and create something to cut them off from teleporting."

" _Can you do that?"_ Natasha asked.

"No idea, but Jury Rigg hasn't failed me yet," I responded. "They're dropping into Lecture Hall 17-B. I'm going to go grab some computers to make the device and try stopping them."

" _Go ahead,"_ Natasha said quickly. _"We'll meet you there. Rhodey, you hear all that?"_

" _Yeah, I got it,"_ Rhodey responded. _"Even if they've got cheap copies of Tony's armor, I can stop them."_

" _Let us know if you and the Quinjets need help,"_ Natasha said. _"Clint, Falcon, you get that?"_

" _Yeah, we'll keep an eye out if they try to teleport to this academy too,"_ Clint answered.

" _Tomas is going to send a team to the bunkers, we'll meet Dial near their entry point,"_ Natasha said. _"Move out."_

 _Author's Note:_ So yeah, this was fun to write. The war is just beginning, and HYDRA is bringing a lot of toys out early.

So Natasha asking Dial not to transform. There are reasons for it. First, using the aliens as an escape, treating his human form like it's somehow bad for him to confront his issues without changing personalities, is a bad idea. The Omnitrix has safety features to prevent that for good reason. More pragmatically, she wanted to wait until necessary to change him because the Omnitrix timeout is so unpredictable. Waiting will conserve the energy until it's needed. As soon as she saw there was danger, they were good.

That said, Dial would have transformed anyways the moment he had too. He just knows good advice when he hears it.


	16. Chapter 16

It didn't take me long to find a place with things I could make use of. Luckily I was in a school dedicated to science and technology and I soon found a room dedicated to engineering that was full of things like robot arms, half-built computers, and something that looked like a laser gun that had married a video game console. Everything was placed on the various tables and counters in haphazard ways, which made sense since any students that had been in there had evacuated out before they could put away their projects.

I didn't stop to admire them. I entered the room as Fasttrack and tapped the Omnitrix. I didn't call out when I changed, the need to be silent overriding the habit.

Something interesting happened when I turned into the tiny form of Jury Rigg this time. As I looked around at all the half-finished projects I could see all the love and care that had been put into them. Someone had clearly tried to build something beautiful with that robotic arm, something that could replace prosthetics. That computer over there had a chip more advanced than anything on the market, but I could see it was made for video games. It was a passion project, not just a school assignment. Most of what I could see was made by people who loved creating things.

So I hopped onto the table and patted the robotic arm affectionately. Then I ignored it, and all the others. Instead, I ran to a shelf full of parts and tore into it, metal shelf included. A calculator had been left on the floor, so I grabbed that too.

"DISASSEMBLE!" I coughed a moment later. "Uh, disassemble," I whispered this time. Hopefully, there were no HYDRA nearby to hear that first cry.

I focused on my work, going through the various objects before finally finishing my first device. Considering the time crunch, I'd been forced to make something less ornate than I would have wanted, just something similar in shape to the Stargate from... well, Stargate. I raised the ring up in my red claws and adjusted it a bit.

"X," I whispered. "You connected?"

" _Yes sir,"_ he replied.

"Good, I'm about to activate this teleportation jammer. It'll work, but I want to see if the range is what I'm hoping for."

" _...I thought you were going to ask me to self-destruct."_

I blinked in shock. "What?"

" _It is the common next step in fictional stories when a computer gains sentience despite the creator's wishes. In order to assauge any fears you may have, please know I am ready to self-terminate. I do not wish for you to be in trouble for my creation, nor to lead you to fear that I will hurt you or others."_

To that, I could only shake my head. "What kind of angsty... X, those stories are bullshit. If you want, we can discuss it in full later, but know that I trust you. If it helps, focus on Data from Star Trek, or KITT from Knight Rider. Then you'll know why I'm not worried. For now, we've got work to do buddy."

I felt like I'd been very abrupt. But the idea I couldn't trust X was ridiculous. Maybe, if I'd been human, I'd have been nicer. As Jury Rigg, I knew him more than anyone else I'd ever meet. The question of his loyalty was ridiculous.

" _Understood sir,"_ he said over the comms.

With that, I activated the ring. The center of the ring ejected several panels that changed the ring into a round disc, 'closing the iris'.

" _I can read the range of effect, sir,"_ X said. _"It covers every bit of the school."_

I tweaked the device a bit.

" _It has extended a yard. How far can you have the range of your device cover?"_

"Not as much as I wish," I admitted. "But it will be enough to prevent easy access to the school, and defend the rendezvous when we get there."

Placing the Iris Device on my waist, I made one more device before I was finished. I reached for the Omnitrix and changed into Fasttrack, the devices I'd made resting on my hips. I ran for the room, then took a detour to hide one of the devices I'd made, a 'just in case' measure.

"This is Dial, I've finished the device. When they try to teleport in they'll just bounce back to where they came from now."

" _Good,"_ Natasha said. _"Come back, we're going to need you."_

"I'm already here," I said, coming to a stop next to her an instant later. Tomas and his guys pointed their guns at me, but Natasha held her hand up to stop them and nodded. They were a few rooms from the lecture area that HYDRA had taken as a beachhead if they hadn't moved on. More SHIELD agents stood with us, ready to move in, with some downstairs.

"All right, let's move in," Natasha said. "Dial, take out as many as you can while we move in. 3, 2," I leaned into a sprinting position. "1-"

I was gone in an instant. I entered the room and looked around. The HYDRA soldiers seemed confused as to why no more of their people were teleporting in. Apparently, they'd been hoping for more numbers before going on the attack, but there were only about forty in the room now. Some were floating in the air in their armor like discount Iron Men. I leaped towards one at super-speed, smashing my feet into his chest as he floated there. I pushed off from him to jump towards another guy, twisting in the air to punch him in the face. As soon as I hit the ground, I was running again. HYDRA realized there was someone in their midst, and tried to aim at me. But Fasttrack was way too fast. I ducked around a purple bolt by dropping into a slide, then popped up for a blisteringly fast uppercut that sent a guy backflipping to smash into a wall. I did a back kick into another guys knee, shattering his leg, then ran to a man who was taking off. He tried to shoot me, and I was forced to spin around the purple energy bolt. As soon as I was safe, I leaped up and grabbed him as he tried to fly away, pulling him down before spinning around ten times and throwing him at his friends.

At the same time, SHIELD rushed into the room through the upper and lower doors. They charged in weapons raised, yelling for surrender.

That's when the woman who looked like Michelle Rodriguez acted. Her eyes began to glow a bright red, which could not be a good sign. She looked at the SHIELD agents that had entered through the lower floor. They started staring at her with... uncomfortably lustful eyes. Then they pointed their guns at the SHIELD agents on the higher level and started shooting.

"Down!" Tomas yelled, ducking behind some desks. "What the hell are they doing!?"

"Dial, get their guns!" Natasha yelled, shooting a HYDRA agent in the head before her cover was blown apart by a purple beam, forcing her to switch to a different section.

I had a moment of shock before I ran towards the SHIELD agents. I passed through their ranks three times, grabbing their guns and piling them in my arms before running upstairs to drop them next to Tomas and his men. I looked at the SHIELD agents, who blinked at their now empty hands before they pulled out handguns. I was going to run and pull those out of their hands as well when the SHIELD agents held their guns to their heads.

"Stop!" Michelle Rodriguez's double shouted.

The room froze for a moment. Natasha looked at her and cursed. "Davida..."

"Hey, Nat," the woman said casually. The SHIELD agents below, still holding guns to their heads, moved to join the HYDRA soldiers. "You look good."

"So do you," Natasha said casually, pointing her gun at the HYDRA soldiers. "That's a new trick," she nodded towards the SHIELD agents currently threatening to kill themselves.

The woman, Davida I guess, scowled but nodded. "It's something HYDRA gave me. I don't like using it, but I have my orders. Invade the academy and take the students."

"You're HYDRA?" Natasha asked.

"I'm hired by them," Davida corrected.

"Natasha," Tomas asked as I watched alongside him. "Who is she?"

Davida smirked. "Someone you love..." Her eyes flashed red, which could not have been good.

"Damn it!" Natasha attempted to fire her weapon.

But by then, I was already in love with Davida.

Why shouldn't I be? I'd always loved her. I'd only met her moments ago, but she was just so... perfect. Everything about her, from her raven hair to the way her leather jacket and blue jeans hugged her form.

That was when I saw Natasha pulling the trigger and acted before she could. With Fasttrack's speed, I kicked Natasha in the side. Not enough to break her ribs, but enough to push her to the floor.

As she landed, Tomas and the other SHIELD agents grabbed at Natasha. She rolled to her feet, jammed an elbow into a soldier trying to wrap his arms around her, then kicked Tomas in the thigh when he tried to punch her. She leaped over a desk to escape another SHIELD agent's grasp

Then I grabbed her by her hair and pulled until she was bent backward. Natasha struggled against my enhanced strength for a moment, then tossed a taser onto my chest.

"Aaaaagh!" I screamed, letting go of her. Natasha spun away, then rolled when purple bolts and bullets aimed at her. Desperate to please my love, I ran towards her. Natasha got up to confront me, but she was far too slow. I was already-

The Omnitrix timed out. I came to a stop in front of Natasha, who grabbed me by the shoulder and twisted around to throw me out the door behind her, the both of us getting out before bullets and purple beams passed through the air where we were once standing.

"Snap out of it!" Natasha yelled at me, slamming my face into a wall.

"I already did!" I yelled back.

Natasha pressed me harder into the wall. "Wait, what?"

"I have a different brain now, pretty sure changing cures mind-control!" I yelled again. Although I was confused. I had been certain that the Omnitrix protected against that sort of thing... our maybe Davida's powers could overcome that somehow?

"...That's useful," Natasha said.

A whistle came from downstairs. We looked down the stairs and I groaned. "Ah, shit."

Davida was down the hall. She smirked up at us, then looked at me before her eyes glowed red.

"You titanic bitch-" I had time to mumble. Then I was in love again.

But this time Natasha was ready. She grabbed the Omnitrix the second it turned green, twisted the dial, and slammed down on it before flipping away.

I grew several feet. Orange and black striped fur grew across my body. I roared, a massive blast of noise that felt like freedom.

" **Rath!"**

Behind me, SHIELD agents stormed out to start shooting at me. I ignored the bullets bouncing off my skin with ease. "Let me tell you something, Davida-Who-Is-Working-For-HYDRA!" I yelled, grabbing a SHIELD agents gun and snapping it over my knee, before gently headbutting another. "Rath doesn't like getting mind-controlled! Only Rath can tell Rath's brain what to do!"

I got in the way of bullets that would have hit Natasha. She grabbed my head and flipped over me to kick the guy who shot at her, then springboarded off my back to kick another guy.

"Rath's mind is like a black hole that reflects light!" I roared, then sliced a gun in half with my claw before grabbing a HYDRA soldier that had come out of the room to throw him over Natasha as fought two other men.

"That's not how black holes work!" Black Widow pointed out. Natasha grabbed another agent as he walked out and spun him to slam into a wall.

"I will protect my love!" Tomas, yelling desperately, swung a metal baton surrounded by electricity, pressing it against me. I looked down at the baton sending a weak charge through my skin that left me wincing slightly, then grabbed it out of Tomas' hands and snapped it in half.

That's when Davida had made it up the steps. She ran towards me with her soldiers hovering behind her and punched me in the face.

To my shock, her fist sent me through the window behind me, sending me flying through the air with the loud sound of glass shattering. I fell into the courtyard below, and Davida followed, landing on my chest as the concrete below cracked under my landing. She looked into my eyes, smirking as they flashed red.

"You love me," she purred softly. "Don't you?"

I stilled, locking my eyes onto her beautiful face. "Rath... loves you."

Then I punched her in the chest. She let out a startled shout, flying back twenty feet and smashing through a pillar.

 _ **Natasha Romanov/Black Widow**_

Natasha spared a glance when a massive noise was followed by Davida flying back from a punch thrown by Rath. "Huh. Guess he's immune?"

She ducked a punch thrown by one the SHIELD agents and focused on the task at hand. She grabbed the arm of the man who'd tried to punch and elbowed him in the chest with a vicious and quick strike. Then she ran.

Bullets and purple beams flew towards her as she entered a door and ran through a classroom.

"This is Black Widow!" She shouted over the noise. "SHIELD agents have been compromised by a mind manipulator!"

" _Ma'am,"_ X said over the comms. _"I can see you on the school's cameras. I can mark any SHIELD agents that have been affected by Davida Devito's powers if you wish? I can use the Hercules app?"_

"Do it!" Natasha yelled, rolling under a desk when another purple beam sizzled through the air to pass her. "But I'm taking them out before that!"

" _In that case, Dial made sure to leave a non-lethal weapon nearby, in case he needed it,"_ X said, surprising Natasha. _"Run down the hall, then enter the room on your left, the supply closet."_

"He left a weapon for me?" Natasha asked, sprinting at full speed before seeing the supply closet. She entered it and looked around.

" _He left it for himself,"_ X noted. _"A cautionary measure he did on a whim. It's installed with the Hercules App so that any HYDRA using it would have it explode in their faces. A flash-bang."_

Natasha sighed. "I have no idea if I should commend him or be angry at him."

She saw the device instantly. It looked like some sort of ray gun from an old sci-fi movie. Natasha grabbed it and looked it over. "Any idea how to use it?"

" _Point and pull the trigger."_

"What a time for the robot to discover sarcasm," Natasha said with a sigh. She left the room, holding the ray gun in a single hand. She took her time, listening closely to the area around her. After a moment of walking through the silent halls, she heard footsteps.

Soon three SHIELD soldiers and a pair of HYDRA fliers turned the corner. As soon as she saw them she shot the gun in her hands. A strange green projectile shaped like a ball surrounded in a green ring slammed into one of the SHIELD soldiers, lifting him up and tossing him back. Natasha fired again, taking out one of the HYDRA fliers. As the flier fell out of the air, the other three men started shooting, but Natasha ducked aside into a bathroom. The soldiers rushed after her, entering a small side hallway.

It was empty. For a moment, the three men looked around the small hallway in confusion, walked into the hallway.

"Hey boys," someone said, prompting the three to look up. Natasha had a smirk on her face as she held herself against the ceiling with her feet and hands against the walls to apply pressure and keep her in place, pointed her ray gun downwards.

Three loud shots rang out, followed by three bodies hitting the floor. Natasha dropped to the floor and went around the corner. Tomas stood there, looking surprised as they almost bumped into her. He swung a fist at Natasha but she ducked it to gut punch Tomas. He fell back, then received a kick in the head that brought him to the ground. Tomas went to rise up, but Natasha shot him in the chest, knocking him unconscious.

"Well, just a few more to go," Natasha mused to herself.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

I rose to my feet and growled when seven HYDRA soldiers floated out of the window I'd broken to start shooting at me. "Let me tell you something, stupid HYDRA Iron Man knockoffs!" I roared as they shot at me. "Dumb purple beams aren't enough to stop true love!" I leaped up, trying to pull one down so I could probably beat his face in, but he rose out of the way. "Stand still so Rath can beat you up and present your broken bodies to Rath's beloved!"

To my frustration, they responded by shooting me in the face and chest with bright beams of purple light. "All right, that's it! Now Rath's going to have to improvise because Rath left his giant _fly_ swatter at home!"

I took a page out of Creel's playbook and ran to a vending machine, grabbing and tossing it with great speed. **"HAYLEY'S FLIGHT!"** The HYDRA soldier I threw it at tried to dodge but fell out of the sky when the vending machine full of candy bars and gummy bears slammed into his legs, shattering them. I grabbed another one, but HYDRA separated to make it hard for me to aim. I roared.

Then a hail of bullets came out of the sky. They hit one of the HYDRA men shooting me, sending him to the floor in a pool of blood.

"Hey, kid!" Rhodey flew over to me, firing two repulsor beams. "These the guys?"

"Yeah!" I yelled happily. At the same time, Davida rose up from the remains of the pillar I'd sent her through and started striding towards us. "And that's the woman Rath loves!"

Rhodey looked at me through the facemask of his helmet. "Wait, what?"

"Hey, shoot her!" I yelled. "Rath wants to see if she's bulletproof!"

"You need to work on your romance," Rhodey mumbled. Then his minigun spun around and shot at Davida.

She walked through the hail of bullets, letting them bounce off her skin with no effect. Her leather jacket was torn to pieces, her tank top and jeans were ripped, but her face was unchanged. Then she started to grow. Slowly, she rose in height and weight until she was only an inch shorter than I was, her body expanding with muscle, growing denser in general. Her jeans and tank top stretched as well, but held strong despite her growth, leaving her looking kinda badass.

She looked over at Rhodey with a familiar smirk. I moved in front of him and smiled at her, not affected when her red eyes hit me. After all, I already loved her.

"You take HYDRA!" I said.

"Seriously, what is going on?" Rhodey asked as he rose up to start dogfighting the HYDRA soldiers now trying to kill him, dodging their purple beams to fire his repulsors.

"Let me tell you something War Machine!" I yelled joyfully, rushing towards the now massive Davida, who raised her fists up. "Rath's about to ask her to marry Rath! If you're lucky, Rath might just ask you to be Rath's best man!"

Davida dodged around my charge, then grabbed me by the waist and spun to throw me through a wall. I crashed through the concrete and landed in a classroom. She ran after me, punching at my face as I rose up, but I blocked her fist on my arm. I clawed at her face, and she winced as the razor sharp weapon on my fist bounced off her chin, though it did leave a small cut in the process. I grabbed her by the shoulders and headbutted her. **"VREDEFORT HEADBUTT!"** She took the blow, then returned it with a headbutt of her own.

With that, we began punching each other, our massive forms tearing through the school.

 _ **Colonel James 'Rhodey' Rhodes/War Machine**_

Rhodey shook his head as he watched the giant tiger and woman throw themselves into the school. "I miss normal sometimes," Rhodey said to himself.

Then he was flying after a HYDRA soldier. The man tried to shot Rhodey as the pair flew in the air, but Rhodey dived around the glowing purple and fired a single repulsor blast into the other man's chest.

As though signaled by the death of the first soldier, other HYDRA came out of the building.

"All Quinjets!" Rhodey yelled as he fired the machine guns on his arms and shoulder at the dozens of men rising into the sky. "Prepare to engage hostiles, ones in power armor!"

" _Roger that, War Machine!"_

Several aircraft spun to face the school. Rhodey dived into the HYDRA fliers and smashed one in the chest with a hard kick, spinning to shoot another one with a repulsor blast as his minigun aimed fire at several more, hitting one in the legs and another in the chest.

A HYDRA agent flew into Rhodey's back and held on, shooting him in the back with his gauntlet weapon. War Machine yelled in pain as his HUD sent him warnings, and spun in the air to throw the guy off him before his minigun spun around to kill the man.

War Machine rose up and fired off repulsor blasts and bullets as fast as he could. HYDRA soldiers spun around in the skies and tried killing him, their purple beams sometimes slamming into him. Rhodey grunted as he took a couple hits to the chest that scared his armor, but thanked god for Tony when the suit held strong.

The Quinjets joined in and started shooting as well. Some of the HYDRA fliers swarmed one of the Quinjets, their gauntlet fire tearing the aircraft apart.

Rhodey dived down suddenly when he saw a group of HYDRA fliers trying to get to the parking lot. He went under a bridge while shooting one in the back with a repulsor, stopped to grab one by the leg and spin the HYDRA flier around to throw him at a stone bench, then flew forward shooting with every bullet he had.

The men in the parking lot that had been turned into an evacuation point saw the HYDRA fliers coming towards them and began firing upon them. Bullets and purple beams flew back and forth between the two groups. Rhodey joined in, shooting at the HYDRA soldiers. One of them flew at Rhodey, screaming.

"One head falls, two shall rise!" Rhodey blocked the punch the HYDRA soldier threw at him, then fired a hail of bullets into the chest of the man, the HYDRA fliers armor shattering under the bullets before he fell.

"Guess I should take out two more," War Machine quipped. With that, he raised his arms and kept shooting, sparing a moment to wonder what the massive booming noises behind him were.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

"You're good at this!" I complimented, hoping she liked me as much as I liked her. **"STEDIZIAN REVERSAL!"** With a twist of my hips, I threw her to the ground and started punching her in the face. She took a bunch of blows that shattered the floor under her, then raised her legs up and kicked me in the chest. I flew up and crashed through the ceiling. She leaped up after me through the hole I'd made, punching me in the face.

"Yes!" I roared in joy. "Rath knew you liked Rath!"

"Are you a masochist!?" Davida replied, giving me a kick to the rips that sent me flying through some desks.

"Rath doesn't know what that means!" I replied honestly, rising up as she ran towards me. I punched at her, and her fist smashed into mine. A shockwave was released by impact, destroying the area around us. "Rath would be honored if you married Rath!"

"There is something wrong with you!" She yelled, stepping back.

"We're all crazy when we're in love!"

Davida dropped low and wrapped her arms around my waist, pushing me back and slamming me into a wall, then through it. I raised my arms up and slammed my claws into her ribs and back, over and over again. She yelled in anger, lifted up and pushed me through another wall. I back-flipped as soon as I was through that wall, and rose to look at her.

"Damn it!" Davida grabbed a teachers desk and threw it at me. I punched it out of the air, ignoring the shattered pieces with ease. "You're supposed to be in love with me! Why are you fighting!?"

"To prove Rath's love! How else would Rath do that!?" I shouted back with a grin. I leaped forward and she did the one thing that could have made me like her even more.

She slipped under my attack, grabbed my waist, then bent backwards to slam me into a suplex that sent me down through the floor.

I landed on the next floor with a massive smile on my face. "You're a wrestler!?"

"Yeah," Davida dropped through the floor and glared at me. "So?"

"Let me tell you something, Pretty-Lady-Who-Looks-Like-Michelle-Rodriguez-But-Is-As-Big-As-Me," I rolled to my feet and rushed her. "It means Rath can fight for real!"

Davida's Michelle Rodriguez face twisted into horror when I reached out and grabbed her arm, twisting it behind her back. **"ANTARIAN ARM BAR!"** I sprinted forward with her in front of me, slamming her through a wall, then pressing her face into another one. **"OPHIUCUS FACEPLANT!"** She yelled, twisting to throw me down the hallway we'd crashed into. I grabbed her arm to try and flip her, but she pulled a perfect counter to send me flying instead. I backflipped in the air and slammed my claws into the floor, slicing through the linoleum to come to a stop. Davida grabbed a water fountain out of the wall and threw it at me. I took the blow to my head and let the metal and plastic shatter around me. I ran towards her and slipped around a punch to go for a suplex. She countered by dropping from the grab before I could complete it, spinning to slam an elbow into my neck.

I eyed her, trying to look unfazed by the blow. Then I pointed at the spot she'd hit. "Wanna try again?"

Davida's eyes widened. Then she grinned.

 **Boom!**

I grinned as she stepped back, the shockwave that followed her hit sending a crack of noise in the air. She stood still when I stepped forward and swung my elbow at her.

 **Boom!**

She smiled in challege, not moving an inch.

 **Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!**

Back in forth, in a game of dominance, we slammed our elbows into each other's necks, chaining our attacks as we grinned at each other. After a bit, we stepped back. My neck hurt like hell, but I didn't react to it. Neither did she.

I rushed forward with a running knee, and she stepped aside and clotheslined me. I slammed into the floor and rolled aside when she came with an elbow drop. I rose to my feet and grabbed her as she tried to rise up from the floor. At a disadvantage, I got her head between my knees, squeezing, then grabbed her hips. With a lift I raised her up so her legs were on my shoulder, then began to throw her back first towards the floor.

" **PORTIA POWER BO-"**

Her legs wrapped around my neck. She spun around, pulling me with all her strength. **"TITANIA HURRICARRANA!"**

With a picture perfect counter, I was sent flying, slamming into a trophy case, past that through another wall, then into a desk. I blinked for a second, then rose up and walked towards the hole my entrance made. Davida stared at me as I walked up.

"Titania like the moon?" I asked.

She shook her head, panting. "No, it was my name when I wrestled."

I nodded seriously, then groaned slightly in pain. She was strong, stronger than even Creel in his vibranium form. But I knew I could beat him even then, that only the Omnitrix timing out had stopped me. Rath was unbeatable. And I knew I could beat her now, bruises or not.

Rath had to prove he truly loved her after all.

I ran at her, and Davida tried to duck my outstretched arms. But I grabbed her by the hair and used my vicious grip to knee her in the face. Over and over, until blood dripped from her nose. As she looked at me blearily, I got behind her and wrapped arms around her stomach. "Finishing move!"

One suplex. **"FINAL!"** Another one, this time shaking the academy. **"ATOMIC!"** I leaped upwards, crashing through three floors before we ended up outside of the school, in the open air. I could see Quinjets battling HYDRA soldiers, War Machine flying by to shoot one in the face. Then we began to drop. **"BUSTER!"** Floor by floor, Davida's head leading, we crashed through the school. Finally, we came to a stop on the bottom level. I rose up and looked down at Davida. As I watched, she slowly began to shrink until she'd returned to her former size. When she didn't move, I took her pulse, actually showing a bit of intelligence beyond fighting. Her heartbeat was there, she was just knocked out.

"Rath wins! When you wake up we should get married," I said idly. "Although, if you say otherwise, Rath will respect your decision!"

Feeling warm towards the love of my life, I placed her on my shoulder and walked away, leaving the various holes in the ceiling and the crater we'd created behind.

When I got outside, there were dead or injured HYDRA everywhere. A few of them had been captured, however, getting pushed into a Quinjet. Two of the Quinjets had been downed, but I didn't see more than a fraction of dead SHIELD soldiers compared to HYDRA. Natasha was speaking to an embarrassed looking Tomas when I walked up, still in Rath form. Tomas glared at Davida, who was still unconscious on my shoulder.

"She dead?" He asked angrily.

I shook my head. "Naw, just sleeping off the beating Rath gave her."

He scoffed. "She deserves a bullet in the head. I don't know what she did, but I don't like having my mind played with."

"Davida Devito," Natasha said with a sigh. "An Enhanced with the power to grow in size and strength. Making people fall in love with her is new though, otherwise, I wouldn't have gone in there with so many," Natasha looked at me. "Do her powers not work on you?"

"Are you licensed to do marriages?" I asked suddenly instead of answering, focusing on the real issue.

Natasha and Tomas stared at me, surprised. "Uh... no, no I am not."

I wilted in disappointment.

"Hold on," Tomas said. "If you're in love with her, why did you still fight her?"

I scoffed. "Let me tell you something, Agent Tomas Calderon of SHIELD! Appoplexians like Rath know the best way to show true love is to show off your FIGHTING SKILLS! Throwing a punch is how we show we care! Whoever wins gets to marry the other one!"

"Wait, you mean you get married no matter who wins?" Natasha asked, looking confused.

"It's a WIN-WIN!" I shouted proudly. Then I got worried. "Unless she says no. Then Rath will be respectful."

Right about then is when I timed out and became human again. I dropped Davida in surprise and blinked. I looked around.

SHIELD agents were staring at me. A couple were trying not to laugh and failing outright. Rhodey was floating nearby, his faceplate up so he could grin at me. "...Well that's embarrassing." I stated.

Understatement of the freaking century. Rath, why do you cause as many problems as your fists solve!

Natasha grinned at that. "I can't wait to tell Tony about this."

Yup. Any respect I'd gained from my fellow heroes had gone down the drain. I sighed and decided to start finding a nice place to dig a hole for me to live in.

"Thank you so much," Jennifer Weaver said as her students ran out of the school to head to Quinjets moments later. Davida had been placed in a cryo unit I'd turned into Jury Rigg to make, suspended animation until we could jail her someplace she couldn't physically break out of.

"Not a problem," Tomas said, a band-aid on his head from where Natasha had apparently kicked him while he'd been in love. "Is this everyone?" Tomas said, ushering the students into the Quinjets.

"Almost," the grateful look on Weaver's face became a scowl. "All the members of HYDRA are going last. I'm not putting them together with the others," Despite her anger, there was some sadness in her eyes.

Tomas nodded, though he also had a sad look on his face as he watched some of his men get put in body bags.

I watched from a bench nearby, Rhodey standing next to me. "Man, that was a lot crazier than I expected," I admitted to Rhodey.

"Yeah," he said. "I haven't had a routine mission since the day I put this thing on, to be honest. And my adventures still aren't that crazy. Sometimes I try to tell Tony about some crazy mission, and it's like he's trying to stay awake."

"Well you did just fight a small army of HYDRA soldiers while flying around Quinjets over a school of geniuses while a giant tiger and giant woman fought inside of it," I noted. "That has to earn a few points."

"Nah, pretty sure the Battle of New York still beats that," Natasha said, walking up to join us.

Rhodey nodded in annoyance, though he clearly didn't mind that much. "So what now?"

"We go back to the helicarrier," Natasha said. "You going to join us?"

"...I should report to my superiors... But I can do that at the carrier," Rhodey said. "I'm still needed in this fight if you all will have me."

"Well, it's not up to me," I noted, rising from my seat. "But it's good to have you here. So," I pressed on the Omnitrix and pressed on the dial.

" **Upgrade!"**

Standing up I looked at Rhodey and Natasha. "Wanna fly back in style?" I asked.

The pair shared a look. Natasha grinned.

"You just want to distract us from telling Tony anything, don't you?" Natasha said.

"...Do you want to fly in an Upgraded Quinjet or not? Jerks." I turned and walked away as Rhodey chuckled.

 _Author's Note:_ So a couple of things to address. First, I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. The idea of a giant tiger and giant Michelle Rodriguez fighting through a school and devolving into old wrestling tropes out of the sheer joy of it made me grin.

So yeah, Appoplexians don't see romance the way humans do. If someone shows interest, it's through fighting, much like handshakes. That isn't to say Rath wouldn't have respectfully backed off, but the combination of Davida's mind-whammy and his natural instincts made him want to fight. The way I figured it, it was just how warriors like him court each other, and Rath respects people who say no. RATH RESPECTS A WOMAN'S RIGHT TO CHOOSE!

I also really liked writing Davida Devito. As for why her powers worked despite the Omnitrix, it's more the source of her mind powers than anything. Remember, she didn't have those abilities before, so something gave them to her.


	17. Chapter 17

Moments later my black and green form was joined up with our Quinjet as we rocketed through the sky. I did a roll while Rhodey whopped in joy and Natasha smirked, the two piloting me back to the helicarrier.

"Hey," Natasha asked suddenly as we flew. "How many environments can you survive in?"

I blinked a singular green eye. "What sort do you want me to survive in?"

Natasha pulled on the controls, guiding me to downwards. Curious, I went where she told me too.

"Uh... Natasha?" Rhodey asked.

There was nothing but blue ocean below us. Natasha had that confident smirk on her face as she pushed me to go faster until I broke the sound barrier, not letting up on our downward course at all.

"Natasha!" Rhodey yelled in a panic.

We slammed into the ocean. My surface adjusted to the impact with ease as we dived further and further down into the cold water. I took my radar and sensors and adjusted them for the ocean while turning my HUD into something that would allow Natasha and Rhodey to see in the dark of the sea as though it was lit by a Hollywood movie crew.

"...Wow," Rhodey said in awe.

The bottom of the ocean soon came into view. Still flying at hypersonic speed, I took us to the nearest objects my radar could find. I slowed down and floated upwards when we came closer to the objects I sensed drifting through the waves. Soon, we were in view.

A pod of Orca whales drifted through the ocean, incredibly massive animals that glided in the water as I flew in to join them. The beautiful animals eyed us as I swam alongside them, the sounds of their clicks surrounding them. Their black and white forms seemed to glide with a grace that left me in awe.

The three of us watched for a moment. Rhodey rested his elbows on my dashboard while Natasha rested in her seat and let me pilot myself for a bit.

Soon though, I decided to look for something else thanks to a wish to fulfill an old dream of mine. With a bit of regret, I turned around, leaving the Orcas behind.

I headed towards coordinates after doing a quick Google search, moving through the ocean faster than the worlds top fighter jets. It didn't long for me to get where I was headed.

"Mahmoud?" Natasha said.

"Just... I've always wanted to see this," I said.

"What?" Rhodey asked. "You find Atlantis or something?"

I chuckled at that. "No. But we're in the North Atlantic, and according to my GPS, this should be off the coast of Newfoundland at the right coordinates. I'll admit, maybe it's kind of stereotypical of me to think 'hey, I can swim to the bottom of the ocean at high speed, I want to go to see'..." I trailed off when it came into view.

A ship, resting on the bottom of the ocean. Well, the front of one. It was brown and rusted and cracked in various locations. The part where it had torn from its back section looked squashed, as though a giant had pulled it until it snapped. A metal pole rested across the top of it. Despite the decrepit look of the wreck, it had a sort of majesty to it. You could see the remnants of the great ship it had once been. The Quinjet being positively tiny next to it helped.

"Okay, that is cool," Rhodey said, looking closer.

"That's..." Natasha added softly.

"The Titanic," I clarified. "I've always wanted to see her. It's been a dream of mine since I was a kid. Granted, I wasn't the submarine in my dream..."

While I could easily see every bit of the ship with my robotic eyes even despite the darkness, I still shone a light across its surface, simply for how cool it looked. We flew around the ship, Rhodey taking photos on his phone and Natasha watching peacefully. After a while, Natasha spoke.

"Okay, time to go. Unless you have something else you've always wanted to see?"

I thought about that. Then I rose up, shooting towards the surface. As we slammed into the open air, I kept going, making it clear that my only goal was up towards the sky.

"Oh come on," Rhodey groaned. "Don't tell me you want to see satellites or something?"

"No," I admitted. "But I want to see the curvature of the Earth. See if those flat-earth people know what they're talking about."

"Speaking as a former fighter pilot and current owner of flying power armor capable of going up that high, I guarantee you they aren't," Rhodey said in the dry tones of the severely offended.

Passing the clouds, we were soon high enough that blue sky became black night. My rockets glowed green, pushing me through the atmosphere. The rotors in my wings twisted into engines similar to those one would see on fighter jets. Soon, we were out of the atmosphere, in the middle of true space.

From there, I turned us around. I could see the Earth's beauty below. I could sense satellites in the distance. The sun glowed with enough power to blind a person without protection, which made me glad I'd prepared for that by polarizing the window for Rhodey and Natasha.

And I could sense the moon in the distance. Reaching my sensors out until they were far more powerful than anything on Earth, I found what I was looking for. They were hiding pretty well, but they were there. I hid away that confirmation.

Instead, I focused on the view, on the sight of the clouds on the planet below, on the sun, burning so beautifully, and the place beyond all that. My sensors became telescopes, and I showed Rhodey and Natasha close up views of the other planets.

None of us said anything. We simply watched the wonder around us in peace.

After a moment, we twisted back towards the Earth.

I didn't know what to think. The things we had seen... Few people on Earth had seen either the Titanic in its final resting place on the bottom of the ocean or the deep of space with the Earth rolling beneath them. I couldn't imagine many who had ever seen both. Somehow it felt... like a privilege. Something I had to earn now.

"Thanks," Natasha said. "I... I never thought I would see things like that."

"Me either," I admitted. "I wish we had time. With aliens around, there are planets to visit. People we could talk to. There is so much to do out there."

"Earth isn't good enough for ya?" Rhodey asked jokingly.

I barked out a laugh. "No, of course it is. Our planet is hands down the best man, we created the telephone!"

"Pretty sure other aliens have the telephone too," Natasha noted.

"Well, we also made Cinnabon though," I joked.

"So what?" Rhodey asked. "You eager to see the aliens your watch turns you into?"

Flying as the Quinjet, I felt glad I could hide my reaction.

"I mean, I'll be honest," Rhodey said. "I would not like to fight an entire species that can turn helicarriers into their own personal death machines. Or unstoppable monsters like Rath or Diamondhead."

I didn't answer. Natasha clearly noticed my lack of reaction, but I simply flew towards the helicarrier.

It might be time to give explanations to the group. Maybe not right that second, but after I'd had a moment to think.

"So Rhodey tells me you cheated on him with a giant woman," Tony said a grin as soon as he saw me on the catwalk, staring down at the ocean. He walked up and sat next to me. "I mean what, you two join bodies one second, then you're hitting on someone else the next? You promiscuous bastard."

"First off," I said with a scowl. "You, of all people, calling me promiscuous-"

"He's devastated," Tony said, still grinning. "I mean, you two were once one body, one soul, then a red-eyed tart comes along-

"-I've read the tabloids, I'm pretty sure not a single supermodel on Earth hasn't at least heard a crappy pickup line from you-"

"-I know you're young, but love like the one Rhodey and you share only comes-wait did you call my pickup lines crappy? Kid, I've been with more woman than you've ever stared longingly at-"

We were arguing in the room that had now become the hang out on the ship, someplace that had once been the clear dome on the bottom of the helicarrier. We stood on the catwalk that led to the tower in the center of the room. After a moment, we both ran out of insults, simply staring at the ocean below.

"Rhodey said you wanted to talk to me about something?" Tony asked. "I mean, I generally ignore requests, but if you put one in with Happy..."

I snorted. "It's about you replicating Upgrade. It's about X. It's about a million things."

"Hmf," Tony moved to sit on the catwalk, letting his legs dangle in the air. "Well, that's a lot. You want to start with how X is an AI?" When I gave him a surprised look, he smirked. "Come on, who're you talking to? Of course, I knew. I figured out he'd evolved almost immediately."

"Is that possible?" I asked. "For an AI to develop in a single day?"

"Eh, depends on the AI," Tony said. "I've been trying to make something like that myself, to run certain projects..." Tony waved for me to sit down. Once I'd done so, he spoke again. "Okay, so here's the thing. I want to bring you in on some projects me and a friend have been working on. Usually, you would be too dumb for me to even mention it-"

"I do my best," I said offended.

"Losers whine about their best," Tony said without skipping a beat. "Anyways, where was I? Oh right. Your watch is the most advanced thing I've seen. Hands down. And Jury Rigg can make some unbelievable things out of _literal_ junk. But if we work together..." He removed one of the communications devices we'd made from his ear and held it out. "This thing is going to revolutionize how we talk to people, kid. I mean, quantum entanglement? The ability to talk to someone who is across the universe instantly, no worrying about lag or things like light speed? Once we figure out how to make these without Jury Rigg, and mass produce it... It'll change the world."

I leaned against the metal railing, swinging my legs as I watched him put it away. "You use that watch to turn into mad geniuses, I help you make cool toys, you help me do the same, and I'll pay you. How's that sound?"

"...What about SHIELD?" I asked.

"What, you want to work for them too?" Tony asked. "Sure, we'll throw it in the contract. Just no sharing anything you make for me with them, not without them paying us a shit-ton. Deal?"

I thought about that for a moment. Working with whatever SHIELD was going to become, making money by creating things with Tony 'freaking' Stark. That sounded awesome!

"I'm in," I said. "But one thing. We do everything, and I mean everything, to make sure not to create some sort of Skynet machine, okay? If some robot similar to Upgrade got out, we'd all be in some shit."

Tony rolled his eyes. "All right, fine."

"I'm serious," I said. "I know making robots is cool, but if we do make them, let's make sure they're run by an AI we know isn't crazy. And that any we develop are on a non-networked computer. On the moon. While making sure it knows 'humans are friends, not fuel.'"

He chuckled, nodding. "Yeah, all right kid. Welcome to the Stark Industries R&D department. Bruce is going to love your paranoia."

Later we'd arrived at the rendezvous. Sitting in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with no land in sight for hundreds of miles, was the _Iliad_. It was kinda funny seeing her in the middle of the water with two Insight helicarriers flying over to join her. Sort of a mesh of the old and new. Quinjets and helicopters flew came from across the world, carrying SHIELD agents and personnel from bases everywhere.

Our helicarrier was where the proceedings would take place, so I watched from on top of the command tower as people began to arrive. Tony, Steve, and Clint were with me, all dressed in casual clothes now. I'd chosen to wear a SHIELD t-shirt and sweatpants as we watched the people come onto the ship in droves. Iron Man's good mood had evaporated by now as we watched a plane with rocket engines slowly hover to land on the flight deck. The black plane, called 'the Bus', was big enough that a parking space had to be set aside for it.

"I can't believe he was alive all this time," Tony said.

"He wasn't," I replied. "You saw the same files we did."

"Whatever, temporarily dead!" Tony spat out. "Damn it, I... I mourned for that guy! I went to his funeral, I sent his girlfriend flowers and... shit."

Steveplacede a hand on Tony's shoulder, and didn't look offended when Tony shrugged it off. "He has a lot to answer for, but he did sacrifice everything for the world to try and stop Loki. For that, we should give him a moment to try to explain."

"Explain why he lied to us?" Tony shook his head. "I'm not wired like that, Steve."

"It wasn't anything personal," Clint noted.

"Of course you'd say that," Tony scoffed.

I sat down and watched as the Bus landed. Soon, the hatch in the back opened, and it's occupants came out. In the center stood Phillip J. Coulson, the target of Tony's ire. A man who had died, but was brought back to life in a project called TAHITI, one so secret I couldn't find out any specifics about it. With him were five other people.

Leopold Fitz, a young man with curly brown hair and a mind so brilliant it left me in awe. Standing next to Jemma Simmons, a young woman with long brown hair and a mind for biology that left me just as amazed as Fitz. The two geniuses stood close to each other. Apparently they were together so often people would simply call them Fitz-Simmons.

Melinda May, an older Asian woman with long black hair, and someone so famous in SHIELD that the personnel were constantly whispering about the legend of 'the Cavalry.' A lot of people were trying to find a way to get her with the other famous fighters of our little fleet to start a some sort of tournament between them.

Then there was Skye, last name not chosen. Jarvis had found information that she was actually named Mary Sue Poots, which... goddamn, no wonder she changed it. Mary Sue was bad enough to my writers sensibilities, considering the hatred connected with that name, Poots was freaking ridiculous. She was a skilled hacker, enough for Jarvis to acknowledge her, and was a recent addition to SHIELD.

Last was Antoine "Trip" Triplett, a skilled operative in his own right, and, interestingly, a descendant of a Howling Commando. He was a tall and extremely fit man, with a well groomed mustache.

The group seemed devastated, a sort of heavy sadness shared between them all, even the stoic looking May. As they walked forward, I saw Sharon Carter call out to Trip, who smiled. He walked up to her and the two hugged in greeting.

"Peggy Carter's great niece and Gabe Jones' grandson," I noted as I watched them speak. "Guess it makes sense they know each other."

"Huh," Tony watched them meet with a complicated look on his face. So did Steve.

"I say its just what we need," Clint said. "We're rebuilding SHIELD. It only makes sense for the descendants of the people who made it to be there for it."

Tony didn't seem to know what to think of that, possibly thinking of his father as he watched his fellow members of the 'Descendants of Steve's friends' club. We watched Coulson and his team enter the ship. Next came the crew of the Iliad, flying up on a Quinjet.

Robert Gonzales, the captain of the Iliad, was in the center of his team. He'd only brought three people, none of whom I recognized, since I'd only checked Coulson team on Tony's behalf. One of them, a tall woman with long black hair, looked like Lucy Lawless from _Xena: Warrior Princess_ though, and the blonde had the same looks as the First Officer from the show _The Orville,_ one of my favorite TV shows in my world. They must have been fairly important in this universe.

"Jarvis," I asked, knowing he was listening over comms. "Tell me about the three people with Gonzales."

" _Of course sir,"_ Jarvis said. After a second, he spoke once more. _"The blonde woman is-"_

"Bobbi Morse," Clint said fondly.

I kept from flinching as I realized I was looking at Mockingbird. Then I realized something. "Ex-Girlfriend?"

Clint looked up at me, startled. I grinned at him, as did Tony. "Uh..."

"Oh my god," Tony said with delight in his voice. "Two super-spies dating? Scandalous."

"Glass houses, Tony," Steve noted.

"Yeah, like I'd live in one again, but the last one is still rubble in Malibu," Tony said, still grinning at Clint. "So what, you guys met while stabbing someone at the same time?"

Clint sighed in annoyance. "Can't you keep bothering Dial about his weird love triangle with Rhodey and a supervillainess?"

"Oh come on!" I yelled, annoyed. "I'm terrible enough with women without you guys spreading rumors."

"Nah," Tony said. "Girls like guys with a weird sexual history, makes them curious. Plus, can you imagine how useful some of your aliens would be for-"

"Okay!" Steve interrupted. He spun around to walk away. "Not going to be part of this conversation... Hey Natasha, hey Sam."

We all spun to see an amused Black Widow staring at us with a very amused smirk on her face, Sam grinning madly.

"Catch you ladies at a bad time?" Natasha teased.

"Can you teach me how to flirt?" I asked, frustrated. "So I can somehow expunge the damage Tony is doing to my romantic reputation?"

"If anything, I'm helping," Tony smiled innocently when I glared at him. "Hey, I'm just saying. Some ladies might be into a guy who can turn into aliens like Upgra-"

"Please no!" I plugged my ears in horror. "For the love of God!"

Natasha rolled her eyes at our antics. Then she looked at me. "Dial," I unplugged my ears when I saw how serious she was. "We need to talk. About everything."

"Fury sent us," Sam added. "Said it was time you told us where you came from," he said apologetically.

"...Okay. But I'm going to need some stuff for that."

Moments later, I'd gathered everyone in a room that had once been dedicated to conferences. Avengers only though. That meant Fury, Tony, Steve, Natasha, and Clint. A small group to learn something that could be earth-shattering.

The five of them watched as I worked in Jury Rigg form. I was creating a large ring in the center of the room, building it from one of the HYDRA armors Natasha had found, a TV, and a broken Quinjet ring. It looked like something I'd seen from a kids show once, just a metal ring as tall as Natasha with a bottom section attached to the floor, the armor piece stapled to the ring (literally stapled actually) and the flat screen tv broken and attached to the bottom. Soon, I was done.

"Fix, fix, fix!" I cried triumphantly, stepping away.

"Okay... so what is it?" Fury asked.

"You'll see!" I chirped.

"An entire machine just to tell us where you came from and got the watch?" Natasha asked skeptically.

"And why only us?" Clint added.

"Give him a chance to explain," Steve said. "Mahmoud... go ahead."

"One more thing," I took a deep breath, then tapped the Omnitrix. My red skin became black with green circuits, and I grew far larger in an instant.

" **Upgrade!"**

With that, I joined with the ring. "This is called the Viewer," I explained as I joined with it. "I needed the Chitauri parts-"

"Chitauri?" Steve asked, startled. "That's where HYDRA got them from?"

"They did look familiar," Clint noted.

"Yeah, I can read their code," I said. "But yeah, I needed them for their power. This... this is going to take a lot," I said. "The only way this is going to work is for a couple of minutes. I'm using the arc reactor from this helicarrier to power it, and I need to be Upgrade to even work with that. I can't do it for long either, this thing is basically thinning the walls between universes just for a glimpse."

"You're really not making this clear," Fury said. "Are you about to break my ship?"

"No," I said. "The fact is, I've tried this before. Shut down the power in my borough for three days and only got static. But with the big arc reactor, my new experience, and Upgrade, all working together... I won't keep it up for long, and this thing will implode on itself afterwards, but it will be enough for me to show you guys. Besides," I admitted. "I don't want this thing to last too long. I'm worried about who I'll piss off," Now fully integrated into the ring, I took a breath for dramatic effect, since Upgrade didn't need air. "I am from Oregon. I was born in Oakland. But... not your Oregon, not your Oakland."

"What?" Clint asked.

I activated the viewer. The sensation that followed was painful. I pulled in power from the arc reactor, and actually felt the massively powerful engine struggle to keep up with the demand. Even for all of Jury Rigg's genius, I felt the ring I'd made almost buckle inwards under the weight of the task. I adjusted myself, advanced the machine in a dozen different ways. I fought through a strange sort of pain, and I felt the energy pull at my nanite body. It was a struggle, but after a fight to stay in control, I was showing an image of Captain America speaking to Black Widow.

But not the ones I'd come to know and love. The Captain America here had his mask down, revealing someone very different under it. One I'd only recently become familiar with, but that one of us had known his whole life.

"Bucky?" Steve asked in shock.

"Whoa," Tony said as he watched Natasha give him a very loving kiss that Bucky returned. "Natasha?"

"That..." Natasha stared. "That's me? But different?"

It was true. This was comic book Natasha. Slightly taller, with longer hair and a gold belt that held a familiar symbol on the center. She had gold bracers on her wrist.

Bucky was clean shaven, unlike the one getting deprogrammed in another room. His hair was cut, and he wore a blue and black spandex version of Steve's uniform. Well, unstable molecules rather than spandex, but still.

"This is another reality," I said. "A universe where Bucky and Natasha ended up together, according to the scans I'm getting from it."

I switched the view to the next place and felt the arc reactor struggle with it, but there was no danger of the machine disappearing on me. Tony uncrossed his arms when he saw himself as a teenager. "Is that... me? Rhodey? And Pepper?"

The three of them were standing around in casual clothes with an Iron Man suit in front of them. The teenagers were joking with each other, clearly close.

"But I didn't meet them until-"

"Not in this reality," I corrected. "But there, you have been friends for much longer."

Another one. This time, it was Clint. He winced at the sight. "Well... shit."

Hawkeye was sitting in a chair, his head and limbs strapped to it. He was wearing only a white tanktop and orange pants. He'd clearly been tortured and was surrounded by men carrying guns.

"Is this happening right now?" Steve asked, worried. "Can we help somehow?"

"Hell, is this even real?" Tony asked, apparently fascinated.

"It is," I answered. "But the way this works is that I'm only getting glimpses. This actually happened further back in this world's history. I wouldn't worry though."

"Why not?" Clint asked, clearly disturbed.

At that moment, as some guy with a scar over his right eye leaned in towards Hawkeye to taunt him, Hawkeye flicked his right index finger. Scar guy suddenly grabbed his neck, choking on something. Hawkeye did the same with his left index finger, and a soldier had the same reaction. His left then right thumb flicked as well, and more men began to die until they were all done. As they fell, a scientist type who'd been watching the proceedings asked a question.

" _What the hell?"_ he said in shock.

Hawkeye responded as a fingernail was held tightly between his fingers. _"Shouldn't have left my fingernails in, dummy. Now be smart and get me outta here, or this goes right between you eyeballs."_

"...can you do that?" Tony asked his universes Hawkeye in shock as the group stared at the dimensional viewer.

"No," Clint admitted. "Might be worth learning though."

"Yeah, well," I switched away. "The rest of that universe sucks."

"How do you know?" Natasha asked. "How do you have those worlds histories?"

I felt thankful for my current machine form. It made it easy to lie.

"I'm scanning them," I explained. "It's damn exhausting, but I can get summaries on what I'm showing you."

"How the hell are you doing that?" Clint asked.

"Mostly news stories and the internet," I said helpfully. "But it hurts like hell."

"This is hurting you?" Steve asked, worried.

I ignored him to focus once more. The next world made everyone blink. It was a white man with black hair going gray at the sides, sitting at a desk and smoking a cigar as he worked on something. As they watched, Maria Hill walked into view. Well, Maria with an expression on her face as though she'd seen a bad smell.

"Who is... Oh come on," Fury said when the man lifted his face to reveal the eye patch.

"In this universe," I explained. "You're the descendant, the Nick Fury Jr. to this guy, who has been kept alive since World War 2 by an experimental drug."

"Enough," Fury said. "How do we know this is all real? That it's not just some trick you've pulled off?"

"Why would I tell this kind of lie?" I asked. "I'm from another universe. One where superheroes aren't running around. Apparently, one of the few where that is true, according to my scans. Hell, everything I know about this world is from Google and hacking. I had to learn quick so I didn't end up making mistakes in casual conversation."

I switched to other views. A man with a giant pair of angular sunglasses was watching the sunset with a sword on his back and a flame-patterned cloak on his back. A giant robot was standing behind him, with two figures walking towards him.

A redheaded man and woman in gender-swapped versions of the same brown shaded clothes speaking to a young woman with black hair and red lips, wearing a white blouse and blue skirt. When the three turned to look curiously at the view screen, I switched away hurriedly.

Another world, where three people were fighting against robots with skull shaped heads, dozens of the steel monsters surrounding them. One of them was a man who wore a red cape and a blue outfit with a "S" symbol on the front as he fired heat beams from his eyes. There was a woman carrying a sword she used to impale one of the robots, wearing an outfit with a large golden piece of armor over her chest shaped like the letter "W", her beauty as clear as her talent in war. The last could barely be seen, more of a black shadow among his more flamboyant comrades, only truly evident by the destroyed robots he left in his wake, simply a mass of darkness that moved like death.

"We're just one universe of many," I said, showing a world where a boy with white hair and green eyes in a black outfit with the letter 'D' on it fought against a woman who looked like a green female genie, belly dancer outfit included. "One of infinity, because the Multiverse theory is true. And it's kinda awesome, knowing how unique we are in all this infinity."

"Then where is your world?" Fury asked.

"...I don't know," I said in frustration. I didn't fake it. All the power I had now, even with the pain I was fighting through, and I just couldn't-

"You don't know?" Natasha asked, interrupting my thoughts. Feeling testy, I began to explain.

"Look," I switched the view over to where, according to my scans, my world should have been, the world with my nephew, with my parents and my crappy room. Instead, all that appeared was static. "I got dropped into this universe, and now I can't find mine. Do you want to know something else? I can't find it at any point in its history. Any other universe, even the ones that are destroyed, I can at least view their pasts, but mine? It's just locked out to me! I've got an arc reactor, alien parts burning out, a device built by a mad genius like Jury Rigg, and Upgrade backing me up, but I can't pierce through whatever is blocking me!"

I shouted the last, enraged. "It's not just that I can't get home, it's that I can't even fucking see it! I can't see my family, my friends, I can't find out how my mom is taking my disappearance! But no, I can fucking see the Teletubbies in their goddamn house eating fucking 'pamcakes'!"

The group stared at me before I switched off the viewer. I separated from the viewer, looking at Fury, then turned into a human again. "So there it is Fury. If you want, you can try to arrest me or whatever. But I was given the Omnitrix and just dropped into this world like a bad habit. All I'm doing is making the best of a bad situation."

Everyone looked over at Fury. He eyed me for a moment. "...I'm going to have you write a full report. And we're going to still strap you to the lie detector"

"Oh come on!" Tony said exasperatedly.

Fury ignored him. "You tell me everything you can possibly remember about your life, between your home universe and this one. I don't care if it's a girl who gave you funny feelings in middle school, tell me everything," when I opened my mouth to protest, he stopped me. "The Council and others will have questions about you. Questions I'll have to answer. So I'm going to give them answers," Fury eyed the machine. "And destroy that."

"What?" Clint asked in surprise. "I wanted to see me being a badass again."

"Or see yourself turning evil," Fury said. "Or Steve staying in the forties and having a full life. Tony with kids. An infinity of possibilities, each as slightly possible as the next. Do you all really, and I mean really, want to spend the rest of your life staring into this thing, worried about the lives you might have had? The people you could have loved, who could have lived? Or to suddenly become suspicious of a friend because of the chance they might go bad the way some other version of them did? All the 'what ifs?'" I was suddenly glad I hadn't shown them the Ultimate Black Widow who had betrayed her team. "Having those worlds just out of your reach? People go insane from regular paranoia, hell I'm an expert at it. If even thinking about the possibilities can make people do stupid things, what will being able to actually _see_ them do?"

We looked over at the viewer. I thought of all of that for a moment. Yeah. That was...

"I think you're right," Steve said, sounding sad. "As tempting as it is... Dial. Destroy it."

I went over to the dimensional viewer and looked over at Tony. "Nothing to say?"

Tony snorted when everyone looked at him. "No. I've got enough issues with my problems in this universe. Besides, I can always make one for myself now that I know it's possible at all."

We all thought about that. A moment later, feeling very nervous about working for Tony now, I waved at it. "Well, I don't have to destroy it. I'm actually surprised it's still there, it should have-"

The dimensional viewer began to shake.

"Uh," Hawkeye said slowly. "Should we leave the room, or-?"

The machine pulled into itself and imploded with a sound like gravel exploding.

"...Why is everything you make so weird?" Natasha asked.

I smiled just a bit. "They have personality," I looked over the group. "So... we good?"

Fury smirked. "Not really. Not that I don't like you, but you just admitted you have no idea where you got the watch or who dropped you here, and I believe you on that. So I'll still keep an eye on you, simply because it's safer," Steve, Tony, and I all shared an exasperated look. "But like I said. I think your hearts in the right place, and you're too useful to us not to bring in. And that's good enough for me."

Well, if that was the best I was getting.

"So uh, that makes me an Avenger?"

Tony grinned at that. "There's the Fanboy we all know."

"Is there even a protocol for new Avengers?" Clint asked.

"So far, no," Natasha said. "But with Dial, Sam, and Rhodey in the picture..."

"We'll discuss it later," Steve said, turning and opening the door for us to exit. "For now, I'd like to think on what we've seen."

Natasha and Tony seemed to still at that, clearly thinking on that. Natasha's eyes flickered in the direction of where Bucky was being held before apparently dismissing the thought that prompted that. Tony rubbed his chin thoughtfully. And Steve sighed while we all filed out. "Time has a talk with everyone out there. We have ten minutes."

"Yes," Fury said. "We're in for the hard part." He walked outside, his long coat flapping as the Avengers and I followed in his wake. Several SHIELD agents stepped aside, and soon an armed procession took spots along the wall. "You all know your roles in this conversation. Now get changed. I want the Avengers at my side when I meet them, and I need you in costume for that."

Later, in the men's locker room, Sam had joined us to put his own clothes on. Tony and Rhodey weren't in with us since their armor would just wear itself onto them in seconds, leaving Steve, Clint, Sam, and me. I was putting on my boots, the last part of my costume to go on when Steve came up and tapped me on the shoulder.

"Hey," he said. "I'd like to talk to you in private real quick."

Nodding as I tried to guess what this would be about, I finished tying my boots and went to join him in the back. Steve looked around to see if we were alone before speaking.

"You said doing that, looking between universes, hurt. I wanted to ask if you were okay."

"I'm good," I said. "Just... doing that took a lot out of me. If it wasn't for the ridiculous power of the arc reactor, I wouldn't have been able to do it, and even then I drained the Chitauri armor pieces just to boot the system up. And holding open was like... you ever hold up an impossible weight while having a conversation?"

"A couple of times," Steve said, reminding me just what kind of badass I was talking too. He sighed. "And what you said, about being from another world? I think, in some way, I understand how you feel."

"...Yeah," I realized. "I guess you'd be one of the few." After all, I wasn't the only one who'd woken up in a world that was so similar and yet so different from home.

"It takes getting used to," Steve said with a smile. "I'm still bad at it. But if you need help, I'm willing to talk."

"Same," I said warmly. "Hell, you ever want to catch up with pop culture, I'm sort of an expert by now."

Steve laughed. "Well, I have been wondering about Anime. When I went on ice we were still having issues with Japan," he scowled. "Not that I approve of how that ended of course."

I winced at the thought of the two bombs that had ended that conflict. "Yeah, well... That's why were doing this, right? To stop anything like Pearl Harbor or the bombs from ever taking place again."

He nodded thoughtfully at that.

 _Author's Note:_ Yeah, I took a big risk with this chapter. I stand by the dimensional viewer though. I tried my best to make it damn hard to work and proving that alternate dimensions exist and that Dial is from one of them explains a lot to the other characters. I'd rather distract with the sheer insanity of the dimensional viewer rather than tell them the truth. I also stand by destroying it, for the reasons Fury gave. That thing is just dangerous. It's kind of like the Mirror of Erised if the mirror also showed you the worst versions of your life as well. It was fun writing this though. The scene with the Titanic and space was fun to do. Tony and Dial talking was fun, and showing Tony's anger at Coulson's lies are going to be expanded upon.


	18. Chapter 18

Soon, we were all dressed in our costumes, Rhodey joining us with Tony. Fury waited until we were all suited up before walking towards the conference room.

I felt pretty badass walking through the halls with the group. There's an energy when you walk with superheroes like that all in costume, something I imagined groups of cosplayers felt something close to. We went in a sort of lose triangle formation. Iron Man and Captain America behind Fury on his right and left sides, respectively. Falcon was behind Captain America, War Machine behind Iron Man. Bringing up the rear was Black Widow and Hawkeye, with Dial, me, in-between them.

It hadn't been as clear as right then that I was a superhero now. Dial. It had just been a random codename. Even my fights, as desperate as they had been at times, just felt like fights. Why would the scale change my feelings on it? But now, walking among the greats, having SHIELD agents and personnel watch us as we walked by, their eyes filled with awe... it was pretty cool, but also-

"This is so weird," Sam noted to me as I walked closer to him.

"I know," I replied. "I mean, it's also kinda awesome, but..."

My fellow newbie and I shared a glance and nodded when we saw we understood the same thing. It was cool, but it was also kind of alienating. Ironically so, considering the Omnitrix.

We walked like that until we reached our destination, another conference room. This one was bigger than the last by a wide margin. And it was full of people and cameras, all surrounding a massive table in the center of the room. I took them all in, trying to remember who was who.

The World Security Council, all of them sans Gideon Malick, who had gone into hiding when he'd been revealed to be HYDRA, and Alexander Pierce who was now imprisoned. Four of them, Singh, Rockwell, Hawley, and Yen, gave Natasha and Clint grateful nods, presumably for the two saving those members lives.

Phil Coulson, Victoria Hand, Richard Gonzales, Tomas Calderon, and Jennifer Weaver sat in a line. They all seemed friendly enough.

There were also several holographic screens around the table. One had Maria Hill, clearly broadcasting and watching from the Triskelion. Another showed Matthew Ellis, President of the United States, an older man with graying brown hair and piercing blue eyes. The other screens also showed world leaders from other countries. England, Russia, France, China, Japan, Egypt, India, Pakistan, the whole UN was there. Fury circled around to the head of the table, the seat left open for him, and we followed. Two other seats were open next to it, and Steve and Tony took those. There was a bit of nervousness in the room when Tony's seat let out a few creaks of protest under the weight of his armor, but it held. The rest of us stood behind them facing the rest of the room. I blinked when I realized that the way we had entered had me standing directly behind Nick, Natasha and Rhodey on my right, Clint and Sam on my left. I crossed my arms and tried to look professional.

Coulson was looking at Steve and Tony apologetically. Steve kind of smiled sadly, while Tony let the impassive look of his helmet speak for itself. The Council sitting on the other side of the table eyed us. The whole room stilled.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Fury said simply. "I'm not going to sugarcoat this. We are at war. At war with an enemy that has been hiding within our ranks like a parasite, chewing away at us. They were our friends, our fellow soldiers, even our leaders," Rockwell nodded firmly, scowling at the thought of Malick and Pierce, or so I guessed. "HYDRA. An old enemy, one we'd thought beaten. They tried to use helicarriers like the very one we are all standing on to finally take control of the world," I suddenly realized why Fury had chosen to use one of the helicarriers for this meeting. "Luckily, with the help of many of you, SHIELD has stopped them, and now we have them on the run. HYDRA isn't finished though, make no mistake. Despite the Hercules app, despite agents, military, and law enforcement all over the world hunting them down, HYDRA is fighting back. They're desperate. And desperate people tend to reach for weapons they would never use otherwise," Fury held up a hand when several of his captivated audience began to speak. "I won't mince words either. While we may be holding up well, SHIELD is in shambles. Not just that, but HYDRA had its people everywhere. I've had reports of government officials, computer technicians, CEO's, and even a coffee barista with easy access to a Russian diplomat's daughter, all found out and arrested. We can't simply move on from this. SHIELD and HYDRA are teetering on the brink. I say we get ourselves together before they can."

"What exactly are you proposing?" Councilperson Hawley asked seriously.

"I agree," a person from one of the screens, the Russian president, said. "What is it you want, Fury?"

"Oh, it's not just me," Fury looked over at Steve.

Rather than being put on the spot, Steve was ready. "We've all come to a decision. Many of us agree, that SHIELD, as it was, can no longer stand. We can't simply put it together again. SHIELD... it's done. And something new has to take its place."

The room exploded. Coulson stared at Steve and Fury as though they had broken his heart. Hand was shouting at Fury, before turning on Rockwell. President Ellis was trying to speak, but he was drowned out by the Chinese President shouting in his language as Jarvis provided subtitles. The various SHIELD agents around the room shared in the shouting.

Fury raised a hand. I pressed down on the Omnitrix. I grew up several feet, grey fur sprouted across me, muscles rose across my form, my fingers became claws, and my mouth became a muzzle.

" **Blitzwolfer! _▅▂▃▄▄▅▅▂▂▃▅▂▃▅▃▃▄▄▅!"_**

It was hard to control a howl like mine to just be pure noise, rather than destroying the room but I managed to keep my long cry in control. When I was done, there were a lot of people staring in shock, but no one, not even Fury and those close to me, was deaf. I glared around the room for a moment as Steve began to speak again.

"This is necessary," he said softly. "SHIELD was compromised in a way no intelligence apparatus ever has before. We have resources, people, and allies... but we need to rebuild. Not just to fight HYDRA either."

"What are you going to do," Tony said, drawing attention. "The next time someone as smart as me shows up, and one of the Avengers can't stop him?"

"Or if the next guy who gets a watch like mine," I added. "Isn't as nice?"

"What will happen," Fury asked, leaning forward into to rest his chin on his knuckles, his one eye panning around the room. "When someone like Loki shows up again, and Thor isn't around to stop him... But more than that. Who will protect those who suddenly find themselves with gifts they can't understand?"

"What do you mean?" Tomas asked, confused.

"The world is becoming full of people like us," Steve said. "People with gifts, whether exceptional intelligence, talent in combat, aliens like Thor, or those who have been given gifts due to circumstance beyond their control, like Banner."

"You want to protect people like that?" One of the leaders said in disgust. "Or like that... damned wolf?"

I held back a growl.

"People," Natasha said, drawing the room to her. "That's the keyword. They're people. We're not saying we don't arrest people who do wrong. But we need to do more than just catalog people with abilities and tell them to sit tight and do nothing. We need to protect them from those who would do them harm, who would exploit them."

"People like Bucky Barnes," Tony said, surprising me. He didn't look around when those of us who knew the deeper implications of his words stared at him. He simply let that enigmatic mask keep him hidden.

"Or Carl Creel," I added. "People like me. We know HYDRA can brainwash people, that Loki has done it."

"Not just him," Coulson said. "An Asgardian named Lorelei appeared on Earth a while back. We managed to stop her, but if she managed to control someone with powers..."

"Isn't that more of a reason to just stop people like that?" the Russian president asked. "Prevent them becoming a risk?"

"Not when that person is innocent," Clint said. "We don't believe people should be punished for the crime of being different. Some of these people just want normal lives. Some come from tough situations, or will want to protect others."

"We need to be more than just the wall between the world we think of as normal and the world we think of as weird," Steve leaned forward. "That line doesn't exist anymore. It hasn't existed since I stood in New York City fighting alongside a Norse god and a man in a power suit against aliens coming out of a portal. The world is not normal, but we can still protect it. Keep the innocent safe, no matter where they come from."

Now it was my turn. I leaned forward, over Fury. Everyone looked at me, the werewolf standing massively as my eyes glared at the audience. "And if HYDRA, if aliens or even _gods_ come here again, trying to exploit, rule, or kill us, then _we_ will stop them. Earth will be defended, and all of our people as well."

"This isn't a threat," Fury clarified, not worrying about the wolf who was looming above him. "But we are telling you what we believe we need to do. Together, we can protect this world. But SHIELD needs to be rebuilt to do it. With all the damage HYDRA has done to us..."

I looked around. We'd aimed for drama, for shock and awe to convince the room we were right. From the looks of it, it worked. Some people were still not on board. Coulson still looked as though we'd killed his puppy, though Fury had told us he had some ideas about that.

Councilperson Rockwell leaned forward. "I think, we might need to talk about this for a moment longer. But personally, I agree," he ignored the looks some in the room gave him. "I assume you have a proposal."

Fury leaned back in his chair. "X. Show 'em what we got."

" _Of course sir,"_ the former VI said. Holographs appeared in front of all the people around the table, and I could see dignitaries on the screens around us being given tablets by their assistants.

"What you see there are just the bare bones of what I've written up," Fury said simply.

"Wait, is this real?" President Ellis said, looking up from his tablet. "You're stepping down as Director?"

Everyone looked at Fury. He smiled a very sour and sad smile. "Of course I am. No matter what happens, I will be the one who is blamed for this."

"That's not true," Hand said, her eyes soft behind her glasses. "None of us realized or suspected anything for years."

"It doesn't matter," Fury said confidently. "I was head of SHIELD when it was revealed that HYDRA infiltrated. And that's okay. I don't mind stepping down for someone new to take the reins and I will not let my predecessors be blamed for this. I will step down," he smirked. "Plus, I like the idea of history knowing me as the last Director of SHIELD. Holds weight."

Fury wasn't telling the whole story, of course. Just because he wouldn't be in charge didn't mean he was planning to stay out of the fight. But none of those he'd confided in said a word, me included. It was all part of the plan.

"Then who will replace you?" the British Prime Minister asked.

"That's what we'll decide," Fury said. "I have a list of candidates. But first, before I step down, let's figure out the new rules, shall we?"

I held back a groan when I realized I'd have to stand for a while they spoke. Still, we were on our way.

 _January 13th, 2014_

Later, the meeting was still going on. And by later, I meant I had left at around 2:00 am as it continued to take a nap, only to wake up about four hours later to find they were still talking. With nothing to do, I took a shower, pulled my hair back, put on my super-suit, and went to one of the mess halls. The carrier had two, one of which was still being used as a makeshift brig for Creel and Bucky, since they're special needs meant the actual brig wouldn't cut it. Davida had been put in there with them. Later I'd have to see about possibly fixing it so the brig could hold superhumans, but I decided to just go to get some food in me.

When I stepped into the room, everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at me. I blinked at the sudden attention and waved. "How's it going?"

A SHIELD agent waved back weakly.

I went to join the line for food. After a moment, people stopped looking at me, though glances were still thrown at me, especially at the Omnitrix. The line moved very quickly, people simply grabbing the various breakfast foods as fast as they could from the buffet style set up. Feeling a bit ravenous, I grabbed a bagel, a doughnut, some eggs, and, feeling a bit nostalgic, was happy to see someone had made smoothies, of which I grabbed a strawberry one.

I went to an empty table and sat down, eating quickly. Once finished, I grabbed another plate, then sat down to continue.

"Damn," someone said as they sat to join me. "You can sure put it away, can't you?"

I looked up to see Sam and gave him a grin around a mouthful of turkey bacon. "I haven't eaten in a while dude."

"Same," Sam said, wearing his costume just like me. He swiped my doughnut and chuckled at the glare I gave him for it. "Been a wild couple of days, huh?"

"That's putting it lightly," I admitted. "Kinda weird not needing to run anywhere for a bit."

Sam smirked at that. We ate in silence for a bit, ignoring the looks we got dressed in our costumes, Sam with his jetpack and me with my Omnitrix. In fact...

"You don't have any clothes here, either?" I asked Sam.

He nodded. "Yeah. And the SHIELD stuff they had just doesn't feel right somehow, with everything that's going on."

That was true. Somehow, with all the discussion on what to do next, wearing SHIELD clothing felt weird.

"Um, excuse me?" Sam and I looked up to see Fitz and Simmons looking at us. The British duo was standing with trays of their own, both smiling nervously. Simmons, the one who had spoken, waved at the empty table. "Um, I'm Jemma Simmons, I work with Agent Coulson."

"I'm Leo Fitz, and uh, I work with her," Fitz said nervously. "Well, I mean, we both work for Agent Coulson, we just- Do you mind if we sit with you?"

"Sure, no problem," I said. "If Sam doesn't mind."

"Go for it," Sam said.

Grinning eagerly, Fitz-Simmons sat down, Fitz next to me, Simmons next to Sam. Sam and I continued to eat. When we realized they weren't eating, we looked at the pair.

Fitz was staring at Sam's wingpack and Simmons was staring at my Omnitrix. When they realized they'd been caught, Simmons laughed nervously.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "It's just your weapons are so fascinating!"

"Yes, I was researching your wingpack," Fitz said excitedly. "And I noticed that you could increase the rigidity flexibility ratio by changing the material to carbon fiber!"

"Yeah, Tony said something about that," Sam said, apparently not knowing what to do about Fitz's enthusiasm.

"Tony Stark said that?" Fitz asked excitedly, turning to Simmons. "Did you hear that?"

"Yes, yes, you said the same thing another genius did," Simmons said dismissively, but with a very fond smile that Fitz returned. "But that," she pointed at the Omnitrix. "What is it? How does it work?"

I looked at the Omnitrix, then at Fitz and Sam. Sam shrugged. "Hey, I'm curious too, man."

Fitz nodded in agreement.

"Well, all right," I swiped my doughnut back from Sam and took a bite. Swallowing that, I was about to speak when Simmons interrupted me when she saw more people walk into the room.

"Wait," she said excitedly. "Skye, Trip! Over here!"

Sam and Fitz looked over as well. The pair walked over to join us. Trip had a wide smile on his face as he sat, Skye looking less excited.

"Look at you two, sitting with real Avengers now."

"More reserve Avengers," I admitted, Sam nodding.

"Still pretty cool," Skye said.

"He... what is your name?" Simmons asked me. "I mean, I know they call you Dial, but..."

At her leading pause, I answered. "It's Mahmoud."

"Yes," Simmons said. "He was going to tell us about the watch!"

"Omnitrix," Sam corrected for me. "He's really specific about that."

"Wait," Skye asked. "You're the guy who made that giant diamond at the Triskelion?" when I nodded, she looked at Sam. "What was it like flying through that thing?"

"Whoa, wait!" Simmons said hurriedly. "I want to hear about the watch first."

I looked at Sam. He smirked at the lost look on my face. "You first, man."

Sighing, I put down my food and held out the watch. "Okay. First off, I don't know who gave this to me or why," I mean, I knew _who,_ but explaining Professor Paradox's dickery was too much trouble.

"Oh..." Simmons seemed disappointed.

"But the watch imprinted its history into me," I said, Fitz-Simmons seeming to perk up at that. "So I know who created it. Azmuth, an alien scientist."

"Was he a famous weapon designer?" Fitz asked.

"...Not intentionally," I leaned back and sighed sadly. "So, look. Azmuth was... well, he was brilliant. Smarter than any person in three galaxies, and more creative to boot. While his whole species, the Galvan people, were naturally more intelligent than almost any other species, he had this spark that none of the rest could match. But he had something even better than that. He was in love."

Simmons, who had been listening avidly, suddenly smiled softly at that. Fitz looked over at her and smiled as well.

"The girl he loved was a scientist as well, a woman named Zennith, and someone he cared for deeply. One day, he went out on a date with her, and they saw the planets align in the skies above. When they aligned, Azmuth was inspired. 'What if,' he thought to himself, 'I created a weapon that could tap into the fundamental forces of the universe. A weapon powered by existence itself.' The thought consumed him, and he spent all of his time creating it."

"And that's when he created the Omnitrix?" Fitz asked.

"No," I answered. "He created Ascalon, a sword."

"What?" Trip asked, confused. "All that build up for a sword?"

"Elegant, isn't it," I asked. "All the power of the universe, in something so small. Zennith tried to warn him as he created it, but he ignored her, obsessed with creating his masterpiece. So, she left. And he never noticed."

Simmons seemed crestfallen while Fitz was thoughtful.

"Azmuth finished Ascalon, and a warrior stole the weapon, hoping to use it to stop an eons-long civil war between the many factions on his homeworld. And when Azmuth saw the destruction of that world, saw how his creation turned a planet into an asteroid field with a single swing, he was devastated. Only then, did he realize what he had done, that he had sacrificed Zennith for nothing."

I was really getting into the story now. "So Azmuth hid Ascalon away and dedicated himself to peaceful sciences. He wanted to apologize, and he started on a creation that would show how sorry he was. Hoping that she would see how he had changed and one day she would return to him."

"The Omnitrix," Skye said, likely figuring out where this was going.

"It's not a weapon, not really," I extended my hand out. "It's a tool meant for peace. Imagine. Being able to walk a mile in other species shoes. To understand them because, in a way, you are them. An ambassador who understood all people, who could stand in their defense without judgment. But that was only part of it."

"Zennith," Simmons took hold of my wrist, staring at the Omnitrix. "Azmuth wanted to prove he had learned his lesson. To prove he cared."

"Romantic, right?" I said sarcastically. "Instead, Azmuth failed. He made a tool for peace, and someone saw its potential for a weapon."

"Yeah," Fitz said sadly. "That fits. Anytime someone just wants to advance science, someone else sees a shiny new bomb."

"That's part of why I like the idea of SHIELD restructuring itself," I admitted, gently pulling my wrist. "There are peaceful aliens out there. Ones like the Asgardians. Making alliances with them, furthering Azmuth's dream... I've done good work patrolling in New York City, and I want to do that later. But making the world, and possibly beyond, a better place is nice too."

"Oh, now that's a question!" Fitz said. "Can you turn into Asgardians? Like Thor?"

"Now that would be awesome," Skye said. "I mean, Thor is just..." Skye sighed. "So dreamy."

"Skye," Simmons said, sounding scandalized, a blush on her face.

"No, she's right," I admitted. "I mean, we've all seen the pictures, and I'm comfortable enough in my sexuality to admit Thor is hot."

We all thought about that for a moment.

"Well," Trip said, shaking his head. "Now that you mention it, you two were in on this whole idea to rebuild SHIELD right? I mean, you were in on it from the start?"

"Well, yeah," I said. "One of my aliens even created the Hercules app."

Fitz and Skye seemed to become very focused on me all of a sudden. Fitz spoke first. "Is there... is there any chance that the app can make a mistake?"

"Fitz," Skye said, sounding sad and frustrated.

"No, I mean, if it made some miscalculation, or discovered someone was not actually HYDRA, maybe?"

I was already pulling out my phone. I placed it on the table, activating the Hercules app. "Who was it you're asking about?"

"...Grant Ward," Fitz said hesitantly.

I opened his file. "Okay, Grant Ward. Recruited by John Garrett after he was arrested for trying to kill his parents and oldest brother in a fire. HYDRA is very detailed in it's filing so..." I sighed. I'd already known what I'd find. I passed my phone over to Fitz, who looked at it desperately. He flipped through the files, one by one, ignoring the pitying look Simmons was giving him.

"Fitz," Skye said.

"It's not true," Fitz said, his voice wavering. "There must be something, right? Something, some proof. He didn't just die a traitor, there has to be some mistake, some reason-"

"Fitz!" Skye yelled. "Ward was a traitor, okay!? He got what he deserved!"

The cafeteria froze. Skye was breathing heavily. Fitz stared at her.

After a moment, he tossed my phone back to me and stood up, walking away very quickly. Simmons went to follow, but Trip put a hand on her shoulder.

"Give him time, girl," he said softly.

Skye groaned, putting her face in her hands. "I shouldn't have done that."

"Don't worry about it," Trip said. "We're all dealing with betrayal today."

Looking around, I could see he was right. None of the SHIELD agents surrounding us seemed confused. Just understanding.

"So uh," I said. "Maybe we should meet up later?" I asked. "I know Tony wanted to talk to me about something? Invite Fitz along, we can all hang out."

"Not me," Trip said easily. "I'm meeting a friend."

"I'll try to get Fitz to come," Simmons said. "I know he'll be excited."

"And I'll go too," Skye said. "Maybe I can apologize then?"

"I don't suggest it," Sam said. "Stuff like that... It takes time, not apologies. Maybe talk him through it, but the fact is you were right."

"Well, maybe apologize for yelling," Trip corrected. "But yeah. Give him time."

"You should still come through," I added. "We're supposed to be doing something important, apparently. Although he said we were meeting on the Bus."


	19. Chapter 19

I ended up kind of regretting inviting them when I realized what the 'something important' was.

"You absolute son of a bitch," Tony icily.

"Stark," Coulson said serenely, trying to calm him down.

"No, don't start with that. You couldn't send a text, an email, a signal flare," Tony said, getting in Coulson's face. "I mourned you, Coulson, I actually felt _bad!_ "

"And I appreciate that," Coulson said back. "But we weren't exactly friends, Tony. We were allies, occasionally, when you weren't locking me out of the tower to avoid my visits, or pranking me like we were in high school!"

"That's how I treat my friends!" Tony said, looking offended. "Rhodey never complained!"

"He complained all the time!" Coulson shouted back.

"What, you spied on him too?" Tony scoffed.

"New flash, Tony. I _am_ a spy!"

As the two quibbled back and forth at each other inside the Bus' laboratory, I looked around.

The Bus was a pretty cool looking plane. The hanger door was down to let sunlight in, letting me see it in all its glory. A sweet red convertible was parked on the right side of the door, all sleek lines and leather seats, a beauty from an older time. The left side of the door held a big black SUV. Some stairs lead up to another floor, while a set of glass panels separated the cargo hold from the forensics and research lab we stood in.

Skye, Fitz-Simmons, Melinda May, Clint, and Natasha all watched the fireworks alongside me. I learned in towards Natasha.

"How long is this going to go on?" I whispered.

"I'm just wondering why we're here," she whispered back. "He said this was important."

"Well, you know Tony," Clint said. "He likes an audience."

"Drama queen?" Melinda asked.

Clint and Natasha nodded.

"This is why you should never meet your heroes," Fitz said sadly, getting a pat on the back from a sympathetic Simmons.

"Been working for me so far," I said. Clint and Natasha grinned at me, to which I could only helplessly shrug. Once a-

"Fanboy!" Tony said, somehow perfectly cutting my thought off and completing it at the same time. "Come to meet Agent."

Apparently, Tony's nickname for Coulson was 'Agent'. With a bit of confusion at how casual Tony was suddenly acting, I stepped forward, the others coming along.

"Agent, this is-"

"Dial," Coulson said, extending a hand to shake. Tony interrupted our handshake when I went to shake Coulson's.

"Don't interrupt me. This is Fanboy. He makes cool things and turns into giant things, but his wardrobe needs work."

Natasha, my costume designer, raised an offended eyebrow.

"Okay, who've you got?" Tony asked.

Coulson, clearly used to Tony, waved at his own team. "Melinda May, the pilot of the Bus and one of the finest martial artists I've ever met."

"Charmed," Tony said.

"I'm not," Melinda returned coolly.

Tony smirked at that. Coulson continued.

"This is Skye, a skilled hacker and someone who is training to be a SHIELD agent."

"Kinda useless now," Skye admitted, looking at Tony with a bit of awe. "I just got the badge too."

"Keep it," Natasha said. "Souvenir. Plus, history buffs love stuff like that."

"You still selling old Russian military gear?" Clint asked. Natasha smirked, and Melinda surprised me, as well as her crew, by chuckling a little.

Melinda smirked at them. "You had to be there," was all she said.

"Okay, hearing that story later," Tony said, ignoring the looks the super-spies gave him. "How about the married couple?"

"What?" Fitz said, startled. "Oh, we're not-"

"We're not a couple," Simmons said quickly.

"Yes, just friends."

"Close for years!"

"But not a couple."

Tony looked between them, then at Coulson. "And Ross and Rachel do what on your crew?"

I blinked. Wait, Tony knew who they were. Why was he pretending otherwise?

Coulson sighed before gesturing. "This is Leopold Fitz. Fitz is my engineer, a weapons and tech expert. And this is Jemma Simmons, my biochemist, specializing in life sciences."

"Hello," Fitz said, waving a bit weakly.

Tony eyed them both for a moment. "Jarvis, bring it up."

A hologram appeared in the back, hovering over a table. Fitz-Simmons pointed at it. "How did you-"

"I'm Tony Stark," Tony said in answer, walking over to the table.

"I don't like you messing with my plane," Coulson said in annoyance.

"And I don't like wasting money on flowers, but I did it for your funeral," Tony shot back.

"How do you keep from hitting him?" Melinda asked Natasha and Clint.

"Practice mostly," Natasha said with a smirk.

"I don't resist the urge at all honestly, keeps him honest," Clint stated proudly, leaning out of the way when Tony threw a pen at him.

"So, you guys made this?" Tony asked, pointing at the hologram, which was a floating blue image of a gun shaped like a sniper rifle.

"Huh, I see you restored the data," Fitz told Skye.

"Coulson told me to do it," Skye complained. Fitz sighed.

"Yes, I made that."

"It's brilliant," Tony said.

Fitz blinked, surprised. "You think the Night-Night guns are brilliant?"

"Hell yes I do, Ross," Tony said. "Cool name for it by the way."

"Oh," Fitz responded. "Well, they're calling it ICER now."

"...No," Tony said dismissively. "Night-Night gun," he turned to look at the hologram. "A gun that fires a dendrotoxin bullet, knocking people out like that quickly and with no side-effects? You both made it, right?"

"Yes," Simmons said quickly. "Yes we did, you see, the way we designed it was-"

And suddenly she was no longer speaking with words I could understand. Fitz immediately joined in and Tony responded. Fitz-Simmons moved around the table and showed him a section of the hologram, the two so in sync it was amazing. Just as amazing was how Tony seemed to vibe with them, falling in step with their thinking and responding to it.

"Well," Coulson said. "I suppose they're going to be at it for a while," he looked over at us. "I suppose, I can show you the plane now."

"Not yet," Tony said suddenly. He walked up to look Coulson in the eyes. "I still have more to say to you."

Coulson and Tony looked at each other a moment longer. After a bit, Coulson nodded and walked towards a back room, Tony following.

"Um," Simmons said nervously. "Should we go with them?"

The door slammed behind Tony.

"Apparently not," Fitz said.

Melinda looked at Clint and Natasha. They both shook their heads, and Melinda nodded. Apparently, spies had their own body language.

"Well, I suppose we have some time," Simmons said.

"Yes," Fitz looked over at me. "Can we scan your Omnitrix? Maybe open it up and study it?"

"Please?" Simmons asked cutely. "I promise, we won't break it!"

"...How invasive are the scans going to be? And do I need to take it off?" I hesitated. "Also, what are the chances you'll activate something that will blow us all up?"

Simmons and Fitz chuckled dismissively. "Oh no, we're very good at studying alien technology, I think we'll be fine."

I thought about that. After all, the Omnitrix had a universal self-destruct in it. One I was very scared to activate since I was one of the assholes who lived in the universe.

"How about instead I tell you how it works?" They did not seem satisfied at all with that. Before they could say anything, I spoke again. "Also, just scans. No touching buttons or taking it apart. No putting lasers on it."

"I rather feel you're being insulting," Fitz said with a scowl.

"Remember how smart I said Azmuth was? This thing makes most other alien tech, maybe all of it, obsolete. I know it's insulting, but it is the truth. You're very smart cavemen studying a supercomputer," I admitted. "One owned by a very dumb caveman. We're all dealing with a piece of tech so advanced I can only turn into ten out of the over one million aliens on it. Let's not tempt fate."

Everyone looked at the watch. Fitz finally sighed. "Okay, well, scans only. And you'll tell us about it?"

Nodding, I began to speak.

 _ **Tony Stark/Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist**_

Tony stood with Coulson in the tight space of the room and glared at Coulson. In all his life, he'd rarely been this... angry. The closest was when Obadiah Stane revealed that he had been selling weapons to terrorists, which rested firmly under finding out his parents had been murdered.

"Tony, why are you-"

"You were my friend," Tony said suddenly. "I mean... I know I'm not friendly. But Pepper cried when she found out you died. Her and your girlfriend, they still talk about you," Tony shook his head. "Does she know you're alive?"

Coulson stilled. "...No. No, she doesn't."

"You absolute prick."

"Tony, I actually did die! I wasn't faking, my heart stopped, my brain function was gone, hell, we're still trying to understand how I was brought back-"

"Yeah, I know, Dial brought up the files for me," the billionaire said, Coulson stopping in surprise. "I don't care. You came back to life, you had _months_ to talk to one of us, you asshole."

They stared at each other. Finally, Coulson sighed and leaned against the wall behind him. "You're right. I should have let people know. Not the whole world, but... people," he admitted. "I'm sorry, Tony."

Tony shook his head. "Not good enough."

"What?" Coulson said, finally annoyed.

"I want those three outside to work with me."

Coulson blinked in surprise. "You want what?"

"Skye, Ross, and Rachel. I don't care if they work for... whatever this new club Fury and Steve are building is at the same time. But I've read the team files. The stuff they've done, hacking into SHIELD with a laptop, creating a counter-serum to the Centipede formula, curing a Chitauri virus? They can do a lot more under me then they can with SHIELD. I want to work with them. That's what I want in return."

"Tony, you realize that Skye and Fitz-Simmons make their own choices," Coulson said.

"Then let me ask them," Tony said. "Take them to my labs, show them what I can do for them."

"Wait, was all this anger because you wanted to borrow my experts?" Coulson asked.

Tony shrugged. "Not at first. I'm still pissed at you. But I'm planning something. Something big. I've got Dial on board. And Bruce. But I've seen what your team can do, and I think they can do even more."

"Should I be worried?" Coulson asked.

"Not really," Tony crossed his arms. "But you owe me more than an 'I'm sorry'."

"They aren't commodities for me to trade, Stark."

"I'm not saying they are, Coulson. I'm just saying I think they can do some real good with me. But I know they're your team, so I'm asking permission." Tony smirked. "But like I said, you do at least owe me."

"...Like I said, they don't need my permission," Coulson said. "Hell, I'm not even sure I'll have a job once Fury's done. But let them know that whatever their choice, they still have a place on whatever team I end up on. Whether they work for you at the same time or not."

Tony nodded. "Now, let's talk about the other stuff you owe me."

Coulson rolled his eyes.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

Fitz ran a device over my wrist as Simmons and Skye watched. May, Clint, and Natasha had all gone upstairs to talk about spy stuff, I guessed.

"So yeah," I said. "The Codon Stream is what allows the Omnitrix to do its thing. All the genetic information the Omnitrix can access exists in that stream."

"Well," Fitz said. "It is giving off some very odd readings. If this is accessing another dimension for power, that would explain it."

"Can you turn into an alien?" Simmons asked. "That may give us new readings."

I blinked. "Yeah, okay," I thought about it, then tapped the watch. In seconds, I'd become Diamondhead with my proud battlecry. Funny, for some reason I was really starting to prefer Diamondhead over Blitzwolfer. Weird, but I went with it.

"Whoa," Skye said softly, staring up at me. "You're... big. And shiny."

" _ **Yeah, I get that a lot,"**_ I said.

"Oh my," Simmons said, walking up to look at me as Fitz stared. "And this means your DNA has changed as well?"

" _ **Yeah,"**_ I said.

"I wonder..." Fitz moved around. "I can sense some sort of energy from you," I raised a hand palm upwards and made a crystal sprout from it. Fitz stared at his scanner, then looked at the crystal I'd sprouted. "And that energy made the crystal grow, at a guess."

"Does that contain your DNA?" Simmons asked. "It's quite beautiful."

I released the crystal and rested it on the table. Skye backed away from it nervously.

"Uh, there's no chance you have any diseases or anything, is there?" Skye asked. "I mean, the last time we interacted with an alien thing carrying a virus..."

Simmons stared at the crystal I'd created with sudden fear when she realized what Skye was implying, Fitz stepping further back from me.

" _ **I wouldn't worry,"**_ I said simply. **_"I'm been turning into aliens for weeks without anyone getting sick. Besides, I'm more worried about my human form getting sick. I got the sniffles one week, and Swampfire couldn't control his powers."_**

"Really?" Simmons said, stepping closer to the crystal. "So your human form's health has some effect on the aliens then?"

"Can you turn into another one?" Fitz asked politely. "For some reason, I can't understand some of these readings."

 _ **"I might be able to help with that actually."**_ I said, tapping the Omnitrix.

" **Upgrade!"**

I leaned forward and poured into Fitz scanner.

"Whoa, what the-" Fitz freaked out and dropped me, stepping back.

I released a loud beeping noise as my tiny body hit the floor. I grew legs from the bottom of my oblong body and rose up, looking around while blinking with an eye made from the scanners port. Feeling a bit dramatic, I grew arms and waved at the three.

"He's so cute!" Simmons cried happily.

"Yeah, still a twenty-seven-year-old man," I reminded her with my green circuits glowing with every word.

"Whoa," Skye lowered to look at me. "What does that feel like? I mean, mixing with technology."

"Like reinstalling your third lung," I said, getting confused blinks. "Hold on one second... I think I can make the scanner better."

"You mean you can improve technology permanently?" Fitz asked.

"Yeah, but I don't seem to be that good at it," I admitted. "Some of my aliens mesh better with my personality than others do. But here," I rose up and separated from the scanner, becoming a giant nanite goo monster once more and passing the scanner to Fitz, who looked at it. "Try it now."

Fitz turned it on and seemed staggered by what he was seeing. "Jemma, look at these readings!"

"I know," Simmons said excitedly, staring at the computer that was receiving the scanners

Just then, Tony and Coulson walked back into the room. I turned into my human form as they joined us.

"Fitz, Simmons, Tony would like to speak with you," Coulson said, looking around. "Where's May?"

"May went upstairs with Black Widow and Hawkeye," Skye said with a grin. "Seriously, how cool is that sentence?"

"Fangirl," Tony coughed. When Skye glared at him, he smirked. "Sorry, my cough interrupted me. I called you Fangirl."

"Let's go join them," Coulson said, guiding Skye and me away. Smiling, we all went upstairs as Tony and Fitz-Simmons continued to talk science at a rapid pace.

"What's it like?" Skye asked me later. We were sitting on the top level of the plane, resting on plush seats around a table. Coulson, May, Clint, and Natasha were sitting a bit away from us, joking around and reminiscing, which left Skye and me to talk. But man, the Bus really was a nice plane. For something owned by SHIELD, I was kind of jealous of all the soft chairs, the bar, and all the other amenities.

"What's what like?" I asked, sipping at my orange juice.

"Oh come on," Skye said, sounding excited. "Turning into aliens! What does it feel like?"

I grinned at her. "Oh man, it's a total blast. I mean, it's weird. Some of my aliens are just plain crazy. But some of them..." I thought of Diamondhead's incredible strength and power, flying as Astrodactyl, zooming through the city in a blur as Fasttrack. "There is nothing like it in the world. Knowing at any second, I could just tap my wrist and get a few minutes to do things no one else can."

"Man," Skye leaned back, staring at the Omnitrix with a smile. "That sounds really fun."

"You have no idea," I admitted.

"Okay, now you're rubbing it in."

"Just a bit," I said with a grin that she returned.

"You ever think of letting other people try that out?" she asked.

I shrugged. "All the time. Sometimes as a possible strategy, sometimes just to let someone try."

"You can't take that off?"

"I can," I said. "But no one else can. Once it's on, I'm the only one who can wear it."

"Can I try?" Skye asked.

I scoffed. "No way. This is my super-awesome alien watch."

"Stingy," Skye teased.

I nodded slightly, watching as she slowly drank the brown alcohol in her cup. She didn't strike me as someone who drank often, but apparently, she'd needed it. I looked over at the group of super-spies. Coulson and May were drinking the same alcohol that Skye was. May seemed tense, the older Asian woman engaging in the conversation only in the sense that she was sitting close to it. Coulson was talking, but it didn't feel real, somehow, like he was going through the motions.

Skye was the same way. Like she was trying to distract herself and failing desperately. Well, shoot. I had a distraction that few in the world could match.

I got up and held a hand out to Skye. "Hey, you want to see something cool?"

She blinked up at me. "Uh, what?"

"Something cool? It really put things in perspective for me, and I think you'll enjoy it. Granted, every human on Earth would enjoy it, but..."

"I mean, are we even allowed to leave?" she asked, still taking my hand and rising up as I pulled her along. I ignored the confused looks I got from the super-spies.

"If anyone tries to stop me I'll try to unlock Way Big and throw them into the horizon," I said, moving towards the hanger.

"You do not have an alien called that!" She said, giggling. "That's so dumb!"

"Yeah, well, if you saw him you'd understand," I took a moment to feel offended on Ben's behalf. I _liked_ the alien's names. We went down the stairs and I poked my head in on Tony, Fitz, and Simmons still discussing things at a rapid pace, now looking at the scanner I had modified. "Hey, guys!"

The three looked over at me.

"Skye and I are stealing a Quinjet," Skye gave me a startled look. "Wanna come?"

"What?" Fitz said, shocked.

"Hell yes!" Tony said, delighted.

"Absolutely not!" Simmons said at the same time, horrified at the idea in a way that made me smile a little wider. Hermione Granger would have loved Simmons.

"Yeah," Skye said, letting go of my hand. "I'm not so sure about-"

"Hey, Fury," I said into the Omnitrix's comm link. "X, connect him to the speakers."

" _Of course sir,"_ X said.

" _Dial,"_ Fury said, annoyed. _"This better be quick."_

"I'm stealing a Quinjet with Tony and some of Coulson's people," I said simply.

Fury sighed in annoyance but didn't really seem to care. _"Well, we were thinking about redistributing some of our resources. Sure, it's yours."_

"...What?"

" _Dial, I may be suspicious of you, but I'm also grateful,"_ Fury said simply. _"You were essential in saving SHIELD resources, and especially personnel. Many of my people are alive because of you and the Avengers now. You've more than earned a Quinjet. So go ahead, pick one and have X let me know which you took. Fly safe."_

With that, Fury hung up, leaving us all in shock. I mean... I had a Quinjet now. Holy shit. Wait, had Fury done that just to mess with me? Or was he honestly grateful despite all his suspicions? ...Whatever, I had a Quinjet!

"Looks like you have a Quinjet now," Tony said, somehow reading my mind, and rushing out of the lab. "So where we going?"

"What is going on?" Someone said upstairs. I looked up to see Clint leaning on the railing above, looking down at us. "Fury told me to come babysit you, and that he gave you a Quinjet? Was he kidding?"

"I knew that he couldn't just let us have this," Tony groaned in annoyance, but I just grinned, feeling a bit giddy and confused all in one.

"Yeah! Can you believe it!? I mean, what the hell, right? Come with us!"

"What exactly has you so excited?" Clint asked curiously, bypassing the stairs to simply hop over the railing.

"Yeah, seriously," Skye asked, sounding a bit weirded out.

"Okay," I said, raising my hands up. "Yesterday, I saw something amazing, something so beautiful it took my breath away."

"Damn, you just met her," Tony said, looking between Skye and I. "Granted, I don't blame you, but..."

Skye grinned at Tony. "Heh. That's an ego boost for me."

"Will you all just come on?" I said, looking over at Fitz-Simmons, who still looked hesitant. "Look, I promise, it is going to be awesome."

Moments later, I was merged with a Quinjet again, Upgrade's incredible powers being put to use. My Quinjet. Seriously, I loved Fury. For all his suspicion, gifting me with a Quinjet in return for saving SHIELD made him my hero.

As of then, I had flown into space once more. This time, I turned the bottom of the aircraft transparent to show the world below.

"Man," Clint said slowly, sitting on the transparent floor and staring down at Earth. "She really is beautiful."

Fitz-Simmons, Skye, and Tony were staring at the same view, while I was using my camera's and sensors to do the same. We were floating over the East Coast now. Uh, the East Coast of the United States that is.

"I can't believe we're actually watching this," Skye said softly.

"It's so pretty," Simmons said brightly. "Look at the way the clouds are forming to the North! Do you think-?"

"Possibly," Fitz replied. "But of course-"

"Yes, that might happen," Simmons agreed.

To my surprise, Tony suddenly cut in. "I don't think so. Look, the winds are clearly breaking up the clouds as they go south."

Fitz-Simmons both stared for a moment before nodding simultaneously. "Oh yes, that's quite right," Simmons said.

"God, there are three of them," Skye said, sounding more happy than annoyed.

"Still, it's very pretty..." Fitz shook his head. "This is unbelievable. I mean, we're in _space!"_

" _I know!"_ Simmons giggled.

"Earth's... small," Tony said, sounding very different from his usual self. "I mean, obviously it's not small, but-"

"No," I interrupted. "She's small. Beautiful, and so..." I didn't say anything else.

Until you're up there, watching home spin below you among the beauty of the stars, Earth never seems real as a concept. You can know, intellectually, that you live on a tiny piece of the universe in a far bigger part of it. But it's only when you see her in all her glory that the concept of it really hits you.

We floated there for a while before Clint sighed, looking over towards the sun. "This is pretty crazy man. How fast are you like this?"

"Not light-speed fast," I admitted. "But give me time. I think... I think I can make things better. Not just upgrade them temporarily, but permanently."

"How fascinating," Simmons said, looking around at the black and green interior of the ship. "And you said you're a species made of nanites? That's how you improved the scanner back in the lab?"

"Yeah," I said through the Quinjets internal speakers. Well, the speakers I had made.

"And how much can you change?" Fitz asked. "What's it like?"

"Not a lot of ways I can explain it, but Upgrade is really damn versatile. Oh, here," I raised a podium in front of Skye, who blinked when it opened on top to reveal a keyboard and screen. "Check it out! I can make computers."

"Can your nanites be replicated?" Simmons asked.

"I've got theories about that," Tony said.

"You guys are really ruining the experience," Clint noted, looking over as Skye began typing at the computer I had made her with great enthusiasm. I could feel her sending a message to Coulson, who didn't respond.

"Well, the experience is going to be over in a bit," I admitted, a familiar red beep coming from the Omnitrix symbol.

Clint and Tony froze. Skye and Fitz-Simmons looked over at them, understanding something was wrong.

"Uh," Tony said. "These things are airtight, right?"

Clint didn't seem to know.

With a final beep, I appeared in the back of the Quinjet in human form. The transparent floor became black metal again. More importantly, the artificial gravity I had been creating disappeared, leaving us all to begin to float. "It was airtight, but I just made it more so," I admitted, spinning in the air to look at everyone. Time as Goop left me well adjusted to floating. "The Quinjet isn't quite a spaceship, but it will get us to home and the engines should be a lot faster now."

"Oh thank god," Fitz said with a sigh, floating to grab at his seat so he could strap himself down.

Clint rose up, pulling his floating form over to the cockpit. "Seriously, what is with that thing's random timing? I think we were up here for about twelve minutes this time."

"It may be some sort of failsafe!" Fitz yelled towards the front as Clint sat down. "Uh, Hawkeye, sir."

"Call me Clint."

Fitz grinned at that.

"Today has been weird," Skye said, looking at me when I sat down. "Seriously, I'm hanging out with three Avengers in space."

"Uh, excuse me?" Tony said, smirking. "Two Avengers. Fanboy here is a reserve member at best."

"I can kick the ass of every other Avenger in the right form though," I mumbled. Tony grinned, not disagreeing.

"Fanboy?" Skye asked as Clint turned the ship towards the Earth.

"Oh, you didn't know?" Tony asked, looking mischievous. "I'm his favorite Avenger."

"You mispronounced Black Widow," I sniped. "I distinctly remember saying, 'Black Widow is my favorite Avenger.'"

"All that leather really does it for ya, huh?" Skye asked me. She smirked at the betrayed look I gave her.

"So, back to the rendezvous?" Clint asked, flying down.

"Hey, Jarvis?" Tony asked. "Are they still talking about uh... what was it?"

" _International border laws, sir,"_ Jarvis said.

"God, please keep me from politics," Tony said, an ironic statement from the man whose involvement with such in the comics caused a civil war. "Yeah, let's not. Hey, let's go to my place. I wanna show you guys the labs."

"Wait, at Stark Tower?" Fitz asked.

"It's the Avengers Tower now," Clint responded from the pilot's seat.

"Shush Legolas, I'm talking," Tony tossed something at Clint, who easily dodged it. "What do you say Ross and Rachel, wanna see my toys?"

The pair seemed to glow with happiness. "Oh yes-"

"We would very much like-"

"If it's not too much trouble-"

"How about you, Fangirl?" Tony asked Skye.

"Sure," she said brightly, not bothered by the name. "Keep the good times rolling."

I hid a smile. Maybe they'd have to face it later. But for now, I'd managed to distract the three. And that was good enough.

"Cool, I'll introduce you to Bruce."

"Bruce Banner!?" Fitz-Simmons yelled in unison.

 ** _Author's Note:_** One interesting thing about this story is that I have to deal with some things I never expected, one of them being the science side of things. Characters like Diamondhead, Upgrade, Goop, they all exist in a state that would be a dream for normal scientists to study. I'm not sure it's possible to state how say, the study of Diamondhead's biology would change the world. Hopefully I conveyed that well.

Also, I'd absolutely visit space every second I could if it was as easy as tapping the Omnitrix. The only reason I wouldn't do it as Astrodactyl is the fear I'd be changed back in the atmosphere.


	20. Chapter 20

"Such an honor sir," Simmons said excitedly shaking the hand of the man in front of her.

"Oh, yes," Fitz said, pushing in for a handshake as well. "You are just, so brilliant! Your thesis on radiation physics-"

"And on the biological ramifications, on the ways that it could improve medicine!" Simmons continued.

"Changed our lives!" Fitz finished, waving his hands in emphasis. "Your papers are still taught at the SHIELD Academy!" Fitz seemed to realize something. "Well, _were_ taught I suppose."

The man looked between them, looking befuddled but pleased. "Well, thank you. Always good to be known more for my work rather than... you know." Bruce couldn't help but look saddened for a moment.

"Seriously?" Tony asked, annoyed. "Why weren't they like this for me?"

"Because you're a billionaire scientist, and Bruce is a regular scientist," Clint supplied. "You're not as classy."

"I'm classy," Tony said, feigning like he was hurt by that.

"If it helps, I still like you," Skye said, grinning.

Tony looked between them, annoyed. "Seriously, I don't get as much respect as I deserve."

I ignored them to take a good look at Bruce Banner. The Incredible Hulk. Seriously, the damn Hulk. So freaking cool.

Granted he wasn't the rage monster right now, but he also wasn't some stereotypical string-bean people assume most scientists were. He actually was very well built, likely a byproduct from being on the run from the US military for so long, with curly black hair and some beard scruff that was going a bit gray. He wore a simple sweater and blue jeans and seemed nervous, but happy to speak with Fitz-Simmons.

I looked around. "Damn... You really went all out making this place," I said to Tony.

He smirked, looking around. "Like it? I wanted it to have all the bells and whistles."

"I could get used to it," Skye said.

The room of the tower we were standing in was massive, the sort of place with so many zeroes on its price tag it would make me pass out at the mere thought of spending so much. It had a fancy bar on one side of the room, black tiles on the floor everywhere, plush leather couches, and a second floor visible from the first. The place looked like a nightclub.

I walked over to a nearby window and looked out on New York City. Tony and Skye followed me, Clint opting to go upstairs so he could have a view of everything.

"Great view, right?" Tony asked casually.

"Yeah," Skye stared out at the buildings and streets of the city. "I think I can see my favorite coffee shop right over there."

"That's my old warehouse, I think," I pointed out into the city. "I was squatting over there... I miss that warehouse."

Tony snorted. "Yeah, well, you moved up in the world, pun totally intended, so don't go shedding tears about it."

"Skye!" Simmons called out, getting her friends attention. "Come to look at this!"

She gave us an apologetic look before going to join her friends. As she did, Tony looked over at me. "What do you think?"

"It's nice... Thanks for the invite by the way."

"Wasn't as spontaneous as it seemed," Tony admitted. "Coulson wanted his team to have a good time. You deciding to steal a Quinjet just... made it easy."

I looked over at Tony, surprised. He shrugged. "I was always planning on taking you, Ross, and Rachel with me. And I know Fury was trying to find some way to show you some appreciation. Fury isn't exactly rainbows and sunshine, but he knows to be nice even when he's a paranoid asshole."

"And Coulson?" I asked. "Was he in on it?"

"He gave me permission to talk to them," Tony admitted. "But I'm the one who has to convince them working with Bruce, you, and I is a good idea."

"Tony," I said, suddenly suspicious. "What is it that you're planning?"

"...Even if SHIELD is rebuilding, even with the Avengers, we might not be enough," Tony said. "I want to make something to help us protect people. Something that can stop threats before they start. To prevent anything from space coming near us without getting vetted."

I thought about Ben 10, about the Plumbers, and the time a species of frog people had attacked. They'd had to work around something to do it if I remembered correctly. Hell, wasn't the plot of the third Men in Black movie based around something like that? And then there were the MAC guns from Halo, big cannons that could shoot a ship to pieces that were left in orbit. Plus, it was time I make something to prevent people like Davida from mind controlling me again.

"I have some ideas about that," I told Tony.

"Yeah well, hopefully, your little red guy can make them," Tony said. "By the way, I want to test you with something. First," Tony put a hand on my shoulder and guided me to the others. When we joined them, Bruce was listening as Simmons enthusiastically spoke about something. As we came closer, my Omnitrix beeped, surprising me, but when I looked down at it, the watch was normal. Wondering why it had done that, I focused on Bruce, who seemed amazed.

"A disease that can spread through electromagnetic shock?" Bruce asked her. When Simmons nodded, he grinned. "That is _fascinating_. I mean, dangerous, but if you could use that system to transfer cures-"

"We managed to suspend the cure in a mineral-based solution that could give it to her with an electrical shock," Fitz said. "But we couldn't figure out if other cures could be spread that way as well."

"Weren't you guys talking about it being a way to transfer cures over the internet?" Skye idly asked.

"That would be incredible," Bruce said in amazement. "Cures that could be stored as data! The number of people that could be saved with that, being able to send cures to people with the press of a button!"

"Yes, but we've had trouble with it," Simmons admitted. "Without more samples of similar diseases we haven't been able to see if other cures could be created, and our attempts to make such vaccines with samples of Earth diseases have come to a standstill."

"I'd like to see your research if you don't mind?" Bruce asked.

Fitz and Simmons looked like they had never heard of something more wonderful.

"Well that works out," Tony said, getting everyone's attention. "I want Jury Rigg to take a look at something."

"Jury Rigg?" Bruce asked.

"Oh, right, I guess you haven't heard," Tony said with a smile. "Turns out you aren't the only guy who can turn into giant monsters-"

"Tony?" Someone said.

We all turned to see a woman walking into the room. She was wearing a black dress that fit her tall and thin frame very well, had red hair in a high ponytail, and freckles across her nose. She walked over to us, smiling. Happy walked in behind her and gave me a light glare that I returned with a sigh.

"Jarvis told me you brought company," the woman said.

"Tattletale," Tony said to the air.

" _She asked why a Quinjet was parked on the roof,"_ Jarvis informed Tony.

"And I'm sure she broke you after hours of torture," Tony said. "Okay, well, these are Fangirl, Ross, Rachel, and-"

"The hacker," Happy said.

"Wait, you know me?" Skye asked, surprised.

"You hacked us too?" the woman, Pepper Potts at a guess, said, while Happy frowned.

"Uh..." Skye looked around. "No?"

"Seriously, how many holes are there in my security? I mean, I get Fanboy, but Fangirl too?" Tony asked, annoyed. "Anyways, this is Happy Hogan, my Forehead of Security, and Pepper Potts, the real CEO and my girlfriend."

"On days when he isn't running around the world without telling me," Pepper said, shaking my hand then moving on to the others.

Tony waited until she had been fully introduced before looking between Bruce and Pepper. "Guys. I need to talk to you about something. Happy, can you show them to the labs? My personal one."

Happy, Pepper, and Bruce seemed shocked. Happy looked at Skye and I. "Uh, Tony, are you sure-"

"Yes," Tony was uncharacteristically serious. "Now, I need to talk to Pepper and Bruce."

I gave the others an awkward look that was returned. Happy led us away as Pepper gave Tony a worried look.

 _ **Steve Rogers/Captain America**_

Steve watched calmly as Fury worked the room. In all of his interactions, Steve had never thought of Fury as a politician. But he turned out to have a real skill at it, speaking calmly and with real control, taking over the conversations. Fury wasn't smooth, and he wasn't passionate. He simply spoke in a way that demanded attention.

Fury still managed to get annoyed when a woman named Senator Ellen Nadeer once again tried to intrude on the discussion. Granted, ever since the politicians of the countries invited to the discussion were informed of the change, a few controversial suggestions had been brought up, one man even requesting that the Avenger be put on call to put down political dissidents. But Ellen Nadeer was a special sort of obsessed. She was glaring out from one of the holo-screens and had once again interrupted the discussion.

"Senator Nadeer," Fury said. "For the last time, Dial and Thor are not simple aliens, they are allies, as are the Asgardians. Hell, Dial is one hundred percent human and simply uses technology that _turns him into_ aliens. Now, I have plans to begin equipping our forces to combat any extraterrestrial threats that come knocking on our doorstep again-"

"How can you do that when you invite the aliens to join your ranks?" Nadeer said firmly, the young Indian-American woman frowning. "We can't simply expect them to see our people as being as important as their own."

"Dial is human," Steve reminded her. "And Thor helped us-"

"Against a problem, _his_ brother caused," Nadeer said angrily. "And Dial can only barely be considered human since he apparently changes his species the way the rest of us change shirts. How can we be assured he will stay our ally? What if one day Asgard decides we might be worth invading?"

"What if, when we need our most powerful allies, we've already driven them away?" Steve said, rising up to eye her. "Senator Nadeer, these questions you're asking come from fear, and it's understandable to feel that fear. But Thor is not just an alien, he is my friend and ally, someone who put their life on the line when they could have walked away. Thor has done it _three_ times in fact."

"Including the time when he brought the Dark Elves," Nadeer scowled.

"No, he didn't," Coulson said, drawing the attention of the room. "The Dark Elves were coming all along. Thor helped stop them. That situation is not proof for your argument, it's the proof against it. When an alien enemy came to attack our world, an alien ally came to our defense, as did some of our worlds best scientists."

Victoria Hand nodded. "And let us not forget, a massive portion of the meeting has been dedicated to making sure this new organization can defend the Earth even from Asgardians. The world's best scientists, engineers, and tacticians will be working around the clock to develop the tools and the people to stop the threat."

Nadeer shook her head. "I still disagree with the idea that we do anything to teach and protect powered individuals. What if, by harboring and protecting them, we only give them the outlet to become our new rulers?"

"First, we work to prevent that very thing," Fury said. "Second, we take them down if we can't."

"And if Thor decided to do it?" Nadeer asked. "What if the 'God of Thunder' decided to become our god once more? Can we simply decide it won't happen?"

Steve shook his head. "Not at all. But in the end, we aren't dealing with that sort of situation. The men and women we are currently at war with are all humans. Sure, they are using alien technology like the Chitauri armor, or empowered individuals like Davida or Creel, but the masterminds are human. We need to accept that the issue of who to trust must be seen on a case by case basis, not based on where they were born or how they are different. Yes, they may be a threat. But immediately assuming they are is a mistake that could cost valuable allies."

Nadeer shook her head and seemed to prepare to attack once more. Steve smiled on the outside and groaned on the inside. He really was not made for politics.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

"Tony Stark's lab," Skye said later, staring around with wide eyes. We stood side by side, looking around at a place I'd only ever seen in comic books and cartoons. She looked at me. "You know I tried visiting the tower before?"

"Really?" I asked, surprised.

"Well, I didn't get a guided tour or anything," Skye admitted. "I mostly stood outside in costu- Uh, I mean..."

I grinned at the harried look she gave me at her near admittance.

According to Happy, the whole top floors of the tower were dedicated to the Avengers. The place we'd left behind was the lounge area. The lab we stood in now was Tony's, with another for Bruce and one more for guest scientists and researchers.

Fitz and Simmons were walking around with a look of absolute glee in their eyes as Skye, Happy, and I watched them. There were pieces of armor and robotics everywhere, a couple of fancy looking cars in the back, and a main table in the center. More importantly, however, were the dozens of broken Iron Man suits surrounding us.

"How did he make so many?" Fisk asked, amazed as he looked at one helmet that kind of reminded me of the Hulkbuster, but where the Hulkbuster suit was red this helmet was silver and blue. That plus the tears and rips where it had been blown all to hell. "And why?"

"Tony kind of... went through a phase," Happy said. "He ended up making around thirty of them."

"Damn," Skye walked up to one of them. "And he just destroyed them all?"

"Like I said, he went through a phase," Happy looked at me. "Any idea what he wanted you to do?"

"I know what I want to do," I admitted, thinking of Pepper and her comic book counterpart. "Although we have to wait."

"What did he need to talk to Pepper and Bruce about?" Happy asked me as Simmons leaned over to look at the remains of a chest plate.

"...Agent Phil Coulson is alive," I stated with some hesitance.

Happy's eyes widened. He seemed to understand the meaning behind that, based on the way his mouth opened and closed like a goldfish's. Finally, he sighed. "I miss when the world made sense."

"That day never existed," I said sadly. "The multiverse was always crazy. We just had ignorance protecting us before."

People walking into the room took my attention. I looked at Tony, Pepper, and Bruce as they walked in. Clint didn't join, and I wondered briefly where he had gone. "Everything all right?" I asked with some concern.

Pepper's eyes were red, and she clenched a napkin in an angry fist, but she managed a hesitant smile. "Yeah, everything's okay."

Tony sighed. "Okay, Fanboy, come with me. Bruce, show the nerd crew what we've got, will you?"

"On it," Bruce stepped forward as I followed Tony, Pepper staying behind.

Tony led me to an elevator and waited until we'd gone down a couple of floors before speaking. "The first time I killed someone was in a cave," I leaned against the wall of the elevator. "I did it using my power suit, the first one. I try not to let it bother me. I killed a lot more people afterward, guys who deserved it. And I look for distractions all the time. Sometimes though, you need help."

I sighed. "...I thought maybe if I could help Coulson's team, maybe I'd also distract myself."

"Yeah, you weren't exactly subtle about it," Tony said. "I wouldn't suggest talking to Bruce about it though. I tried, but he just falls asleep."

"Bruce is a therapist?" I asked, confused. "I mean, considering the green elephant in the room-"

"No, he isn't," Tony scowled. "He falls asleep when he tries. But uh, I have a good one, on retainer. I'm planning to hire other ones. Coulson recommended a guy. So if you need one, let me know."

I nodded. "Thanks, Tony."

He smiled. "Well, don't thank me now. I'm only using you for your brains." I laughed as the doors opened. "Come on, I'll show you your room."

"I get a room?" I asked, surprised.

"You did say you were homeless."

"...Pepper pushed you to do this, right?"

"I can do things without my girlfriend pushing me. Anyways, we'll go back upstairs afterward."

The elevator opened and we walked out into the hallway. When we got to the room that Tony had offered me, we found a surprise.

"Barton?" Tony asked.

Clint Barton was sitting on a couch in front of a TV, playing video games. Some kind of Grand Theft Auto clone, based on the fact he was being chased by the army. He looked up and smiled at us. "Hey guys."

"Don't 'hey guys' me," Tony said, annoyed. "Get your feet off that table, it's worth more than decades of your salary."

"You haven't seen my salary," Clint put his feet down and kept playing the game. "So you're giving the kid a room?"

"How did you know that?" I asked, confused. "He just told me five seconds ago."

"Spy," Clint said, pointing at himself.

Tony scowled. "Yes, I am. But you ruined it," Tony took my arm and pulled me away. "Jarvis, check the room for bugs and let me know next time Clint does something sneaky."

" _Yes, sir,"_ Jarvis said.

"Fanboy, delete his save games as soon as you can."

"Fine by me," Clint said, sounding immensely frustrated. "Why the hell is the army chasing me in a fishing game..."

"It's immersive!" Tony yelled back.

"You seem to get angry at them a lot," I noted. "Clint and Coulson, I mean, whenever they do the spy stuff."

Tony smirked, leading me back to the elevator. "Well yeah. I mean, it's part of their charm, sure, but I'm still going to call them out on it."

The elevator went up, and Tony stood in silence with me for a bit. At a guess, he was thinking. Finally, he spoke as the door to the elevators opened.

"I've been thinking about what you said," Tony stepped out, walking slowly, and I matched his pace. "About how you were patrolling New York. I think that's a good idea to make a thing for Avengers. Having people with powers on the street, keeping people safe, it could go a long way to making the average person more comfortable with... what was the word you used, metahuman?" I nodded. "I'll have to mention it to Steve and Fury."

When we walked back into the room, Pepper was speaking with Skye and Happy, smiling a bit. Fitz-Simmons and Bruce were at a computer, where I could see what looked like some sort of blueprints for a taser displayed.

"Okay, ladies and gentlemen, the show is about to begin," Tony said dramatically, waved at all the pieces of armor in the lab. "Okay Fanboy, I want you to make armor while I record you working."

"What, out of all this?" I asked, surprised at Tony Stark letting _anyone_ near his armor tech, even scraps of it.

"Why do you think I pulled these out of storage? Just make something, and I'll be able to see how much of what Jury Rigg does is him being smart, and him using some kind of superpowers."

I thought about that. In truth, my understanding of Jury Rigg, my experience when I turned into him, told me that he didn't work that way. Jury Rigg was just a smart, stubborn son of a bitch. But hell, if Tony needed proof...

"Okay," I raised the Omnitrix and began to twist the dial. The holograms of my aliens popped up. I scrolled past Wildmutt, Rath, Diamondhead, Swampfire, and Feedback, finally getting to Jury Rigg.

"So that's what that looks like," Bruce said, stepping closer to look. "And the names, are those affectations or translations of the species actual word for themselves?"

"Affectations," I said, pressing down on the dial.

"Oh, that's too bad," Bruce said, disappointment on his face as my body was surrounded by green light. "Because it might've revealed something about them culturally... huh. Shorter than I expected."

I grinned up at everyone, Pepper blinking at me next to Bruce.

"Tony, is that-" Pepper began to say.

"Yeah, my Black Sabbath shirt," Tony said, surprising me. I'd wondered since my first transformation why I was wearing a regular shirt and jeans, rather than the aviator gear Jury Rigg was known to wear.

"Why would an alien have a Black Sabbath shirt?" Bruce asked, confused.

"I think because Tony wears it," I said without thinking.

The three looked down at me, Tony confused. "Me?"

"Well, it would make sense. According to the mental memories given to me by the Omnitrix I, that is to say Jury Rigg, am one of a few aliens affected by the unconscious perceptions of the wearer," I stated wisely. "Tony Stark is known culturally as a sort of 'mad scientist', a person who makes incredible inventions, and so, despite my clear closeness in appearance to the common traditional design for Gremlins, I instead wore the clothing of the person most closely associated with engineering of a spectacular nature."

All of which was half a guess on my part, half a lie. But it worked as an explanation.

"Well, he's more eloquent than he looks," Pepper said.

"Thank you!" I said, my red cheeks somehow getting redder as I looked up at Pepper, who smiled.

"Let's put a pin in that," Tony said, looking around the lab. "Jarvis, you recording?"

" _Of course, sir,"_ Jarvis said diligently.

"All right Mini-Me, go make something."

"Right!" I ran over to the suits and robotic parts. "Disassemble, disassemble!" I shouted gleefully, running between Skye's legs as she came over to see what the fuzz was all about.

Skye yelped in shock, staring after me as I climbed onto a table and grabbed a helmet that was in pretty condition. "What was that!?"

"I'm Jury Rigg!" I shouted back, leaping onto another table. I grinned at Simmons as she stared at me askance. I don't know why, but both Simmons and Pepper were suddenly more interesting now. Actually, looking over at Fitz and Tony, I could guess why...

I grabbed a bunch of pieces of gauntlets, gloves, a couple of chest plates, all the servos I could grab. I knew what I had to make, and in many ways, I had a perfect blueprint in mind thanks to comics. Jury Rigg wanted to do more than just make armor, and they say inspiration should be followed...

I ran over to Pepper and stared at her for a moment. She blinked at me as I put my hands into a frame, taking a good look at her.

"Um..."

I ignored her confusion to run back to the parts I had gathered. "I need an arc reactor!"

"Okay," Tony walked over to a table and tossed one over to me after a bit of searching.

"You just have extra arc reactors lying around?" Fitz asked, sounding amazed.

"What, you want one?" Tony threw another one to Fitz, who yelped, catching it. "They're older models, for back when I needed one for my heart. Thanks for bringing them over, Happy."

I ignored the background noise of Happy responding. Let's see, I wanted it to be able to separate into different sections. A neural link, naturally attuned to her... Magnets? No, too primitive, so maybe...

I tapped the Omnitrix symbol and changed into Upgrade. I merged with the pieces I'd made and started in on the adjustments. The pieces couldn't just mash together, they had to be adaptive. I separated from them and looked at the armor I'd been making for a moment.

"Kid?" Tony asked, walking over. "What exactly are you up to?"

"Almost done," I said, tapping the Omnitrix and turning back into Jury Rigg. I opened my mouth and bit down onto a section of chestplate, tearing it off so I could bend it in a different direction. I took some of the wires and twisted them into the arc reactor. Then I moved the repulsors into their positions and turned into Upgrade again. While I could do impressive things as Jury Rigg, Upgrade let me make changes at an even more precise level. I hadn't really thought about combining them this way until now, but something about working with Tony's armor made my mind buzz with inspiration. "One more second!"

I poured into the gauntlets and the repulsors and further refined them. I left and turned back into Jury Rigg. With a squeal of metal, I twisted the helmet' facemask into shape, then yelled to the ceiling. "X, Jarvis, install a basic version of Tony's armor software please!"

" _Right away, sir,"_ Jarvis said.

" _On it,"_ X agreed.

"Tony, Fitz, can you two help me?" I asked.

"Oh, um," Fitz looked at Tony, who waved for him to join me. "Yes, of course."

As they leaned down to the floor to join me, I showed them where I needed them. "Here, and here, you see? Start putting them in place"

"Oh, okay, so that the armor is connected wirelessly?" Fitz said. "Oh, that's brilliant."

"I know, right?" Tony said, apparently forgetting in all the excitement that he was supposed to just be watching me. Soon, the two were moving the pieces of armor I'd made into place, following the connections. As I watched, they actually made some adjustments that I hadn't thought of. Interesting.

"Okay, only activate them on my say, please?" I hopped away and ran over to a computer. "Skye, Simmons!"

The two ran over to join me, Skye taking me under the armpits and helping me get on the table when I struggled to hop onto it.

"Okay, Skye," I said, pointing at the screen. "X, show me a portion of- right, that," X flashed the code I was thinking of. "Can you clean that up a bit?"

"What, some code I've never seen before..." Skye leaned forward to look at it. "No, wait... This is familiar. I think if I..." She trailed off, typing frantically at the computer.

"Jarvis, can you show me the bloodwork and medical history?" I asked. "On uh... that one!" As I pointed at a computer, it turned on. "Come on!" I said to Simmons, the young woman following next to me as I ran along the tables. "Okay, can you make sure that these two match up well?" I asked. "I don't want to make a mistake?"

Simmons leaned over and blinked at what she read, focusing on one bit in particular. "Extremis virus?"

"I don't want to activate it," I explained. "I know it was removed, but if there is any chance..."

"Professor Banner," Simmons said, understanding in an instant. "Can you look at this as well?"

"Of course," Bruce ran over and checked the computer, putting on his glasses.

"Oh, I see what he's doing," Tony mumbled, looking at the confused Happy and Pepper.

"All good!" Skye said, looking over at me as I hopped off the table to join Tony and Fitz.

"Um, I don't think there should be anything wrong," Bruce said, looking over at us.

"I concur with Professor Banner's assessment," Simmons said, squealing a moment later. "I always wanted to say that!"

"Okay, one last thing," I tapped the Omnitrix.

In seconds, I stood tall, my skin inky black, a pair of tendrils popping out of my head ending in plugs.

" **Feedback!"** I cried proudly.

All the pieces were in place. Jury Rigg was smart, but he wasn't precise when it came to software, and had no experience in biology, so Skye, Jarvis and X helped with the software I needed, and Simmons and Bruce made sure the biological aspect wouldn't clash with my tech. Upgrade was very good at smoothing the rough edges of Jury Rigg's tech, but Tony and Fitz would be able to replicate it afterward if they were involved in the process. I could see them putting pieces into place, and got ready for my final part.

"Okay, Fitz, Tony, Jarvis, X, on one," I raised my hands up and sucked out the power of the arc reactor in the chest plate. Blue power flowed into me in constant waves, and I could feel the device begin to fight me. Tony and Fitz tensed their fingers against the armor. "Two!" I held my breath, then fired the energy back. "THREE!"

With a shout, Tony and Fitz pressed down on the armor, completing the last connections that needed to be made. Jarvis and X uploaded the software, and the whole thing began to come together as I poured energy into the suit.

"Yaaaaaagh!" I yelled, putting more and more into it. Tony and Fitz stepped back from the jerking suit, both staring at it.

Finally, I stopped, tapping the Omnitrix to run over to look at the armor as Jury Rigg. I inspected it with a critical eye. Everyone walked over to join me.

"It's... female?" Happy asked.

"Only for design purposes," I admitted.

The suit I'd made was primarily red, but it had some sections of black that were running with green circuitry. It was tall but thinner than Tony or Rhodey's suits. The arc reactor rested in the chest, glowing blue, but as we watched, a thick piece of steel snapped over the arc reactor. The whole suit shrank into a more compact form, ready to attach to the wearer in a moment.

"Do you like it!?" I asked Pepper.

Everyone looked at her. She stared back uncomprehending, before realizing what was going on. "What?" She said, staring down at me.

"Do you like it?" I asked bashfully. "It should fit really well!"

"You made that for me?" Pepper looked around, shocked. "Whoa, no, I don't want armor! I'm not a superhero!"

"Huh?" I asked. "It's not to fight in! I mean, you can if you want, but I made it so you can fly!"

Pepper stilled at that. "Fly?"

"Yeah! It'll still protect you, but this way you can fly with Tony whenever you want!"

Seriously, why was I acting like this?

"Tony," Pepper frowned at her boyfriend. "If this is because of you..."

"Hey, this is all him," Tony said, waving at me. "I told him to make armor, I didn't expect... all this!" Pepper glared a moment longer. "Honest!"

She looked back at me. I sighed. "Don't you want to at least try? It's probably the best thing I've ever made." Except for the dimensional viewer of course.

Pepper just huffed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "I mean... look, I've had a hell of a day," the last bit of her sentence was said very quietly, with a hint of sadness. "I'm just having trouble processing this."

Tony rose up and walked over to her. They whispered fiercely for a moment, Happy joining in, then Bruce. The four spoke quickly, and eventually, I heard Natasha's voice, just barely, amongst the group, coming from Tony's comm unit.

After about five minutes of speaking to those she was closest too, Pepper turned to look at me. "So," she said, still hesitant. "How do I put it on?"

"Just think about it, slowly," I said.

"Think about it slowly?" Pepper asked. As she spoke a gauntlet rose from the floor. The red and black armor piece floated gently over to her as everyone watched. Pepper raised a hand and watched the gauntlet calmly move over to it, the armor pieces shifting to move around her fingers, wrist, and forearm. With a click, the final part of the gauntlet moved over her shoulder. She blinked at it. "Oh, wow. This doesn't feel like the last time. It's... almost nice."

"Skye input the program to incorporate the medical data Bruce and Simmons put in," I explained. "Okay, try the rest. But think, 'sloooooowly'."

"That's important," Tony said with a wince. "Seriously, you don't want a piece of armor flying into you in a sensitive spot."

"Experience?" Skye asked mischievously.

"Shhh," Pepper said, frowning. "I'm concentrating-ah!" She exclaimed in excitement when a leg of the armor flew over to her. She blinked, looking down at her dress. "Wait, what about my clothes, oh, nevermind."

The leg moved around her heel, then over her hip, leaving the dress and shoe intact. The next leg did the same.

"I figured you might want to wear it on the fly," I explained. "I just used an upgraded version of the technology Tony uses so he can wear a tuxedo under the suit."

"I always wondered about that," Bruce mumbled.

Pepper yelped in surprise when the chest plate attached, giggling slightly. "It's cold!"

Then the helmet rose up, floating over to her hands. She took it and raised the helmet to gaze into its eyes. She looked over at Tony, who looked proud enough to burst, and blushed. Something about seeing Tony and Pepper happy as they looked at each other made Jury Rigg grin as well.

Pepper raised the helmet up and lowered it over her head. The faceplate snapped down over her, and she looked around. "So... how do I look?" she asked in a slightly modified voice.

She was the tallest in the room now, towering over all of us. The red and black design of her suit gave a somber, impressive look. I'd chosen not to give her the boob plate that most comic book power suits for woman seemed to insist on, instead of making her chest plate with a series of interlocking plates for flexibility. Tony and Fitz had done well to make sure each piece fit smoothly.

"I... this may be the sexiest thing I've ever seen," Tony said, uncaring of the looks everyone gave him. "How does it feel? Any issues?"

"I feel," Pepper turned her hand over, watching her red and black fingers wiggle. "I feel powerful. It's like it's a part of me."

I tapped my Omnitrix and became human again.

I grinned at Pepper. "Wanna take it for a spin?" I asked. "We can fly!"

"Um, is that safe?" She asked hesitantly.

"Jarvis, what can you tell us?" Tony asked. "Safe?"

" _Ms. Potts is safe,"_ Jarvis said immediately. _"While the method of it's making is unorthodox, the suit has no issues to worry about. I'd argue it has more to protect her from harm than even your latest suits, Mr. Stark."_

"Give me time," Tony mumbled, clearly unworried. "Jarvis, send me the Mark 43."

" _On its way sir,"_ Jarvis' pronouncement was followed by the suit flying over before landing and walking over to Tony. Tony opened his arms wide and the suit opened to accept him.

"What do you say?" the faceplate on Tony's armor closed over his face. "Want to go for a test flight?"

Pepper looked over her hands. "Well, it's tempting..."

"Come on!" I shouted, running towards the balcony outside. The others followed. Pepper was moving very smoothly in her armor, and soon was striding with confidence.

We all stood together, Skye moving to watch with me as Tony began to guide Pepper in her first attempts at flight.

"So, when do I get a suit?" she asked with a grin.

I smirked at her. "Stick around. I'll even let you pick the color scheme."

Skye's grin fell. "Seriously?"

"Seriously. You want a suit, I can make you one," I looked down at the Omnitrix. "I've been holding back to long on what I can do. So has SHIELD. I think it's time we make real headway on changing the world. And part of that is giving it some sweet toys."

Pepper yelped, bring our attention to her. She was laughing as Tony guided her to float with her rocket boots, using the hand repulsors to stabilize. Bruce shouted something to her, and Pepper laughed back as Fitz-Simmons watched, Happy worried but also smiling.

Soon, Tony and Pepper were rising up together.

"Come on baby bird, you got this," Tony teased. "You can't tell me you haven't been jealous of me doing this."

Pepper floated a little higher. "How can I be jealous when you've crashed every single time you've ever flown?"

"Any crash you can walk away from is a landing," Tony said in response. "Hey, Fanboy! Let's go!"

"I'm needed elsewhere," I gave Skye a grin. "Catch you later!"

I twisted the Omnitrix and leaped forward off the balcony as wings sprouted on my back.

" **Astrodactyl!"**

With a loud squawk, I flew to join them with a blast of green energy. Pepper, startled, backed away slightly.

"How many of those can you turn into?" She asked, her impassive facemask pointed at me.

"Who cares!?" Tony asked, spinning in the air. "Come on! Let's see New York in style!"

Pepper hesitantly followed, and I joined them.

It was slow going at first. Pepper went slowly, ungainly, trying to figure things out. Tony and I stayed with her, Tony taunting her slightly, yet somehow comforting her at the same time. We flew over to the west, moving slowly. But as time went on, Pepper began to speed up. She flew upwards, then slowly moved from side to side, mimicking Tony's movements. Soon, she was moving faster. We passed by buildings, people below pointing up and photographing us.

"How do you feel!?" I called out to her after a bit.

"This is amazing!" Pepper called back, laughing.

"Come on, let's pick up the pace!" Tony said, his repulsors lighting up before he shot forward, passing over Central Park.

Pepper wasn't as quick to simply boost forward, but soon she and Tony were flying as fast as they could. I watched the pair fly together, then went in my own direction. It was their time to enjoy.

Instead, I flew towards the Empire State Building to try something I'd done a few times. I soared to the top of the former tallest building in the world and pulled in my wings when I got to the spire. I landed against it, clenching my clawed feet and hands against it. With my powerful eyes, I could track Pepper and Tony flying through the city and watched them for a moment before looking around some more.

Then I saw a man on a street thousands of feet below, getting mugged by another guy. With a smile, I dived off the Empire State Building and fired my green rockets to blast towards the crime in progress.

It was funny. In many ways, I was right back where I'd started, in the middle of New York City, stopping muggings. But I was also a whole lot further ahead.

Changing in mid-air as I came up to the mugging, I howled my battlecry, laughing within at the sound and smell of the mugger's fear.

Then Wildmutt was pushing him to the ground, and it was business as usual from there.

 _Author's Note:_

So there is the chapter. This was fun. So yeah, Dial made the Rescue armor for Pepper. The excuse is that he wanted to make something cool for her, and Pepper is probably still assuming Tony wanted Dial to make it, no matter what Tony says. In truth, if I had pieces of armor near Pepper, I'd hands down make her armor. I'd make anyone armor if I could. Dial would make himself armor if it wasn't for the fact the Omnitrix is the best armor in existence (Though updating his costume to be more protective is a future project.

Next is the final making of the organization, with the leader and the name being chosen. After that, we go back in time to focus on something. HYDRA's efforts to survive, and thrive, in this new world, and the desperate lengths they go to.


	21. Chapter 21

_January 14th, 2014_

In the medbay of the Insight Helicarrier, I moved Sergeant Don Chappele's arm with him. Granted, I technically was his arm, but semantics. He'd lost it just a day during the attack on the SHIELD academy, and I was finally fulfilling my promise to him from that day.

"How does it feel?" I asked, sprouting my head from his new bicep, the whole of his arm shining black with green circuits as usual. "I'm trying to adjust it to your nerves as you move it."

He shuddered, and I could see he was visibly holding back his disgust. I didn't take it personally.

"It uh, feels like an arm," the sergeant said, moving his fingers around.

"Well, it should," Bruce Banner, typing at a computer nearby. "Dial designed it to link up to your brain, to mimic things like pressure, heat, touch, everything you need," Bruce finished typing and looked at the soldier. "But it should also be capable of more than your normal arm."

"Like what?" the soldier asked, watching with a fascinated disgust as I flowed off his arm and turned into a human again. His arm was now shaped like one of the Iron Man suits arms.

"Superhuman strength, when you want it," I said, watching as he clenched his fist. "It's also tougher and can be installed with options if you want. I know it's not perfect, but I promise I'll keep working on the project."

I frowned when the soldier gave me a dissatisfied look. I couldn't exactly blame him though. If I'd lost my arm, I'd probably want it back. Not a robot version. Just my arm, whole again.

"Well um... Do you want us to-"

"Just," he clenched the new fist and sat down in his bed, staring at it. "Leave me alone? Please?"

Bruce and I shared a glance. Bruce adjusted his glasses and moved to the door, me following a moment later. "Have a pleasant day, Sergeant Chappele."

"Thanks," the soldier said dismissively.

I sighed sadly, looking at Bruce as we walked through the halls. "You get that reaction a lot?"

"Usually when people find out who I am," Bruce said. I noted that a lot of people were giving the two of us a wide berth. "But he just needs time. A therapist will be speaking to him soon, hopefully, that will help him."

"Okay... So what was it you wanted to talk to me about?" I asked Bruce.

"I..." He stared at the Omnitrix. "There are a few things, but they can wait until after this is over."

Together, we went to the locker rooms. We had around twenty minutes left. I took out the clothes I'd prepared and quickly changed. A black business suit, with a blue button-up shirt. Bruce went for grey. Once done, we walked outside.

"Any idea what my role is in all of this?" Bruce asked me awkwardly.

"Hell if I know," I admitted. "I just know that we're supposed to be there. At least you're actually an Avenger."

"Hulk is the Avenger," Bruce said bitterly. "Not me, I'm just the guy who hangs around until they call a code green."

I looked at him. This wasn't a Bruce who'd found peace with the Hulk. This wasn't a Bruce who had gone Planet Hulk, then World War Hulk, making a massive journey to some sort of agreement between the two. But how was I supposed to tell the two that they could find that equilibrium?

"You know...," I started to say as we walked.

"Hey fellas," Natasha interrupted. Bruce and I looked up to see her smiling down the hall, wearing a very professional looking suit that somehow still made her look stunning. "You're late."

"We are?" Bruce asked, worried.

Natasha smiled gently, moving forward to stand behind us and walking with us. "It's an Avengers meeting, people came early. And now they're wondering where we all are."

"Who else is there?" I asked.

"Clint showed up. Steve never left," Natasha scoffed. "Of all the uses for the super-soldier serum, being able to outlast everyone else in a meeting is not one I think they had in mind."

"Useful for us, though," I looked at her. "Anything we should worry about?"

"Some of the senators who stepped in tried to really hammer down on the idea of powered individuals," Natasha said. "Others wanted you two put in prison."

"What!?" I yelled, noticing Bruce didn't seem surprised.

"You both scare people. You seem to be able to do whatever you want, and Bruce hasn't been stopped by anything before."

"Goddamn it..." I mumbled.

"Cooler heads prevailed," Natasha explained. "But still, the guidelines are especially harsh on certain crimes. We still have some leeway, but... we may have to ignore some of them."

"Is that really safe?" Bruce asked, the three of us stopping in a doorway. "I mean, I don't know about Dial here, he can actually control his transformations."

"Except Rath," Natasha and I said in unison, sharing a surprised glance. Bruce looked between us before shrugging it off.

"I can only barely control the Hulk."

"And you saved the world with him," Natasha smiled. "Don't worry. We'll figure this out. For now," she nodded towards the room beyond the doorway we'd stopped in. "Go in."

Bruce sighed, still not convinced, but walked inside. With a bit of trepidation, I followed, then Natasha.

The room was much the same as the last time I saw it. Nick Fury and Steve sitting with Tony, though Tony and Steve were in suits like mine now, same with Clint, Sam, and Rhodey. The various members of SHIELD surrounded the table, Coulson, Hand, and Gonzales included.

But President Ellis was now actually in the room, having taken Councilperson Rockwell's seat. He gave Bruce and I a good look as we walked around the table, barely noting Natasha. Soon, we were all in position.

"Well, Nick," President Ellis said. "We're all here."

Fury nodded, steepling his fingers. "Very well. First off, I believe we have the discussion of the new name for the organization. This is the least important item on the agenda, so I want to get it out of the way. Some of the suggestions have been," Fury flickered his eyes over to Tony. "Colorful, to say the least."

"Actually, Nick," President Ellis said. "I believe I'd like us to appoint a new head first."

Fury cocked an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yes," Ellis smiled. "And to start, I'd like to nominate General Thaddeus Ross."

Bruce almost choked.

"Absolutely not," Tony said firmly. "Are you kidding me?"

President Ellis frowned. "Thaddeus Ross has been a loyal soldier, and a good man that I-"

"I agree with Mr. Stark," Steve said firmly. "General Ross has been hunting one of our team members for years. More importantly, putting a leading member of the US Military in charge of an international organization is in bad taste, Mr. President."

Indeed, several of the people on the screens around us were frowning severely at the President. Ellis nodded after a moment, conceding the point.

"I nominate Maria Hill," Victoria Hand said. The older woman tapped at the tablet in front of her, and an image of Maria smiling hovered over the table. I made a note to do something about the way the hologram looked so grainy and out of focus when I had the chance, then listened to Victoria speak. "She is already Deputy Director, so this would simply be a promotion. She knows the Avengers, has experience with working the job and showed great leadership during the crisis we just went through. If there is anyone we can trust to do the job, it's her."

Coulson, Gonzales, and Fury gave Hand a pleased look that she returned.

"That may cause problems," the Russian President said. "As you said, she is SHIELD, and the organization not being trustworthy is what caused us these very issues. I would suggest someone outside the organization."

"*And who would we choose?*" the Japanese Prime Minister asked in his native language, X putting up subtitles in real-time. "*Hill-san at least has the benefit of already proving her willingness to put any nationalism aside when she worked with Fury-san and Romanov-san to guide agents around the world. Japan's SHIELD forces are intact thanks to her.*"

The Russian President shook his head. When he spoke, he chose to employ his own home language of Russian this time, apparently wishing for his words to be conveyed without his accent marring the message. "*We must at least consider someone else, as there are those who will consider Hill a choice made out of favoritism. Why not Captain Rogers?*" Steve was surprised by this. "*He has shown a willingness to fight against corruption, much like Hill, but he was not part of the organization. In addition, he is a known and trusted figure across the world,*" the Russian President frowned. "*Of course, his codename does have something to be desired...*"

"I disagree," Fury said. When Steve looked at him, Fury gave him a level look. "The organization being run by someone with abilities, even ones as simple as Captain Rogers, won't be seen as a good thing. If he becomes the leader, a lot of people will yell about a powered individual taking a position so high in the world's government."

"I nominate him nonetheless," the Russian President said. What a world, where a Russian leader nominated Captain America for a major leadership role.

"What about a member of the Council?" the Chinese President asked. "Councilman Yen has served the world faithfully."

As the politicians spoke, trading barbs a little bit, I kept my eyes on one screen in particular. It was almost forgotten in the flow of important nations speaking about the issue of leadership. The man on the screen was African, with grey hair and a very nice beard. His left eye was slightly misshapen, possibly due to an old injury, but he had a calm demeanor about him. He hadn't spoken much according to Natasha, who'd seemed surprised when I'd asked about him. But then, I knew more than most about his nation. After all, I'd been the one who'd requested they be included in the conversation.

"What about you, King T'Chaka?" I asked, suddenly. "Does the nation of Wakanda have anyone they wish to suggest?"

Everyone stopped confusion in the room. Fury gave me an odd look. King T'Chaka seemed surprised, but I noted that his focus seemed laser sharp on me.

"I agree with the nomination of Ms. Hill," T'Chaka said with a smile I didn't believe. "But I would like to hear the other candidates before making a vote."

"I'd love to hear your opinions," I said. "Wakanda's place on the world stage is important after all."

I heard some chuckles. People believed that I was throwing shade, but T'Chaka knew better. We met eyes across thousands of miles thanks to the wonder of modern technology. Soon, the other delegates began to throw other nominees. Natasha pulled at my arm, and I looked at her. She shook her head, a question in her eyes. I didn't reply.

The discussion lasted an hour. But T'Chaka kept panning his eyes to meet mine. I only nodded every time he did. Wakanda, aka the most secretly advanced nation on Earth, couldn't simply stand on the sidelines. Not anymore. I didn't know why I felt so strongly about this, but something seemed to scream it within me. A voice, as powerful as a siren. _You were wrong to turn your backs on the rest of the world._

In the end, the leader was voted on and chosen. And so the only thing left was the name.

"Now, there are some names that were suggested that are going to be discarded immediately," Fury said.

"Why, what's wrong with them?" Tony asked innocently.

"Well, let's see," Fury tapped at his tablet, and the list of names floated before us. "CICLOPS, with an I. 'Counter-terrorism Initiative Center Led by One-eyed Professional Superspy..."

"I fail to see the issue," Tony said with a grin.

"Me either," Clint said, smiling when Fury gave him a level look. "I still want ARROW."

"What was wrong with SHIELD?" Steve asked. The leaders of nations gave him a look, and Coulson smiled.

"That's going to be shifted to be given to a team," Fury said, looking at Coulson. "The rest of organization will be something else."

"There were some professional names suggested," the British Prime Minister said. "MRT for the Metahuman Response Team, or the Metahuman Centrilized Utilization."

I frowned at the last one but shook my head.

"I would suggest the GGG," Tony said.

"Government Goon Gallery?" Natasha asked. Tony smirked.

"Can we please remove Mr. Stark if he won't deign to be serious?" the Russian President asked sourly.

"I have to agree," President Ellis said. "Mr. Stark, please show this decision the respect it deserves. This organization will be working on the behalf of the world in everything from battle to negotiations with extraterrestrial nations. At the least, the name must carry the gravitas that the organization has."

I blinked at the seriousness everyone seemed to be giving the name. After all, I already knew that whatever the name, smaller subdivisions would be created within the new organization. But, I supposed that he was partially right. There had to be a name the public would know they could trust. Names have power after all.

"Did someone suggest, 'SMASH'?" Bruce asked, adjusting his glasses as he stared at one of the suggestions. Tony smiled.

"As I said," Fury began deleting names. "Many of these were done as some sort of joke. So, all of those will be removed. AOE, DPS, LOSE, GASP, WAND, FUBAR, CLOWNS, STAKE, JAM, RRR, GASTLI, all gone."

Some nerdy looking SHIELD personnel seemed a bit disappointed at those.

"I believe ARMOR and SWORD will remain in the capacity they have before," Fury continued.

"*DIAL should be removed,*" the Japanese Prime Minister said. "*Considering the fact you have a hero with that exact name joining you, such favoritism is in bad taste.*"

"Too bad," Sam told me jokingly.

"I didn't suggest it," I said back. "PLUMBER was mine."

"Wait, really?" Sam whispered. "Who..."

Rhodey stepped forward and nodded towards a grinning Tony. "Who do you think?"

Sam smiled, then looked at me. "PLUMBER, really?"

"You had to be there," was all I said.

"OWCA, CIA, and USA are all taken," Fury said. "So that leaves these ones."

With the last beep, the final list floated before us all. MRT and MCU were on it, as well as some new ones.

C.L.E.R.I.C. Or the Central Liaison for Extrahuman Responsibility and Information Collection was first.

C.A.S.T.L.E. That showed up twice, one version reading as Committee of Advanced Strategy, Technology, and Law Enforcement, the other reading as Central Agency of Special Tactics, Logistics, and Enforcement.

The last one surprised me. "Who's suggestion was that one? I don't remember that."

"Mine," Steve and Fury said in unison.

B.R.I.D.G.E. Which became, the Bureau of Reconnaissance, Intelligence, Development, and General Enhancement. Huh.

"Why BRIDGE?" Natasha asked. Steve and Fury shared a look before Steve spoke.

"What was it Mahmoud said all those days ago? 'SHIELD is supposed to be the bridge between what people consider normal, and all the weirdness out there.' And he was right. This is what we need to be," Even though Steve was speaking to the Avengers, the whole room was listening calmly. Steve just had that sort of presence. "We will guard the world, protect it. But we can't simply pretend that all the strange things beyond don't exist. We will help humanity advance to fight it back and join it. It's the name I think best represents that."

Steve looked around. "I humbly submit that we put it to a vote. But mine will be for BRIDGE."

The whole room looked around. Tablets were passed to those who had none, including me. I stared at the list for a minute. I knew what I was going to pick now. Just... I'd had no idea my little speech had had such an effect.

Feeling hopeful, I hit my vote. Across the world, people from all walks of life did the same. Soon, the name was chosen, winning with 56.2 percent of the votes.

With that, BRIDGE was formed.

Now that our new super-secret spy organization had a name, some guidelines, and a solid R&D department, we sat for a couple of hours more listening to some more stuff. One of the new initiatives was interesting, built around equipping teams with actual power armor and weapons, with newly upgraded Quinjets. The Insight Helicarriers would become the backbone of this new initiative, though the algorithm was agreed to be destroyed. I didn't say anything when that was mentioned. The idea was that these soldiers would be capable of mobilizing in parts of the world metahuman forces might not be able to get to in time. A roving army. A couple of the signatories balked at this, horrified at the idea of this army possibly being used to attack others. But the point of the army was that it would be international. Anyone who volunteered would be trained and equipped to fight the good fight. There were still objections, and a couple countries refused to accept, but overall, things for the Metahuman Response Team was a go. As well as one of my suggestions, a man with the name Frank I'd found among the files of exceptional soldiers. There were more, people who had popped out to me, but he was an obvious pick.

Hopefully, I could nip that timeline in the bud. Maybe not completely. He was, in the end, a soldier no matter what. But maybe I could help him find peace? ...

Then one of my other proposals was brought up.

"A planetary defense shield?" President Ellis asked, looking up at me. "Is this for real?"

"Deadly," I said, stepping forward. "Iron Man and I believe it's possible, as do Professor Banner and a Dr. Leopold Fitz. A shield that we can erect around the planet. It would be supplemented by MAC weaponry-"

"Excuse me," the British Prime Minister interrupted. "But the Outer Space Treaty prevents such things. You start talking about this, and COPUOS will lose their bloody minds," he said firmly, referencing the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space."

"The shield would prevent any nation from using the big guns on the Earth at all," Tony mentioned. "And these would be based on conventional weapons. If people are still whining about letting us shoot any alien enemies that attack us, then we can just stick with a force field and some cool spaceships."

"Spaceships?" Gonzales asked, the older man's eyes narrowing behind his glasses.

"Yep," I said. "One or two to start. We're looking into working with NASA and other space programs, later on, I believe Russia and China mentioned they were interested?" both leaders nodded. "Hopefully, we'll be bringing in their astronauts and astrophysicists."

There were a bunch of points during the meeting where everyone had to stop for a moment to think. When we all realized, just for a moment, that this meeting was changing the world. Even Senator Nadeer, who had been glaring at Bruce and me for most of the meeting, seemed dumbstruck.

"Okay," President Ellis said, just as thoughtful as the rest. "I have more news. The documents have come through, and we've been given permission on the matter of the prisoners," after some taps at a computer, Steve and my tablets beeped. "I believe you both requested to give the good news?"

Steve's smile made several people blush at the sheer joy in it.

"Mahmoud! One second, please!"

On my way through the halls with Steve, Bruce called out to me. I stopped to look at him. Steve stopped as well, and we watched Bruce run over to us. He looked at Steve hesitantly. "Uh, Steve, I don't want to be rude..."

"You want to speak to him alone," Steve said quickly. "I understand. I'll just go ahead." As much as Steve was trying not to seem like it, he clearly wished to hurry. He did a jog that was faster than most people's full-on sprint, and soon disappeared.

"Huh," Bruce said, noting the speed of Steve's disappearance. He looked at me, then around. "Here, in this room," Bruce opened a random door, and we entered into what looked one of many maintenance rooms. A few SHIE- I mean, a few _BRIDGE_ agents were inside. They looked at us when we entered.

"Guys," I said as they looked at us. "Can we get a couple minutes?"

They stared at us for a moment, then got up from their stations and hurriedly left. Bruce waited for a minute, then focused on me.

"Tony told me that you were able to open a window, into other worlds."

I frowned. "He was supposed to keep that secret..."

"Only Avengers can know," Bruce reminded me. "I'm an Avenger, for better or worst," he rubbed his hands together nervously. "I-I just have to know, is there a universe where I cure myself? Where I get rid of the Hulk?"

"...Infinite possibilities, Doctor. You know what that means."

Hope. I know people talk about it as an emotion you can show on your face, but it wasn't until then that I truly understood what that meant. "So, you know how to cure me?"

"I saw some worlds where you were cured," I admitted. "But... sometimes it wasn't for long. People have siphoned the radiation from you, split you and Hulk into different beings, it's even gone away on its own. In one universe, you sent him to Hell."

"What, real Hell?" Bruce asked, surprised.

"Yes... But he always-"

"Comes back," Bruce growled. I blinked when his voice was a couple octaves deeper and noted the greenness in the veins on his neck. Not much, but I was looking for it. So he was about to Hulkify. Funny, anyone else would have been scared I think. I was mostly curious. Bruce noticed me looking at him with interest, and calmed down. "Sorry."

"Don't be... there is a successful way to deal with the Hulk though. It's actually the one that has worked best."

"What was it?" Bruce asked, his focus actually kinda scary.

"Learning to work with him," I explained. "That way, no matter what happens, you both can handle it."

He scowled. "I've tried that, I've tried to control him for years-"

"It's not about control," I said. "It's about teamwork. It's about both of you realizing what you have in common, and working with it," Bruce looked at me as though I'd suggested he swallow battery acid.

"You're kidding," he said softly, before raising his voice. "That's crazy! He doesn't work like that!"

"And neither do you," I noted. "Or so I bet he'd say," Bruce scowled. "Look, I can try to siphon your energy as one of my aliens, or make a device to do it. I can try to separate you somehow. And I think there's a good chance something Jury Rigg makes will help. But in the end, the one thing that works, every time, depends on two people finding a way to make peace, to fight together and work together."

Bruce was shaking his head even as I spoke. With a sigh, I rubbed my forehead. "Just think about-" I stopped when he shook his head faster. "Fine. Just tell me when you make a decision on. Hell, I'll help make Veronica," Bruce stopped shaking his head and stared at me. "Yeah, I know about that. Tony probably planned out this conversation. Seriously, people act like he's an impulsive idiot but... all those fake names he made up helped Fury narrow down the list. Him telling me about Veronica made me think about ways to help you, and telling you about the dimensional viewer led to you coming to me."

"Some would call that manipulative," Bruce noted.

"Some would call that helping," I turned and walked away. "Let me know if you need it."

Not much I could do for him. Bruce would decide for himself what to do. I'd help him however I could, and hell, Jury Rigg could probably come up with someway to truly negate the Hulk, to 'cure' Bruce. But I didn't think that was true. The Hulk was alive, because Bruce was alive, as far I knew anyways. Whatever Bruce choose, I'd help.

 _Author's Note:_ There we go. So, each topic covered in sequence.

First, Don Chappelle. Don't go hating the guy. He's not an asshole, he just lost an arm, so he's pushing people away. Robot arms are cool, sure, but I've often heard that no matter how advanced the prosthetic, you still...

Second, the new leader. Did you guys Thaddeus is still a General at this point in the timeline? It takes a heart attack to change it. That said, Ellis has a history of choosing bad people for leadership roles. But yeah, while a few people have been suggested, the new leader is fairly obvious. Oh, and Wakanda's King noticed Dial noticing him. In the words of JD from Scrubs, 'that may come up tomorrow'.

Third, Hulk. Come to your own conclusions. Dial might be right, he might be wrong, but he is willing to aid Bruce.


	22. Chapter 22

Steve and I watched across from the round plastic table we were sitting at as the two men in front of us stepped out of their cells. There were twenty soldiers surrounding us, all dressed in heavy armor and carrying massive guns. All, sadly, were mostly useless if the people they were pointed at got serious, but thankfully they were also unnecessary.

Creel and Bucky had been getting deprogrammed for days, speaking to therapists, scientists, and getting checked by neurosurgeons. Now they were looking at us, looking tired, but somehow happy. If two grumps like them could be happy. They were wearing patient's uniforms, all blue outfits, and Bucky's mechanical arm had been removed for security reasons. They moved forward and took seats, both eyeing us.

"Hey, Steve," Bucky said, smiling. "I heard about everything that happened. BRIDGE, huh? It's a good name."

"Isn't that stuff top secret?" I asked.

Creel chuckled, and Bucky's smile became a little sour. "We've been playing a game, trying to see who could overhear the most from the guards."

"He wins every time," Creel admitted. "I was always an enforcer, not so much the assassin."

Bucky seemed to falter slightly at that. Steve noticed that and chose then to take out the physical files he had printed, taking out two pieces of paper and passing them to Creel and Bucky.

"You'll be happy to know that we managed to speak to the President and those of the United Nations. Thanks to the information you both provided, many HYDRA personnel and cells have been apprehended."

"The information-" Creel started to say before I coughed meaningfully.

To be truthful, all our focus had been on curing them. Any information provided had been with X and Jarvis' help. But people were not going to let even _brainwashing_ be an excuse, not if they could pin things on the two of them. Politicians would find it more palatable if they were 'trading information' for leniency.

"I have been approved," Steve continued. "To offer you both options. Now, it means a couple more days of being tested along with other standard background checks, just to make sure you can both are safe, but you have options."

"50 years in prison?" Bucky said distastefully while reading the paper provided to him. "Not a great start."

"I only have 25," Creel said, though he still didn't sound pleased.

"Yeah well, Bucky has a longer list working against him," I admitted. "And you both would get time off for good behavior. Well, the possibility."

Creel grunted, and picked up that offer, tearing it in half. When the men around us pointed guns at him for the aggressive act, the four of us ignored them. "What else you got?"

Steve held out the next papers, and the pair took them.

"Working for the US military?" Bucky asked, sounding a bit interested. "What would that mean? Enlisting again?"

"Not exactly," Steve said softly. I kept quiet as Bucky and Creel continued to read.

The papers were an offer, sure. But people in the US military wanted Bucky and Creel to act as their personal military death squad. To go into the middle east and other places and kill targets based on political leanings rather than actual need, to strike like a thunderbolt on America's enemies, most of them imagined. Granted, that wasn't what it actually said. The truth was hidden in the margins. Literally, we'd added little stuff in the margins. Mostly because Jarvis and X had included transcripts of the 'secret' meetings of the men who had come up with the idea, and what they wanted exactly. We'd be keeping an eye on them, but for now, Bucky and Creel knew the truth.

"So more of the same," Creel said, disgusted. "We'd be killing innocent people."

"We're going to look into those guys," I mentioned. "But the US Military is an option. There are good men that could use you, places where you can do critical business... but there is a third option, one that allows you to do the same work. You'd still work with the US military at times, still take out terrorists, but your bosses would be very different."

Bucky and Creel watched as Steve pushed forward another pair of papers. And Bucky laughed.

"Yeah, stop being dramatic Steve. We're in."

Steve grinned. "You heard already?"

"Gonna need to train your men to be quieter," Bucky confirmed. "So what, we getting the offer to be Avengers?"

"Reserve," Steve said. "You'll be under Sam Wilson."

"The guy with wings?" Creel asked. "Seriously?"

"The career soldier, with a good military record, a fresh face that has no ties with Tony Stark to cause any suspicions that Rhodey does, nor weird powers like mine to scare conservatives," I said simply. "Sam will look damn good to the public. Sadly, image is apparently everything now, so that's important," I scowled a bit at that. I mean, Sam was a damn good choice, but the guys who were now in charge of making sure that we all looked good were annoying. "Anyways, we're looking for more members. There's someone who's a little less... palatable, then you guys are."

"More than us?" Creel asked, surprised.

"She had a choice," Steve replied. "But she's not going to be treated with kid gloves either way."

"We'll be working with a team of BRIDGE agents as well," I said. "Along with the Avengers. Focused on stopping HYDRA across America in particular, though it may vary. It's not all you'll be doing of course, but it's part of the whole shebang."

"...Avenger," Creel tasted the word on his tongue, and seemed to find it odd, but worth it. "Yeah. I'm in."

"Same for me," Bucky looked down at where his robotic arm had once been. "But I might need a replacement."

"Don't worry," I said. "I've gained some experience with that. Keep in mind, there are some regulations in place, and daily checkups as well as tests. And we need to wait for Tony to capture Vasily Karpov."

Bucky flinched at that name.

"But we'll be able to fight?" Creel asked, voice becoming harder. "Starting with HYDRA?"

"Starting with one name in particular," I nodded towards Steve, who slid another piece of paper to Creel look at. He smiled.

"Yeah... Yeah, I want him."

"First, let me check one last time?" I asked Creel. He nodded. "Take a deep breath. Calm your mind," Creel eyed me, listening with a look of concentration. "You know what is best. What is best is you comply. Compliance will be rewarded. Now, get out of your chair and uh... absorb the paper in your hand I guess."

Creel didn't hesitate to chuckle. "Fuck that. Let's go beat his head in."

 _ **Daniel Whitehall/Werner Reinhardt**_

Werner Reinhardt had been alive for over one hundred years. Despite his age, he had regained his youth some time ago, his skin as smooth as when he was a younger man, his pale white hair as thick. He'd seen and done many things in that lifetime, a fact he was quite proud of. But HYDRA falling, especially the way it had fallen, managed to surprise him, a fact he would have found interesting if hadn't disturbed him so much.

The only reason the man who had taken the name Whitehall had managed to survive was the painstaking work he had done to make sure that his own part of the organization had been left separate from those who were connected to SHIELD. It had been close, as far as he could tell. But he had been careful. Now he could work from the shadows.

So he had no idea what to think when, while perusing files on the hidden locations of several SHIELD agents safe houses, his computer suddenly began to display the image of the symbol of HYDRA. It was a simple picture, similar to the dozens painted on the walls in the skyscraper whose office he sat in. But as he watched, a green flash of light was followed by the logo shapeshifting. Tentacles became wings. The head of the octopus became the head of a bird. Soon, SHIELD's symbol appeared. Modified, with some strange white lines separating the wings to give it a new look. But one that sent a chill down Reinhardt's spine.

At that moment, an alarm began to sound. The door opened, and soldiers rushed into the room. "Sir!" One man said. Reinhardt relaxed when he realized this was one of his men. "SHIELD found us! We need to run."

"I thought we were hidden," the HYDRA leader spat out, rushing to rise up.

"General Hale turned on us," the soldier said, sounding horrified. "That's what our people are saying anyway. When she heard about your plans..."

Reinhardt cursed, following his soldiers. With the chaos that had followed in the aftermath of Pierce's failure, Reinhardt, like his fellow HYDRA leaders, had reached for any resources they could. So, he had attempted to make Ruby Hale one of those resources, to bring her in. He'd told her mother to bring her in for experimentation. There were some... risky, things that could be done to give or improve a person with power, make them a true threat to even Avenger level individuals. Ruby could be severely injured by the experiments, but it would be worth it. Even her death could aid in the cause.

Reinhardt shook his head as he and his soldiers rushed through the halls of his home. Apparently, he had overestimated General Hale's ability to put aside her feelings for the greater good. A sad truth of women, that becoming mothers ruined their ability to think logically. Reinhardt sighed. Thankfully, he had contingencies in place for such a situation. HYDRA would rise once more.

Even as a smug smile rose on his face, the soldiers in front of the small group came to a stop. When Reinhardt looked up, and scowled at the sight before him.

Two men strode towards the group, standing out in the white halls. Both wore blue uniforms. One had a star on his chest, and blue helmet as he carried a very familiar shield. The other had a robotic arm colored black with green lines designed like circuitry across the surface, carrying a gun in his hands.

Captain America was horrific enough. But Reinhardt felt even his brilliant mind freeze at the sight of the Winter Soldier with him. The two super-soldiers walked with confident strides, their eyes calm.

Reinhardt reached for the words he'd heard only once, trying to reach for his Russian. "*Longin-!"

The Winter Soldier started shooting. Reinhardt's men started firing back, but Captain America raised his shield and blocked the hail of bullets. The sounds of bullets entering flesh, bouncing off vibranium, and hitting fluorescent lighting and drywall, filled the hallway. In an instant, the terrifying effectiveness of the super-soldiers plan became clear. Barnes would simply fire with his exceptional skill, and Rogers would block any attack that came their way. A brute tactic, but simple, one that led to five soldiers dying under the Winter Soldier's

"Grenade!" One of Reinhardt's men yelled, tossing the frag.

"No, you fool!" Reinhardt cried, turning to sprint as fast as he could.

Rogers snatched the grenade out of the air and tossed it back with lightning speed. Reinhardt and those of his men who'd followed his retreat heard the explosion behind them.

"Down!" the lead soldier yelled as they ran into the stairwell. He halted, horrified at what he saw, and Reinhardt leaned over to see what had stopped him.

The stairs leading down had been blocked by giant green crystals.

"The monster..." Reinhardt said in horror.

Suddenly a loud sound came from behind them. They looked to see that two women had joined Barnes and Rogers. Both were tall, buxom, and dressed in military uniforms. One carried only a knife, which she had stabbed into a soldier. The other had a pair of batons in hand, which she was using to beat a man like a drum. The Winter Soldier lifted an overzealous soldier with his robotic arm and tossed him through a wall. Captain America tossed his shield, and the invulnerable object slammed off a soldier, into a wall, into another man, and back to Rogers.

"Up!" the lead soldier rushed upwards, Reinhardt and the last of his soldiers rushing to join him. They ran up two flights and exited a different door. The floor they were on now was dedicated to research, with every door leading to laboratories. As they ran a noise could be heard from within those labs. A noise Reinhardt had memorized, the sound of a repulsor beam. They ran faster.

"The Avengers," Reinhardt spat. "SHIELD's pet superhumans, all in force for me."

"Sir!" Down the hall, a man with dark skin waved at them, and Reinhardt felt his usual calm return at the sight of the man. "Over here!"

"Bakshi," Reinhardt and his soldiers joined his trusted second-in-command.

"I'm glad to see you safe, sir," Bakshi said with a tight smile.

"We'll escort you both to the rooftop," the lead soldier said. Bakshi joined them, and everyone ran. "SHIELD came in from the lower floors, and they're letting their superhumans clear everyone out as their soldiers do clean-up."

"I'll have to mention that to von Strucker," Reinhardt mentioned. "Quite the effective tactic."

"Will we rendezvous with him?" Bakshi asked.

"We will have to," Reinhardt smirked as they entered an elevator together. "If von Strucker remembers the man who put him where he is, I believe we will be all right."

Bakshi leaned against the wall of the elevator and smirked. "Well, I wouldn't count your chickens just yet."

Reinhardt, who had been watching the doors close, had enough time to look at Bakshi, confused at his sudden casualness.

Then a hand grabbed the right door of the elevator. A hand that began to change color to match the elevator door, going from skin colored to steel. One of the soldiers slammed the butt of his rifle into the hand as it pulled the door, and received nothing for it. Another hand joined the first, and the doors were ripped out of their holdings, tossed aside. The soldiers fired on the figure in front of them.

Carl Creel smiled, bullets bouncing off his steel skin like Nerf darts. He stepped inside and picked up one of the soldiers, beginning to squeeze on his throat.

"Wait!" Reinhardt yelled.

The soldiers stopped shooting. Creel looked at Reinhardt who smiled smugly.

"Now Mr. Creel. Listen very closely. Take a deep breath. Calm your mind," Reinhardt smiled when Creel dropped the soldier, staring at him. "You know what is best. What is best is you comply. Compliance will be rewar-" Creel slapped Reinhardt in the face.

The HYDRA leader hit the wall behind him and turned back with a stinging cheek to stare at a grinning Creel. "What do you think, Barton? Should I comply?"

Bakshi shook his head. "Nah, I think you're good."

Reinhardt had enough time to look at Bakshi before the man kicked a soldier in the knee, jab another in the throat, and drop a gun from his sleeve that he shot at another. Creel moved slightly slower, but lashed out as well throwing one man out of the elevator and kicking another.

Reinhardt sighed sadly as the last soldier fell to the ground. He stood up straight and faced Creel, then looked at Bakshi. Who removed his face to reveal that of Clint Barton, the Avenger known as Hawkeye.

"I suppose," Reinhardt said smiling. "I am caught, yes?"

Creel and Barton shared a look.

"I will, of course, cooperate fully," Reinhardt held out his hands. "I'm sure you all have many questions. I am happy to answer them," he chuckled. "In a way, this will be good for both SHIELD and me. Our experiments will be most useful."

"...Does he always talk like that?" Clint asked. "All creepy like? 'Eeeexperimantaaation."

"For as long as I've known him," Creel pulled a small pistol from behind his back and pointed it at Reinhardt.

"What are you-!?" the HYDRA leader stopped when he saw something. A smoky image of a man, unseen by Barton or Creel. A man with a shaved head, blue eyes with a monocle over his right eye, and a tall build. Reinhardt's eyes widened. "Struck-"

Creel shot Reinhardt in the chest with an ICER bullet, the tranquilizing effect of the weapon knocking Reinhardt out instantly.

"Let's get the mad scientist into a cell," Clint said.

Both heroes collected their prisoner and BRIDGE agents joined them, the apparition shook his head. As he vanished, he said one word. "Useless."

 _ **Wolfgang von Strucker**_

von Strucker opened his eyes and scowled. He was sitting in a meditative style on a stone floor, in a room of a castle in North America. The current leader of HYDRA was wearing a blue polo shirt and black pants and had removed his shoes to sit more comfortably. He cracked his back and shook his head, reaching a hand up to rub his eyelids.

"No luck?"

Wolfgang looked to his right. A man stood there, watching him. He had slicked back hair and was wearing a black turtleneck. The man had a smug look on his face.

"I'm guessing the Old Man wasn't willing to listen?"

"I did not have the chance to try," von Strucker looked up at the man. "He was captured by SHIELD and the Avengers. Who have new members, one of whom is Creel."

"Shit," the man shook his head, stepping into the room to begin pacing. "That's a kick in the ass we didn't need."

"Bluntly stated, but not untrue," von Strucker lifted the device in his lap up. "We are not just desperate, Garrett. We are dying."

"Yeesh, all of you legacies are always so dire," John Garrett watched as his ally rose up. "Things are tough, but we can still get past it. You know, one head, yadda yadda."

"When that is repeated as we lose, it fails to have any meaning."

Garrett chuckled at the stone-faced von Strucker. "Now see, that's quitter talk."

"No. I am acknowledging our desperation. It is the only reason I decided to release this... thing, from containment. And I am still not sure why I allowed you to convince me to do so."

"Because it was the only choice we had," Garrett shook his head. "The Avengers are coming. And so is SHIELD. They're going to find ways to counter us. So we need to use all the toys we've got."

von Strucker sighed, nodding after a moment. "Yes," he looked down at his hand, where a short staff ending in two blades that held a glowing blue orb was held. The hand was protected by a metallic glove, with a solid orange color to it. "Hail HYDRA... for better or for worse."

"Till death do us part," Garrett said with a smile.

 _Author's Note:_ Next chapter, it's the SUPER FUN EXTRAVAGANT OVER-THE-TOP LOVING HYDRA TIME! All HYDRA, all the time!

But yeah, Creel, Bucky, Hartley, and Morse are all fighting alongside the Avengers at the end there. Strucker and Garrett are working together, and Strucker has been working with the Scepter in ways no one but Loki has been willing too. Keep in mind, that's all a consequence of being forced to work with Garrett and reaching for every desperate way to fight back that he could. The glove he's wearing is part of that.


	23. Chapter 23

_January 12th, 2014_

Wolfgang von Strucker listened on a SHIELD channel with a neutral look on his face as Steve Rogers continued to give his speech.

" _They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want with the help of the Insight Helicarriers: absolute control."_

"This is bad," Doctor List, an older man with dark skin and white hair, hissed to von Strucker.

von Strucker sighed at the words of his second-in-command. "Doctor, I hired you for your intelligence. Please, do not state the obvious."

He looked towards the two cells in the back of the room. The Maximoff Twins were testing their powers again. The boy, Pietro, was rushing back and forth in his cell, a mere white blur whenever he wasn't simply staring out at them. The girl, Wanda, was calmer. She sat on the floor, constantly spinning the energy in her hands around until there seemed to be an orb of red light in her lap.

Frankly, both twins worried him. Their intensity, the strength of their powers, the clear instability of the children, was all a cause for concern.

" _As of now, all loyal SHIELD agents should be getting a program on their phones,"_ Rogers said on the channel. List took out his phone, Strucker, and several others in the lab doing the same. That's when Strucker began to realize how bad things had truly gotten.

His cell phone was dead. Looking around, so were all the other ones. The computers had also been disconnected from any internet connection.

"What is happening?" Doctor List asked.

"Standard tactics, Doctor List. Remove your enemies communications, take their information, identify them to your allies," Strucker clenched a fist. "We need to move, now."

"Where?" Doctor List asked. "Where should we go?"

"Anywhere," Strucker shook his head. "This... Hercules app," Strucker had to admire the name. "It will be our downfall if we let it. We must stop using any bases that have ever been in a SHIELD database."

Strucker looked around. "Pack, now! I want the entire base empty of anything useful in one hour! Kill all SHIELD members, the ones we kept to stave off suspicion."

The soldiers and technicians around him began moving immediately

"Do you really believe we are in any danger?" Doctor List asked.

"More danger than we have ever been in," Strucker scowled. "First, we must-"

"Sir!" A soldier came down a hall, running towards Strucker. He held a smartphone that was glowing green. "Sir, we need to-"

A red beeping came from the phone. The soldier, a young man with dark black skin and well-cut hair, had time to stare at the phone in horror. Then Strucker shot him in the face.

"Damn," Strucker watched the body fall, the Glock 19 in his hand lowering. "He was a good soldier..."

Strucker kept walking. "First, we must kill any other SHIELD members on base. Luckily we are mostly HYDRA, but we can't allow our enemies to know about the twins, the Chitauri armor, or the scepter. Then we destroy the base."

List nodded sadly. "Yes, I see what you're saying."

"From there, we must establish communications with the other cells," Strucker scowled. "SHIELD was somehow able to hack my phone, a device of my own design, despite all of my defenses against hackers. This is despite all of our experimentation into AI. Which means that Stark's own must be involved. We need allies, we need resources, and we need information."

Some of his soldiers ran around the pair as they walked, saluting briefly. They ran into a hall as Strucker continued, and soon the sound of gunshots echoed through the area as SHIELD personnel died.

"Understood," List said.

Three hours later, flying over his base in a Quinjet, von Strucker stared down at the place that had once been his home, a large mansion in the middle of the German countryside, surrounded by beautiful grasslands. He stood in the back of the Quinjet with the door open, the wind rushing around him as he watched his people float nearby in their own aircraft, tanks and Humvees driving away. With some sadness in his heart, he raised the detonator in his hand.

"Pity, I'd just decorated my office to my specifications."

Stucker flipped the switch.

 **BOOM**

Explosions rocked throughout the mansion. As Strucker watched, the Quinjet rocked gently from the shockwaves of the controlled destruction. He turned away, looking at those in the Quinjet. "We will not let this stop us. I refuse to let it. Fly to America, and let us start this war in earnest."

"Hail, HYDRA!" the men in the Quinjet said in unison.

With that, Strucker's fleet took to the skies as his vehicles headed to the coast.

Upon reaching the United States, Strucker found only frustration.

"All communications are still shut down," List told him as they flew over the country. They were staring at a screen in the Quinjet, trying to find help. "Fuel will become an issue soon as well. We need to land. We need to find our people."

"Doctor List, you've gained a habit of saying the obvious that I can't seem to appreciate," Strucker said with a growl. "Show them to me again."

List tapped at the screen. "Luckily we can still watch the news, even if we can't talk to anyone. According to what I've managed to compile, they're called 'Dial' and 'Falcon', as far as can be told. A human who can turn into aliens, and a soldier who flies with an experimental jetpack," on the screen, Falcon was diving out of a crystal mountain to fly past enemy Quinjets. The video changed to show him outmaneuvering gunships with acrobatic ease, twisting and flipping through the air with more maneuverability than any aircraft could match, his wings letting him change direction in ways even the Iron Men could not. Then a series of photos showing several alien creatures, the most prominent being the image of a helicarrier glowing black with green circuitry.

Strucker shook his head. "Fascinating, both of them. The skill of that flier gives me several ideas for our own forces. That alien, however... the fact the Avengers are now chasing us is bad enough without the addition of other heroes coming out of the shadows and aiding them."

If anything, these revelations helped Strucker with any doubts over his current course of action. They needed muscle. And he knew just where to get it. Strucker turned towards the pilot. "Are we almost there?"

"Yes sir," the pilot said. "We're twenty minutes out."

"Are you sure about this, von Strucker?" List asked. "They were captured for a reason."

"I am grasping at straws, Dr. List. The entire world is chasing us, and I must gather tools to fight against them. I thought this to be an age of miracles... but I was wrong. This is an age of monsters. I should have realized that," Strucker sighed. "Prepare the twins."

List and the HYDRA soldiers around them stared at him. "Sir," List said, shocked. "Are you-"

"No, I am not," Strucker spat out, his eyes flashing. "But I will survive this. No matter the cost."

In a military base in Alaska, a US Army soldier stood to watch at his station. Things had been routine that day. Get up, eat, guard, eat, guard. He stood inside his guard tower in his uniform, watching the icy tundra around him as he worked at the computers around him, checking radar, sensors, and listening to his headset. For a moment, he enjoyed the calm monotony of the work.

Then he saw the aircraft on his radar. The soldier reached for his headset and sent a signal. "Unidentified aircraft, identify yourselves."

The soldier listened to static for a moment. When no response came, he switched channels to contact the base commander. "Sir, this is Guard Tower 2, we have incoming unidentified aircraft, Quinjets."

"One second!" an unfamiliar voice responded in a strange accent. "I'll be right with you!" Russian, maybe? Some sort of Eastern European.

"This is a secure line, who is this?" the soldier said, now immensely worried.

A sudden explosion drew his attention. He spun in his chair and got up, quickly crossing to the other side of the guard tower to see where the commotion was coming from. The explosion had been from one of the hangers blowing up within the confines of the base. The soldier, now understanding they were under attack, took a moment to watch in horror as a woman in a red dress threw waves of some sort of scarlet energy at an incoming Humvee, tearing the vehicle to pieces.

"Shit!" the soldier cried, running back to his station. He picked up his headset to contact to the mainland, only for the back of his jacket to get snatched in between rough hands. He was pulled back and tossed through the window "Aaagh!"

The last things he saw as he fell was a blue blur running to join the woman in red as a fleet of Quinjet's flew over the fences to head towards the base in the distance. Just before he landed, the blue blur ran back to him, kicking him in the chest, breaking his ribs but ironically also saving his life, words on a sign flashed before him.

Barrow, Alaska. _**The Vault.**_

"von Strucker," Pietro Maximoff, the fastest mortal in the world, said the words with a flippancy that bothered the HYDRA commander. "Welcome to the base. Want us to show you around?"

"No need," Strucker looked around. "Your first battle with your powers, Pietro. How does it feel?"

Pietro smiled darkly. "Brilliant. We're unstoppable."

Quinjets landed in the courtyard of the base, and soldiers spilled out of them. HYDRA men wearing Chitauri armor flew out of the vessels and took to the skies. List walked out to join Strucker, and Wanda walked over to join her brother.

"Now, let us see our spoils, shall we?" Strucker asked, walking with the pair to enter the large cement encased base through the massive steel doors that had been blown apart. Soldiers both mundane and wearing Chitauri armor followed.

"You said this would help us kill the Avengers," Wanda said, giving Strucker a look. "What is it? A weapon?"

"In a sense," Strucker admitted as they strode through the stone walls of the base. "They were both locked away here in 2010. One was even suggested as an Avengers candidate."

"What? We're here for a person?" Pietro asked.

"Yes, we are. Two of them, though I would be hard-pressed to call them people at this point," Strucker took a right, his soldiers, List, and the twins following.

"You said one was an Avenger?" Wanda asked, saying the word 'Avenger' with disgust. "Why would he help us?"

"Only a candidate, never an actual Avenger," Strucker admitted. "And, in the end, he will help us for the same reason we are helping each other. We have the same goals."

They went into a heavy duty steel reinforced elevator and Strucker hit the button to go down. "Now, how are you both feeling?"

Pietro and Wanda looked at each other, confused. Strucker rolled his eyes. "This is, as I said, your first actual battle. How are you functioning? Have there been any issues with control?"

"No," Wanda said softly, the Sokovian native raising a hand to let a small curl of red power float around her palm. Pietro eyed the soldiers when a couple clenched their weapons at the casual display. "It feels... natural."

Strucker nodded and looked at Pietro. The young man scoffed. "I'm fine."

"Good," the elevator doors opened, and Strucker stepped out. "We may need you soon."

Walking down the concrete hallways, they soon came to a door. Strucker gestured, and one of the soldiers kicked it in, striding in with his gun raised. Two more went in, one of them wearing the glowing modified Chitauri armor. Several shots rang out, followed by screams. After a moment of waiting, one of them called out.

"Clear!"

Strucker nodded and walked inside, followed by the twins. Pietro and Wanda stopped in surprise when they saw the object in the center of the room.

The entire room was surrounded by computers and whiteboards with formulas written on them. Scientist lay dead on the floor, and they stepped over their corpses. Strucker gazed at the equations for a moment, ignoring the object that dominated the center of the room. "Doctor List. Can you understand this?"

"Let me see," List strode over and looked at the mathematics on the board. "This is... what is this?" List stared at the numbers before him. "It's... brilliant! But mad as well. How can someone even comprehend this? I'll have to go over it for months!"

"Or we ask him," Pietro said in his accented voice.

Strucker finally looked at the object in the center of the room. A large oblong tube, filled with green glowing fluid. A Geiger counter rested on the side of it, gently ticking and indicating low levels of Gamma radiation. Inside, was a figure. He was unconscious, floating gently in the green liquid of his tube. A man, rather short, and skinny. Unremarkable in his features, until one noted his head.

A head which had grown outwards, extending his forehead to give him a misshapen appearance.

"Project Mr. Blue," Pietro read off a clipboard nearby.

"Samuel Sterns," Strucker said. "If the Hulk is the pinnacle of strength, then this man is the pinnacle of brilliance... What an unnatural creature."

"Why is he in there?" Wanda asked.

"Because SHIELD feared his intelligence," Strucker said softly. "As do I. But I must take all the resources I can find," Strucker turned to his men. "Take six of your men and prepare him to be moved. We have someone else to take with us."

"Someone like Sterns?" Wanda asked.

"Not exactly."

Strucker led his group to another door, and they went down several flights of stairs. He stopped when they came to a door way and looked at Pietro. "Mr. Maximoff? Please remove the weapons of the men behind the door. Miss Maximoff, you will be needed for the turrets."

The twins nodded, Pietro smirking confidently as Wanda took a deep breath. Strucker opened the door, and Pietro disappeared, Wanda and the soldiers following. Army soldiers in green and SHIELD agents in black raised their weapons as they entered, four automated turrets spinning to aim at them.

A blue blur ran amongst the twenty men in front of the large white tank in the back of the room. In seconds, they had no weapons, allowing bullets and purple beams to kill the soldiers. When the automated turrets were about to fire, Wanda waved her hands in arcane motions, surrounding them in her power. The guns were covered in the same energy, and rose up with a tearing sound as they were separated from their base. With another wave, the turrets were torn apart. Like that, the room was clear. Leaving them all to stare at the white tank that dominated the room. Cold smoke drifted from pipes connected to the enormous tank, which was the size of a small truck at least. Through glass as thick as a forearm, they could see the being inside.

"Good lord," List said moments later.

"He's... giant. And damn ugly," Pietro added, awestruck.

"Emil Blonksy, the Abomination of Harlem," Strucker said as they gazed upon the being before them. "The Council suggested him as a possible Avenger over the Hulk. Funny how blind they were."

The resting face of Emil Blonsky was almost savage even as it slept. Green, covered in thick skin and bony growths. Hundreds of pounds of bone and muscle, covered in spikes. A disgusting combination of a bodybuilders muscle and a monster's body.

"We'll transport him on one of the Quinjets," Strucker said firmly. "The Avengers have their Hulk, have their Iron Men and monsters. Now we will have ours."

Strucker watched as the green-skinned man on the makeshift stretcher in the middle of the Quinjet slowly woke up. He'd been removed from his tube, but still had enough sedatives inside him that it had taken thirty minutes to wake him up. Pietro and Wanda stood by his side as they looked down at him.

Samuel Sterns blearily opened his eyes. After seeing those before him, he closed them again.

"HYDRA, hm? I thought you were still hiding... no, it seems Pierce's plan has failed," all of this was said in a half-lucid murmer, Sterns sighing.

"So you did know," Strucker said. "It was rumored that you were telepathic."

"Hardly," Sterns opened his eyes and looked around. "I'm simply observant. And _very_ , very smart. Why have you taken me? Though I can make an obvious deduction, it is always good to be told directly."

"Because I need advantages, Mr. Stern," Strucker said firmly, slightly annoyed by the man's ego. "SHIELD has sent HYDRA scattering to the winds. I wish to offer you the chance to join us."

"That desperate?" Sterns chuckled. "I can see how hesitant you are. Why come to find me, when you don't even truly want my help?" Strucker scowled. This only seemed to amuse Sterns further. His green eyes gazed around the room. "Well, I think I will join you."

"Just like that?" Pietro asked.

"Not quite," Sterns began to rise up. When soldiers raised their weapons, Strucker held out a hand to stop them. Sterns got into a sitting position on the bed and looked out the window. "Communications are dead, are they? Interesting." Sterns looked at Strucker. "I haven't had true simulation in months. SHIELD would knock me out for weeks, having me do their equations in two-hour implements because they feared any longer would give me the chance to figure out means of escape, of course, they weren't wrong," Sterns scowled. "I am not a calculator. I am a genius. The ideas in my mind, young man, are world changing. And I wish to implement them. I've always been more curious than cautious, and that's only increased. I don't care about SHIELD or HYDRA, I don't care about your petty games. I want to change this world. Now, will you let me do that?"

Strucker eyed him. "Possibly... but only if you help me, of course. Starting with my inability to communicate with my forces."

Sterns laughed. "Deal. And I'll even help you convince Blonksy."

Strucker glared at him. "How did you-"

"Oh please, like a man as desperate as you _wouldn't_ take the Abomination with him," Sterns frowned. "Abomination... you know what? I'd like a name like that, I think. Something very austere..." Sterns held out a hand. "Well, do we have a deal?"

For a tense moment, no one moved. Then Strucker shook Sterns' hand. As Sterns smiled, Strucker wondered if he was going to regret this.

 _Author's Note:_ Yep, Strucker, moments after realizing how dangerous things were, started working immediately to grab every advantage he had. This isn't a world where HYDRA was able to fight back as hard as they did in the MCU. Strucker is on the losing side, and he knows it. Luckily, he also knows about some assets he can steal. Things so dangerous he wouldn't go for them otherwise.

So yeah, the Leader. In the comics, he's a genius so profound it's ridiculous. I choose not to give him telekinesis or telepathy, but he's still so smart he blows every other mind out of the water. In the comic tie-in, he was able to deduce Natasha's home country with a single conversation, and he's only gotten smarter since then.

And the Abomination, who has been on ice for years.

Like I said, this Arc is dedicated to HYDRA and what they'll be doing to try and find ways to survive as they start to realize what they're up against.


	24. Chapter 24

_January 12th, 2014_

The leader of the religious order within HYDRA had gotten off lucky. While he had lost billions to the assault from SHIELD, he had been careful to make sure enough of his finances were not connected to HYDRA or SHIELD that he was still able to hide away with his daughter in a castle with his people.

But he was still in danger. All smartphones owned by HYDRA personnel had been tossed away when they realized how pervasive SHIELD's blackout on their technology had been. Every one of Malick's men was on edge. The battle of the Triskelion was over by now and they were all worried that at some point they would look into the horizon and see an Insight Helicarrier in the distance, superheroes rushing towards them.

How ironic, that HYDRA's greatest weapons would now be a part of their greatest nightmares.

So Gideon sat in his study, staring at the fireplace and contemplating his issues. How was he going to deal with this? How to survive against this new threat? Even with his current resources, he had no real power anymore, no member of HYDRA did. Should he just give up? Ask for leniency for his daughter possibly?

Gideon balked at this idea. After everything he had sacrificed for HYDRA, everything it had given him, all in the name of bringing their founder home... How could he sacrifice all of that?

But what choice did he hav-

"Sir!" Gideon's contemplation was cut off when an aide ran into the room. "We have communications!"

Gideon stared at him. "Who is it?"

"von Strucker!" The aide said. "He says he can bring everyone together!"

Gideon felt hope for the first time in hours.

"Samuel Sterns?" Gideon asked through the microphone in the radio set up in an upper room in the castle.

" _That is correct,"_ Stucker answered. _"He has modified our radios to bypass the AI currently interfering with our forces. But we must move fast, Gideon. I need the Phase Harmonic Teleporter."_

Gideon frowned. "That is only meant for communications with the Confederacy, you know that von Strucker. If we use it for more than that-"

" _What is the point of limiting it's usage if we all die?"_ Strucker interrupted. _"With it, we can move our forces with impunity. We can bring our people in and save them."_

Gideon looked around at the people in the room. He thought about that for a moment. Finally, he nodded. "Okay, Strucker. The teleporter is at your alma mater, under General Fisher's orders before he was arrested. Steger, Hale, and her daughter will be there."

" _We're on our way there then,"_ Strucker said firmly. _"Whitehall sent a message to Hale through Sterns' connection, hopefully, something to calm her, and we'll go grab it. I have people I can test it with as well."_

 _ **General Hale**_

General Hale fired her gun once more, her daughter throwing her chakram into a man's throat. She scowled as two more of her own men died at her hands. "Good work."

"Thanks," Ruby was wearing her uniform, a form-fitting black costume made for ease of movement. The 14-year-old girl had hair dyed white and eyes the same color as her mothers. She looked at her mother as they ran through the halls of the HYDRA Preparatory Academy. "Are you sure about this mom? Betraying HYDRA?"

Hale, an older woman with dark blonde hair wearing a military uniform, looked at her daughter as the teenager pulled one of her chakrams out of a man's body. "Whitehall promised you would one day be the leader of HYDRA. Our greatest soldier. And now he wants to tear you apart and shove cybernetics and random DNA samples into you, with no regard for if you'll survive or not."

Ruby bit her lip, staring at her mother. Hale continued despite the pain her words were causing her daughter.

"We can't trust HYDRA, not anymore. But someone has promised to protect you, to train you. You may not become the leader of HYDRA, but you'll become something just as great eventually," Hale breathed deeply. "Come sweetheart. We need to get out."

"Hale!" The pair spun into cover on opposite sides of a hallway as bullets flew over their head. The Air Force general peeked out to see the headmaster of the school, a brown-haired man wearing glasses, surrounded by soldiers firing at her and her daughter. "You must surrender, please! We can protect Ruby, we can stop SHIELD!"

"When Whitehall has proven he doesn't give a damn about her!?" Hale yelled back, anger filling her. "No, Steger! HYDRA made its bed, now it's going to die in it!"

"Damn," Ruby said, shocked by her mother's vehemence.

"Language, sweetheart," Hale said simply. "Now, we should have our help in twenty seconds, you have the USB?"

"Yes, mom," Ruby rolled her eyes, utterly relaxed despite the bullets flying at her.

"Hale!" Steger yelled. "Please, just tell us you surrender, and I will protect you! We can make a deal with Whitehall!"

"Sorry Steger," Hale yelled back. The next words were said with a quiet determination as she looked upon her daughter. "But I've made my deal."

A wall blew up down the hall behind Steger and his men. Soldiers rushed through the hole, shooting as fast as they could.

"What-" Steger was shot in the chest by an ICER, and fell to the floor in a moment. The same happened to his men, bullets and ICER's finishing them off quickly.

Hale and Ruby poked their heads out, Hale coming out of cover when she saw the SHIELD symbol on their uniforms. Ruby followed hesitantly.

"Ma'am," one of the soldiers said as she walked up. "Fury sent us. We're to escort you to a Quinjet immediately."

"There's no time to grab the Phase Harmonic Teleporter?" Hale asked, worried.

"The what?" the soldier said, shaking his head. "Ma'am, there are more HYDRA forces on their way. If we stay any longer, we risk you and your daughter."

Hale froze, thinking. After a moment, she nodded. "Understood. Let's go," she gave Steger a look. "Let's bring him at least. He may be useful."

"Good idea."

 _ **Wolfgang Von Strucker**_

Strucker arrived at the HYDRA Preparatory Academy only a couple of hours after Hale had escaped with her daughter. Disappointing, but at least SHIELD had only sent a small team that could be chased off. Still, that meant that his current plan had to be moved up.

In the meantime, he used the brief moment to rest. The academy had fuel, food, soldiers, and aircraft, enough to help his fleet continue the fight. SHIELD would come but not before they could continue their plans.

"I've refined the process," Sterns said to List as the gamma-irradiated scientist watched Loki's scepter move past them towards a research lab. "But I'm not sure about these mercenaries you wish me to use the process on. Haven't they already been enhanced?"

"Yes, though they have not deigned to tell us how," List admitted. "But some of our experimentation has indicated that already enhanced individuals may take to enhancements with more ease than others. Chan Ho Yin, an individual found by one of our subdivisions, was able to gain tremendous strength from the Centipede Serum. Don't forget Blonsky, whose use of the soldier serum only made gamma irradiation that much more effective on him, for all his monstrous appearance. There is still value in creating enhanced of our own, but these four are perfect for testing our theory."

"And they will let us test that on them?" Sterns asked, walking along with List.

"As long as we pay them," List admitted. "Start with Davida, she's being sent out right now."

"What?" Sterns turned to glare at List. "You want me to simply empower someone and send them to battle a second later!? What sort of foolishness-"

"The SHIELD Academy of Science and Technology," both men turned to see Strucker striding towards them. "We must send our forces there, now. I want Davida to go with my men."

"It's too reckless," Sterns snarled. "Simply empowering her and sending her off, without testing, without-"

"Sadly, we can't take any chances," Strucker narrowed his eyes at Stern. "Dr. Sterns, we need resources, more engineers, and scientists to aid us, all of which are at that Academy. The risk is worth it and giving her every advantage we can beforehand mitigates those risks. Now empower her."

Sterns glared at him as Strucker gave him a level look. Finally, thegamma-enhancedd scientist turned and strode off.

"...He's going to be a problem," List said softly.

"Yes, he will," Strucker admitted. "But his intellect is too vast to be discarded... Keep an eye on him. If the device we implanted works, we can stave off any betrayals, but I will not have him turn against us."

 _January 13th, 2014_

" _Strucker, buddy!"_ a man said over the radio connection. _"How you doing?"_

"Surviving," Strucker said simply, looking around the radio room Garrett had loaned him.

Sterns had, in a way, saved their lives. The man was not just brilliant. he was innovative. Some thought those were the same things, but there was a reason there were dozens of genius level intellects, and only one Tony Stark. He'd even managed to enhance Davida in mere moments, deducing her new powers and helping her learn how to use them. He was useful. For now. He was also unbearably smug when the assault on the SHIELD Academy turned up nothing.

Despite this, Strucker was still firm in the belief the assault had been a good choice. While the enemy had managed to counter the teleporter so that anyone sent to the academy was simply 'bounced' back with polka dot skin and swapped genitals (Stucker had no idea what to think of _that_ ) he still had to make the attempt.

After leaving the HYDRA academy with all the resources they could gather, Strucker guided his men to their new base of operations. Sterns had managed to help them get to Gideon Malick's home, a small castle in North America, without being found out, a place with enough land to hold all their forces. The man had even managed to create a device to hide them from satellites and radar, allowing HYDRA to gather without fear.

The radio was another invention of Sterns. He had not explained how or why it worked, his way of keeping himself invaluable. But the point was that the radio allowed Strucker to contact HYDRA forces across the world without risk of being intercepted or tracked.

The results of that had been depressing. The Treehouse had been destroyed by one of HYDRA's own Enhanced. The Sandbox had been taken by HYDRA, only to be lost later on, though thankfully their scientists were on their way with an Enhanced teenager that had been brainwashed. But everything else had been taken control of by SHIELD and the Avengers.

But thankfully, the Phase Harmonic Teleportation Device, which was being called the Fishhook by the grunts, had let them start grabbing and saving resources. And Stern's work around for the communications was still working, though he'd had to rework it a couple of times.

"Garrett," Strucker said, focusing. "I am not calling to simply discuss the weather."

" _How the hell are you calling me, anyways?"_ John Garrett asked. _"We've been having problems with that."_

"I will explain when you get here," Strucker responded.

" _You want us to meet, huh?"_

"We need to gather our resources," Strucker said.

" _Well, I'll do it, I'm always willing to make friends! But I'm making a stop somewhere first. The Fridge has some sweet toys I want to grab."_

Strucker rubbed his chin. "Will you bringing any of those with you?"

" _Only if you share however it is you're talking with me,"_ Garrett switched gears, becoming very serious. _"If this raid is going to work, I need comms."_

"You have them," Strucker said. "We need counters to the Avengers and SHIELD, especially to this... Dial, that has appeared. Where are you? I'll send soldiers to join you."

" _That'd be great!"_ Garrett said instantly.

Late at night, on a beach in an undisclosed location, the Fridge stood tall. One hundred stories, with only one door on the rooftop and no other way into the building, it was among the most imposing structures in the world.

Two guards watched the main door from inside a pair of thick glass doors, staring out at the dark night sky. As they watched however, something fell onto the ground from out of nowhere, smashing into the roof with a crack of broken concrete.

"What the-" One of the men stepped forward, staring at the object that had landed on top of a building that stood over 1000 feet tall. "Is that... a woman?"

"Where did she come from!?" the other guard said concerned, looking up at the empty night sky.

Suddenly, the woman rose to her feet. As the pair stared, she flipped her blonde hair behind her head and strode towards the door. She had long hair, a face that was beautiful, but also strong, and an extremely fit form. She was wearing a green leather jacket zipped to the top, leather black jeans, and impractical high heels. She smirked as she came to the door, and both men stepped back pointing their guns at her. She leaned against the glass, still smirking. "Hey boys. Mine letting a girl in?" she said, her Southern accent seductive and lilting.

"Who the hell are-"

"What the fuck does that matter?" the first soldier's partner said. "This is a restricted location, no one should even be here! Miss, get down on the ground, now."

"Wel,l that is just plain mean, sugah," the woman said, pouting playfully. "I guess I'll have to let myself in."

She reared back and punched the bulletproof glass, shattering it with ease.

"Shit, Enhanced!" one of the men yelled, shooting his assault rifle at her, his partner joining in. For about a minute, they poured bullets into the woman. She let them for a moment, looking down as the bullets tore into her clothes, bouncing off her skin to land on the floor. "Run, warn everyone!"

The other soldier headed to the elevator behind them, running for it. He slammed on the button and looked back as the woman smacked his friend, sending flying into the wall. The elevator doors began to close as she rushed towards it, closing just before she reached. The elevator began to drop towards the lower floors.

The soldier in the elevator breathed out a sigh, his heart beating like a drum, reaching for his comms. "Control, we have an-"

Then some perfect manicured fingers pierced through the doors, followed by an arm. The elevator halted, stopped by the superhuman arm. As the motor whined and the steel around the arm crumbled, the soldier screamed into his comms.

"Enhanced attacking the Fridge! Mayday, mayday!"

Then the blonde woman ripped her way into the elevator.

Moments later, a Quinjet landed on the roof, soldiers Chitauri armor teleporting into existence at the same time.

"Helen, was it?" John Garrett said as he strode through the halls of the Fridge, smiling at the blonde woman next to him. "Gotta say, I like your style. How strong are you exactly?"

"Never really tested my limits, sugah," Helen said simply, clearly focused on other things. "You really think Davida is in here?"

"It would make sense, SHIELD tends to keep it's favorite prisoners here," Garrett said, striding confidently. He looked behind him. "Go ahead and start killing anyone in our way with those golden boys, will you?"

The tall, imposing black man behind Garrett nodded, striding forward to join the Chitauri armored soldiers in wiping out the opposition in the Fridge.

"What is that guy?" Helen asked as the tall man fired rockets from his arm.

"My very best friend," Garrett said flippantly. "Come on. Strucker said we only have twenty minutes before SHIELD finds out about us."

"What are we looking for, exactly?" Helen asked.

Before Garrett could answer, a man came from a hallway on their left and shot at them. Helen leaped in front of the bullets and let them bounce off her chest, kicking the SHIELD soldier's leg hard enough to shatter it. She grabbed him by the front of his armor, fingers tearing through kevlar and steel to give her a firm grip and tossed him upwards, the man smashing into the ceiling with bone crushing force. He fell to the floor, unconscious.

"Damn," Garrett said, impressed. "Nice work. But you forgot one thing," Garrett shot the soldier in the head. "Can't leave witnesses. Had to kill those two you left upstairs as well."

Ignoring the shocked look on Helen's face, Garrett continued. "Gonna be a good day!"

While Garrett and his men emptied the Fridge, more work was being done elsewhere. In the castle grounds of Malick's home, in a courtyard illuminated by spotlights, HYDRA was preparing for it's next recruitment. Strucker watched as his scientists and engineers worked around Blonsky's massive tank. They removed the pipes on the tank and worked on the software of the cryogenics on it, stepping on the cobblestone floor as the stars shone down on them. Men in Chitauri armor floated over the courtyard, their purple glow flitting about, and more soldiers with conventional weaponry surrounded the area. Two sonic cannons rested to the east and west of the tank, as well as vehicles with heavy assault weaponry around them.

"It'll be nice to speak to Emil again," Sterns said, walking up to join Strucker. Strucker looked at Sterns, noting the orange jacket he had found somewhere. It clashed with his green skin. But then, a man with a head as enlarged as Sterns was wouldn't worry as much about appearance. "I was always curious to see how his change affected his mind."

"We can only hope he listens to reason," Strucker looked at Wanda and Pietro. "Stay ready. We may need you."

Pietro nodded quickly. Wanda was far more hesitant, and Strucker looked at them for a moment. Ever since they'd gone to the base in Alaska, he'd worried about the two. The two hadn't killed any soldiers themselves, but once adrenaline had faded from everyone systems, they seemed wracked with anxiety over those who had died. He'd have to be careful about them. But for now...

A massive noise filled the air. Everyone looked at the tank, where a dent had been smashed from the inside on the door.

"What are you doing!?" Strucker yelled. "We aren't awakening him yet!"

"It's not us!" A scientist cried out. "He's just- Ah!" the scientist screeched when another dent was struck in the door.

"Pietro, get them out of there!" Strucker cried out. The door flew out of the tank, and the massive being within leaped out. He reached for a scientist.

And a blue blur sped throughout the area for thirty feet around the tank. The beings fist closed on nothing, and the scientists and engineers were safely away as Pietro screeched to halt next to his sister.

"Wanda!" Sterns yelled, preempting Strucker. "Be ready!"

The being looked around as guns ranging from armor piercing to laser blasting pointed at him, two sonic cannons joining in. He snorted, seemingly amused. When he spoke, it was in a voice like gravel rolling down a hill. **"So, this is the best you could bring to kill me? You'll need a thousand more."**

"Why would we try to kill you!?" Sterns yelled out, stepping forward.

Blonsky spun to look at Sterns. He narrowed his eyes at him. **"You... you're that scientist. The one who-"**

"The one who helped you become this... magnificence," Sterns voice sounded almost euphoric. "Look at the power you have now."

" **Yeah, thanks. Though it looks like I'm not the only one whose gone through some changes."** Emil noted, rising to his full height. **"What do you want?"**

"For you to help us," Sterns said simply.

" **Hahaha!"** Emil stepped forward, ignoring the guns pointed at him as he strode forward. **"Why should I? Why don't I simply kill you all?"**

"The Hulk!" Sterns frowned when Strucker spoke from the back. When Emil looked at Strucker, the monocled man stepped forward. "We will help you find him, and kill him."

Sterns spun to glare at Strucker, but sighed and turned back to Blonsky. "Yes, we will help you... kill Bruce Banner," he added the last reluctantly. "Join us. And we will make sure no one ever cages you again."

" **Hmm... No, I think not,"** Blonksy leaped forward, smiling gleefully.

A blue blur pulled Sterns and Strucker back. Undeterred, Blonsky jumped towards them with a sick grin on his face.

"WANDA!" Sterns and Strucker yelled in unison.

A red energy smashed into Emil in midair, pushing him back with a surprised look on his horrific face. He flew into his old tank, destroying it. Emil rose up hurriedly, staring as Wanda stepped forward, her hands glowing with power.

"We know how to find the man you wish to kill," Strucker said, walking next to her. "The Hulk has a team now, individuals as exceptional as you are that you have no chance of defeating alone, not when their numbers will let them outmatch even your exceptional power. We can provide a team for you as well. People to fight alongside, leave you to battle the Hulk to your content."

Emil listened, calming.

"I promise you, Emil Blonsky," Stern said, walking up to join Strucker and Wanda as they stood across from the monster before them. "You will never find a better way to prove your power than with our resources. We can make you a legend."

" **...Well. Now that is an offer,"** Emil smiled, his horrific features twisting. **"First thing. I'm hungry. And I want _her_ to make me a sandwich."**

Wanda blinked when he pointed at her. Her eyes narrowed, and she gathered more energy before her fingers as an answer.

" **Ha! Fiesty... I suppose I'll agree,"** He rose out of the tank and cracked his neck to the side. **"But when I kill the Hulk... all bets are off."**

 _January 14th, 2014_

The next morning, Strucker was there with his soldiers to greet John Garrett when he and his men landed on the grounds outside Gideon Malick's castle. Men in Chitauri armor landed on the ground at the same time as four Quinjets, joining their brethren. The closest Quinjet to Strucker opened its back door to expel Garrett.

The former SHIELD agent stepped out with a salesmans smile and outstretched arms. "Strucker, look at you! Healthy as ever. Well except the bags under your eyes."

Strucker smiled tightly. "Indeed. How was the raid?"

"Went off like a charm," Garrett said, his smile widening further. "Got a whole lot of new toys, even a few recruits. Even managed to get my girl Flowers out of prison on the way." Garrett nodded to a woman the in background who was wearing a red silk dress. She sat in a Quinjet, hands in her lap as she watched the proceedings. "She can help create more of the Centipede serum for us."

Men in brown uniforms with black vests filed out of the Quinjets, carrying weapons and equipment with casual ease no human strength could match. Their eyes glowed subtly red as they walked, a consequence of the Centipede serum in their veins, and Garrett watched as other soldiers in black uniforms joined them.

"Excellent," Strucker said, watching the soldiers line up behind Garrett, a tall black man Strucker knew as Deathlok taking a spot at his right side. Helen walked out of the Quinjet and moved to stand with Strucker.

"Thing is though," Garrett's smile became more dangerous. "I'm not sure if I should give them to you."

The Chitauri armored soldiers tensed, facing the Centipede enhanced men and women across from them. Strucker and Garrett's armies faced each other. Helen's eyes started to get slightly redder. Deathlok's right arm opened to reveal a weapon within.

"...Perhaps you need an incentive?" Strucker raised a hand and snapped his fingers.

A massive green figure flew from the castle and landed behind Strucker like a missile.

"Holy shit!" Garrett yelled, stepping back as the Abomination stood up with a smirk.

A blue blur suddenly appeared next to Helen. Finally, two figures flew down from the sky. Wanda flew on jets of her power, coming to a stop behind Pietro. Sterns simply floated on a disk hovering on jets of purple energy, his arms crossed while he looked at the battlefield.

"Satisfied, Garrett?" Strucker asked.

Things were tense for a moment longer. Then Garrett smiled, the cyborg next to him relaxing. "Oh yeah. I am absolutely satisfied."

 _Author's Note:_ I worked on Abomination for hours. Trying to make his dialogue both brief and simple, without making it seem like I was rushing things. I mean, he only has one thing he's interested in, and Emil was shown to be able to figure out tactics when he wasn't being an asshole, so I figured he'd listen to reason when his target wasn't around. But I just couldn't figure out how I did.

That said, I do stand by his reason for joining.

But yeah, Helen, aka Letha, and the other Grapplers have joined Strucker because they want to find Davida. Wanda and Pietro are... thinking. Garrett is still trying to save himself. Sterns is on the down-low.

In the end, the only one who actually works for HYDRA at this point is Strucker and his soldiers. Seriously, I did not do that on purpose.


	25. Chapter 25

_**Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch**_

"Pietro, what are we doing here?" Wanda asked her brother later. She was sitting on a bed with her back to a stone wall, eyes on her brother as he looked out the window with his arms crossed.

He looked at her, then back out of the window. "...Getting revenge."

"I'm not so sure of that anymore."

The pair had been given a room in the castle to themselves. It was more expensive than any home they'd ever lived in, with beautiful art on the walls, silk sheets, and a beautiful view of the countryside.

Wanda watched as her brother continued to stare out the window. After a moment, he spoke.

"He's going to help us kill Tony Stark. To kill the Avengers," he said with conviction.

"And then?" Wanda asked curiously.

He said nothing, any righteousness fading.

"He has brought monsters here. We've... we've been responsible for killing people. I'm not so sure of what we're doing here, Pietro."

Her brother frowned in thought. He shook his head after a while. "We will stay until the Avengers are dead. Then... then we leave. Go back home."

"And if he decides not to let us?"

He had nothing to say to that.

"We can't do this, Pietro. Whatever we are doing here, it isn't what we wanted for ourselves... I think we need to plan our escape."

Downstairs, other people were dealing with certain issues at the same time the twins were dealing with their consciences.

"Fascinating," Sterns said, watching the objects gathered from the HYDRA academy and the raid on the Fridge get brought into the large room that had been turned from a spare kitchen into a laboratory. The items were placed at the side of the room, which was full of tables, computers, and counters. "These items will sky-rocket my research and make it so I don't have to do everything from scratch."

"Yeah, there's some cool stuff here," Garrett said flippantly, biting into a piece of beef jerky.

"Yes... 'cool stuff'," Sterns responded, annoyed. He turned to look at Garrett. "Must you be here?"

"Hey, I'm the one who brought the stuff you're so gaga over," Garrett said, putting a hand on his chest. "You could stand to be a little nicer."

"Hmph," scoffing, Sterns looked over at a cage in the background. "I'm nice to those who are _worthy_ of it, and you have yet to prove yourself worthy of anything more than being a delivery boy. In the meantime, I have to work on the girl."

"Girl?" Garrett looked towards the cage and blinked.

The girl in the cage was glaring out at them. She was in her late teens, thin from lack of proper nutrition, wearing a white prison jumpsuit. Her black hair was matted, and her eyes were wild. She was yelling in Spanish, shaking her cage as best as she could.

"Damn, spitfire ain't she?" Garrett asked, eyeing her as one would a caged animal.

"More than that," Sterns said. "She killed three of our men when we tried to transport her."

"That little thing?" Garrett grinned. "She got laser eyes or something?"

"No. She was, according to records at the HYDRA academy, taken from Mexico when she was a toddler. She was found surrounded by the bodies of dead gang members who had killed her mother," Sterns idly said.

"Shit..." Garrett responded seriously, suddenly much more wary of the prisoner.

"Indeed. HYDRA got their hands on her but soon found that another group was trying to take her as well. She was brought to the academy, taken to the depths of the school, and found to have increased ability to absorb combat skills, as well as naturally enhanced speed, strength, and senses. Even her healing is enhanced," Sterns said, sounding absolutely fascinated.

Garrett froze, and Sterns pretended not to notice. "Lucky we found this, 'Black Sky'. She would have died in months under the care of those ingrate scientists at the Academy."

"What do you mean?" Garrett asked.

"They were planning to dissect her, after finding she was resistant to being trained," Sterns turned away and watched as a large object was wheeled into the room. A tube big enough to contain a human. "I have other plans for her. Using these," Sterns turned and lifted something for Garrett to look at. He blinked.

"Now that is one big ass diamond."

"It isn't _diamond_ you troglodyte," Sterns hefted the cracked piece of blue-green crystal. "No, it is far more durable than any known substance on the planet besides vibranium and, despite all appearances to the contrary, _organic._ This, Mr. Garrett, may be step one in my research. But first," Sterns looked around at the soldiers surrounding him. "I have something I wish to confirm."

"She wasn't there," Helen hissed at Strucker as they walked through the hallways together. "Davida is still with SHIELD."

"Yes, and I am trying to discover where she is, as per our deal," Strucker said, moving quickly. "But even Sterns hasn't been able to get through the AI SHIELD is using to defend their files, at least without him starting anything that would bring their eyes upon us. I suspect she is being held on the Insight Helicarriers."

"Then my girls and I can get her," Helen said without a second thought.

"You will fight the Avengers then."

"We can take them."

"No one can take them!" Strucker stopped spinning to look at her. "I have an army, I have super-human soldiers, miracles and monsters! But the Chitauri armor cannot defeat Iron Man! My monster cannot fight the Hulk or Dial on his own! My super-soldiers are worthless against Captain America! We are outmatched, and we need more!" Strucker yelled into the stubborn woman's face.

The two stared at each other in the stone hallway.

"You're afraid," Helen accused.

"I'm pragmatic. SHIELD has the quality to defeat our quantity. But I am building those numbers... And Stern has an idea. Three targets he wants to kidnap. People who can help us take the Helicarriers and perhaps even the Avengers head on."

"Who-"

"Sir!" The two turned to see List walking towards them hurriedly. "Sterns is making something he wishes us to look at. Gamma radiators."

"What?" Strucker said, shocked.

"He... he thinks we can make more like the Hulk."

Strucker thought about that. Fast. Too fast. Sterns was trying to accelerate everything... perhaps Strucker could use that to his advantage. "He is certain?"

"Yes."

"Then tell him he's authorized. Oversee the project, and make sure to have Deathlok, Abomination, and Wanda on standby. Ask our soldiers to volunteer."

"You think anyone will?" Helen asked.

Strucker looked at her, then continued his walking. "Many in this world would sacrifice for the slightest bit of power. And the Hulk and Abomination represent more than a little bit of power."

"I have also," List continued, following with Helen. "Begun the construction of the cybernetics, as per the Cybertek designs. I'm also having our scientists look at the Centipede serum with the girl, Raina."

"Then we will have an army enough to fight against the Avengers," Strucker said firmly, a small smile coming to his face. "Tell me about the other projects."

 _January 15th, 2014_

"Your project needs work, Sterns," Strucker said as he stood in the laboratory of Sterns.

The gamma-irradiated scientist smiled. "Yes, but I have simply found what doesn't work and that is _progress_."

They were looking at the results of Sterns experiments, men and women in cages within a large tent set up on the grounds. Eleven in all, four woman and seven men, all of them in too much pain to move. Two of the women and four of the men had green skin after the experimentation, their bodies misshapen and twisted, muscles on their bodies growing and shrinking at random as they screamed in pain and horror. Strucker could hear their bones snapping over and over as they shattered under the immense pressure of their own muscles strength before healing back, only to break again. Some of them had even grown strange appendages, tentacles from their arms and legs, while one of the women had a leg turned to a long stump of flesh.

"The gamma radiators proved what I've always suspected. Bruce and I are not accidents, we are genetically built to accept gamma radiation, to be empowered by it. Emil Blonsky does not have the gene naturally, but the super soldier serum he was given, as crude as it was, allowed him to become what he is now," Sterns said with a grin.

"And you believe you have isolated the gene?" Strucker asked.

Sterns, in answer, turned to leave the tent and walked out. Strucker followed after an annoyed scowl at Sterns arrogance.

Sterns led him to another tent, where they found several people waiting inside as they worked around two patients on tables.

"Two is now stable." Sterns said firmly. "One already injected with the Centipede serum while having the gene, the other using Abomination's blood as a catalyst."

"I suppose that would be her," Stucker said, nodding towards the massive being on one table.

"Yes, Rana Philips," Sterns confirmed.

The woman in question looked like a more slender and female version of Blonsky. She had the same enormous muscles, the same hard exterior and dark green coloration, slightly glowing eyes, and seemed to maintain her hair though it had become green in color. She was awake and lucid, looking around at the scientists experimenting on her. As they watched, she shrank until she had become a normal human woman, with brown hair, green eyes, and a fit form, if not as impressive as she had been before.

"Such control," Strucker noted with a raised eyebrow.

"But she is not as powerful as a result," Sterns noted. "Still, a stable result is good. The other is odd, however," Sterns nodded towards a man who was asleep on the other side of the tent. The man was green, but he seemed to grow and shrink at random, much like the victims in the other tent. Unlike them, he was at peace.

"Drugged?" Strucker asked.

"Hardly. No, this is apparently how his powers manifest. As it is, I'm not sure if he can control it, especially with his... feeble, personality."

"What do you mean?" Strucker asked.

"Benjamin Tibbets is not a... strong person, unlike Rana," Sterns explained. "He volunteered to become powerful. Did you know he is not even HYDRA? He begged to defect from SHIELD rather than die."

Strucker blinked. "But... SHIELD was _winning_."

"As I said, Strucker. He is not a strong person, physically or mentally, and I fear that will interfere somewhat in his usefulness. Rana, however, proves that the process is useful, and I can at least suggest using the others as canon fodder. As for candidates, I believe I have a perfect one in mind."

"...Very well," Strucker decided. "And the other experiment?"

"I did not begin it yet," Sterns admitted. "I wished to make sure that one worked perfectly. Despite the positive results garnered here, I do not wish to waste any more soldiers. Especially since the Black Sky is so valuable."

"Black Sky," Strucker mused quietly. "I thought that creature was dead."

"Almost," Sterns smiled. "But don't worry. She is undergoing the Faustus Method now. Soon, she shall be ours, and then I will enhance her to be a perfect warrior."

"...Very well. In the mean time, have Rana test with Davida's team. I wish to see how powerful she really is."

"Understood," Sterns said. Somehow, he sounded almost mocking.

Strucker noted that, and looked over at the young woman watching Rana Philips transform back into her monstrous form with a fascinated glimmer in her eyes.

She'd come with Garrett, who insisted on calling her 'Flowers' despite her preference for her actual name, Raina. She had short black hair that fell in artful curls around her pretty face and carried herself with the sort of vulnerability that screamed for people to care for her. Which only made Strucker distrust her more.

"Has she been helpful?" Strucker asked as Sterns watched her as well.

"Yes... but worryingly so," Sterns said. "She has the air of a fanatic. She can't seem to stop staring at the Maximoffs, and even Blonsky has drawn an admiring glance where many would shy their gaze away."

"A fan of Enhanced?" Strucker asked.

"More that she covets powers similar to them," Sterns replied.

"Hm," Strucker frowned. After a moment, he turned around. "I'll speak to her later. Keep me apprised."

Hours after Sterns' projects had started in earnest, Strucker received horrible news.

"Whitehall is being attacked," List said to Strucker later.

von Strucker, Gideon Malick, and Garrett had been perusing files together, planning their next attack strategy when List came into the room. Strucker looked up at List, shocked. "Are you sure, List?"

"We've been cut off from communications with his people, and reports have come in from social media that vehicles with an odd version of SHIELD's symbol have shown up at the building," List confirmed.

"Damn!" Garrett cursed. "We could use that old man and his people."

"Has anyone been able to get through?" Malick asked, his jowls tightening when List shook his head. "Then it is them. We haven't been able to communicate during dedicated SHIELD raids. The second they start actually trying to keep us out..."

"We must find a way," Strucker decreed.

"There is one," Garrett said. When the room looked at him, he smiled. "Well you've been working on it, haven't you? List told me about that little 'claw' of yours."

When Strucker glared at List, the man sighed in annoyance. "He overheard me designing it."

"Astral projection, right?" Garrett asked. "Sounds like a neat trick."

"An unproven trick," Strucker said firmly. "Theorized by Sterns after his brief work enhancing Davida's team."

"But you think it can bypass the communications blackout?" Malick asked.

Strucker froze, thinking. After a while, he nodded slowly. "Yes... Sterns theorized it to be possible..."

"Well?" Garrett asked.

"It's too dangerous," Strucker said. "Even for all the things we are dealing with, even as desperate as we are-"

"That's right," Garrett interrupted, his voice smooth and calm. "Desperate. We're dealing with SHIELD, and they're attacking one of our oldest leaders. We need to fight back, Strucker. We need to know what we're dealing with. We can't do it the normal way. You've to reach out for whatever you can take... You know, I'm kinda glad we've been getting our asses handed to us."

When those in the room stared at him, Garrett smiled his insincere smile. "Come on. Look at what we've got around us. Blonsky, Sterns, those crazy twins, Deathlok, those wrestling girls, all of the kinds of super soldiers we've got running around. In a few days, we've made an army more powerful than any in HYDRA's history. I think we've been making a mistake, holding back as long we have. SHIELD pushing us the way we have has only let us unleash our full _potential,_ " Garrett's voice seemed to draw them all in. "Why stop now, Strucker? When you're so close to really making our dreams come true..."

Strucker thought about that. After a moment, he removed his coat, revealing the blue polo shirt he wore beneath it. "Bring the claw and the scepter to the meditation room... it's time I tested it."

Later, Strucker explained what had happened to Whitehall, Garrett, Malick, and List listening closely. When he was done, Malick shook his head. "Damn shame. The old man had style."

"Wait, you thought he was old too? How long has Whitehall been alive?" Garrett asked, everyone else ignoring him.

"SHIELD has clearly gotten over whatever has paralyzed them, even to the point of using the Winter Soldier and Carl Creel in their forces," Strucker said. "For now, I suggest we continue our efforts on increasing our forces. Stern has four targets he wishes to... _recruit_ , to our cause."

"Enhanced?" Garrett asked.

"Only one of them, an assassin SHIELD used," List said. "Two of the others are SHIELD agents. The last is related to an Avenger."

"That could be disastrous," Malick said, walking to a nearby table to pour himself a glass of scotch. "SHIELD is already on guard. Attacking three of their own, and one related to an Avenger..."

"They're exactly what we need," List said. "One has the gamma gene. The other two are prime candidates for the super-soldier serum, especially with the vials Garrett has given us."

"You've done something with that alien juice?" Garrett asked. Despite trying to sound casual, Strucker noticed the eagerness he hid.

"That girl, Raina, has some ideas," List smiled slowly. "I believe, combined with the alien crystals, we may be on to something... remarkable."

"...then we can breath, for now, I believe," Strucker said. "We'll take the targets. But after that, we focus on our army, on strengthening them."

"You want to hide?" Garrett asked, visibly disappointed.

"For a short time," Strucker said. "We need to breathe, I'm afraid. The soldiers have been pushed, hard, for three days. None of us has slept, and I can see it affecting our forces... We rest, rebuild our resources and operations, find a way to combat the incessant AI SHIELD is using, enhance our troops, and figure out our next step. Tomorrow, we take our targets. After that, we work from the shadows."

"...Fine by me," Garrett walked over to where Malick had poured a drink to take a cup as well. "Let's party, shall we?"

Malick sighed, shaking his head at Garrett. "Very well. Then I suggest, in the meantime, you keep an eye on Sterns. We're depending on that man for far too much. I believe getting rid of him once his usefulness is up would be-"

" _-in our best interest."_

Sterns raised an eyebrow as he continued to work, listening in on the conversation through a comm unit in his ear. "Hmm... Smart man."

"I agree," Strucker admitted. "But for now, he is helping us build an impressive force."

"Which he started building by turning eleven soldiers into mutated freaks who can't even function," Garrett noted.

"...I'll watch him as much as I can, but in the end, we may not be able to stop him," Strucker admitted. As he did, he made sure his eyes narrowed on every single person in the room. He conveyed, as best as he could, that none would comment otherwise. They seemed to understand in a moment.

Sterns was intelligent. Very, _very_ intelligent. That intelligence, however, came with an ego and a lack of true experience, an inability to recognize another's skills at times. Such as realizing a spy would know when a room had been bugged.

The gamma-irradiated scientist was useful. But Strucker would not let that stop him from doing what needed to be done.

"Now, I must go speak with one of my new soldiers," Strucker turned and left, several guards joining him. Strucker was thinking deeply on his new allies. Allies he couldn't trust. Sterns, Garrett, Blonsky, the Twins, Davida's team, even Malick... they would tear apart the alliance, whether due to their egos, greed, obsessions, or simply being too kind or moral for the work.

Strucker couldn't trust any of them. So he would make himself allies of his own.

Several minutes of walking brought him to his destination. He strode into the lower labs and walked into a room where a glowing series of rings held the scepter of Loki floating, suspended. Strucker stared at it for a moment. Then he looked at the glove on the table. A mechanical device created by List, it had been dubbed the 'claw'. An orange metal glove with a single port on the back, designed like the armor of a demonic knight, a glove made for Satan.

Strucker put it on. The glove was designed to fight off any dangers the scepter could pose, but he still felt trepidation as he took the scepter in hand. With the weapon in hand, he turned and walked out of the lab. More walking brought him to the tent where Rana Philips and Benjamin Tibbets were being held. He walked in and glared around the room. "Out. All of you."

The scientists began to walk out. Raina moved to follow, only for Strucker to shake his head. "No, Raina. Stay," he looked at the soldiers behind him. "You, out now."

"Sir-" one of the soldier began to say. He shut his mouth when he looked into Strucker's eyes.

Rana and Raina shared a look. Strucker walked over to Rana's bedside and looked into her currently human eyes. "How are you feeling?"

Rana, the woman who could become an aberration at a moments notice, blinked at the uncharacteristic softness in her leader's voice. "I'm... I'm fine. I feel amazing, actually."

"No problems?" Strucker asked.

"Not at all, sir," Rana smiled, putting a hand to her heart, on the HYDRA symbol on her white patients uniform. "I can fight. And I'm willing to do it."

Strucker smiled back. Then he sighed. "Rana... I will speak to you frankly. Any other day, I would not. I would consider such a thing beneath me. But I've found myself realizing things. Important things. First, please. Transform into your other form."

Rana looked at Raina, who looked bewildered. After a moment, Rana nodded.

In a shifting move, Rana gained height and weight. Smooth skin became scaled. Muscles and spike sprouted across her. Raina watched Rana's transformation with a vested interest. Strucker didn't look away from Rana.

"Beautiful..." Strucker lifted the scepter in his hand. "You know what this is, Rana?"

Rana stared at the glowing weapon with fear, swallowing. "L-Loki's scepter."

"Yes. It is powerful, capable of launching directed energy blasts, gifting others with powers," Raina leaned in at that. "It can even control minds... But that last power is not reliable. Useful... but I'd rather depend on someone's personal loyalty."

He looked at Rana. "You've been controlling it well, but I can see your anger. It's in all gamma-irradiated individuals. That unending well of rage."

Rana's eyes flashed. Whatever fear she had been portraying faded away. She had been faking. Intriguing.

"Good. Because I can use that anger," Strucker leaned forward. "Rana. Thank you, for volunteering. In return, allow me to offer you a deal."

Strucker continued to speak and Rana listened. Raina's eyes widened, further and further as the conversation went on. When it was over, Strucker held out a hand. Rana took it without hesitation.

"I hear, that it is traditional, in some factions of HYDRA," Stucker flickered his eyes over to Raina. "To give enhanced individuals a name. Something powerful, to give an enhanced an inflated sense of ego, to make them more susceptible to control and manipulation. I do not subscribe to that. I want you to choose your codename, Rana. From now on, you are my right hand. Understand?"

"Yes, sir," Rana said, her voice strong and steady. Her eyes flashed. "And you promise-"

"Win or lose, Rana," Strucker said softly. "Win or lose."

Strucker turned, walking towards Benjamin Tibbets, who was still asleep on his bed. The green skinned young man kept growing and shrinking uncontrollably. Rana only had to wear oversized clothing. Benjamin, who grew portions of his body to become as large as the Hulk or Abominations, had been left with only a blanket to wear. Strucker watched him for a moment before he pressed the scepters' tip to Benjamin's chest. The specters blue orb glowed for a moment as Strucker focused. Looking deep within the orb, one might have seen a yellow flash.

Benjamin sighed, relaxing. His growing and shrinking flesh stopped until he was a skinny young man again.

Strucker shook his head. "He'll sleep... but this peace is temporary. He is a truly sick young man," With that, he turned. "Raina, come. I think you and I have things to discuss."

 _Author's Note:_ Ok, so, Aberration and Flux are now in. Both are lower Marvel characters, so I felt safe using them in the story. And Sterns has suggested making a run on certain individuals before HYDRA officially retreats into the shadows for a bit. Dangerous, very dangerous idea. Or ambitious, whatever you need. From that point, the war between BRIDGE and HYDRA will begin anew. Especially if they attack the wrong people.

And yes, things will slow down after this. I'm no longer constrained by my own calendar for this story, so now I can take more time with events than I could before, and that can only help the story.


	26. Chapter 26

_January 16th, 2014_

 _ **Sharon Carter/Agent 13**_

In a small house in Washington D.C. that had been recently bought for one of the most important women in the world, a meeting was in progress.

"Sweetie, when you became an agent, what did I tell you?" an elderly, but still healthy woman asked.

Sharon smiled at the elderly woman in the bed in front of her, holding her hand at her bedside. "You wanted me to take care of SHIELD."

"Did I?" The elderly woman looked over at the tall black man standing at the foot of her bed. "Trip, is that what I said?"

"Yes ma'am," Agent Triplett said with a wide grin.

"Hmph," the elderly woman said. She shook her head. "All that work and you young fools tear it apart in one fell swoop."

"In our defense, most of that was..." Trip stopped talking, but it was too late. He winced at the pain that flashed in the older woman's eyes.

"...I'm sorry Aunt Peggy," Sharon apologized, feeling guilty about being unable to protect her aunt's life's work.

"What for?" Peggy gave Sharon a very sharp smile. "You weren't the one who allowed parasites into your legacy."

"Not your fault," Trip said. "And in the end, the only reason SHIELD could survive was because of the good work _you_ did _."_

"SHIELD survived because of you, not in spite of you, Aunt Peggy," Sharon said, squeezing the older woman's hand.

Peggy sighed. "Small comfort... You know, when I was young, I thought I'd faced all the horror the world could produce. Everything from the Darkforce to Howard Stark. And now, poor Steve will have to face all of that," she looked between Sharon and Trip. "You'll both help him."

It wasn't a plea. It was an order.

Trip and Sharon nodded. Peggy relaxed, smiling at the two. "Good. Now, tell me. I've heard of the formation of BRIDGE, but I wish to know about the reactions of certain individuals during the discussion. The Russian President's aide, a woman with brown hair, how did she act?"

As the legacies of the Howling Commando's and Peggy Carter informed the elderly woman, a small box full of pills sat innocently on the nightstand next to Peggy's bed.

When Sharon and Trip left Peggy's home, they entered Trip's car together. Trip started the car and stared out of the windshield without moving. After a moment, he turned it off.

"...That woman was so strong, all of my life. The best damn spy in the world. I was always comparing every spy I knew to her." Trip said. Sharon smiled at that. "I think, today... I think I got a glimpse of that again."

"Just a bit," Sharon sighed happily. "But she seemed happy, even with all the bad news."

"The new Director will be happy to hear about that," Trip said. "I mean, Peggy's approval, you know?"

Sharon nodded. "Yeah."

"And Simmons and Dial will be happy to know the pills work."

Sharon gave Trip a grin. He put a hand on her shoulder, with Sharon grabbed. After a silent moment of happiness, they pulled away from each other.

Trip started the car, and they started driving. They stopped at a light a few miles away. Suddenly, both of their comm units switched on, brief static filling their ears before a voice came on.

" _This is X, you both need to run!"_ the AI yelled urgently.

"X?" Trip asked, uncomprehending.

" _HYDRA has sent Quinjets to your area, I'm sending a team to intercept but-"_

X's frantic voice was cut off when something landed in the intersection ahead of them with a 'Boom!' of shattered concrete. Trip and Sharon stared as a tall being rose from the concrete.

She was over seven feet tall, with green scaled skin, glowing yellow eyes, and taloned feet. She was wearing a workout top and military pants, and her eyes were firmly set on Trip and Sharon.

"Shit!" Trip slammed on the accelerator, turning right and booking it down the street. The strange woman started chasing them with incredible speed. "Who the hell is this!?"

" _She isn't on any records,"_ X said. _"She must be a new creation. Help is six minutes out!"_

"Then we last that long!" Sharon said, opening the glove box and grabbing the submachine gun inside. She opened the window and leaned out, the wind rushing past her with the smell of french fries from a nearby fast food place drifting in the air. She sighted on the woman currently catching up with them on foot and started shooting in controlled bursts, pulling the trigger before giving up and cursing harshly in annoyance, pulling back into the car.

"She's bulletproof!" Sharon yelled.

"I miss killable bad guys!" Trip yelled back, swerving around an SUV that the woman chasing them pushed aside, sending it spinning like a top into a tree.

" _HYDRA Quinjet is sighting on you, but they haven't fired,"_ X informed them. _"I'm attempting to hack them, but they've modified the Quinjet to be as low-tech as possible somehow."_

"They want us alive," Trip realized, a chill going down his spine.

"Wait, where did she go-" Sharon began to say.

The woman landed on the hood of the car, crumbling the steel beneath her and sending the vehicle spinning out of control. She quickly planted her feet into the pavement so her boots left long groves as she slowed the car to a halt.

"Come on!" Trip slammed down on the accelerator, trying to run her over.

The woman, in response, tore off the hood, then reached in and pulled the car's engine out with one hand, tossing it carelessly aside.

Trip and Sharon instantly leaped out of the car, running in different directions. The woman leaped towards Trip, slamming him into the pavement. He tried to fight, but the woman simply took out a syringe and stabbed it into his neck. As he passed out, she lifted him up and threw him at the Quinjet as it floated above with the back hatch open, where he landed in the arms of a waiting soldier.

Sharon, in the meantime, was sprinting with all her speed towards a back alley nearby. Once there, she could get into a building, maybe slip past them in a maze of halls.

The scaled green woman landed in front of Sharon with a crunch of breaking asphalt. Sharon spun to avoid her, but the woman grabbed Sharon and lifted her into the air. As Sharon choked on a scaled fist strong enough to bend steel, the woman pulled her close.

"Don't worry," the woman said gently, stabbing her in the neck with another syringe. "Soon you'll no longer feel powerless ever again."

Sharon was out moments later.

The HYDRA Quinjet flew into the air and headed into the countryside. X tried to track it, Jarvis helping, and soon found it's destroyed remains in the side of a barn.

Sharon Carter and Antoine Triplett were MIA.

 _ **Jennifer Walters/Attorney-At-Law**_

Across the country, in Los Angeles California, a woman was speaking to a jury as the rest of the courtroom watching. She was a short woman, with brown hair, a cute button nose, and a voice with a high pitch. Yet, when she spoke, it was with a confidence that drew the room in. She strode on sensible heels, wearing a white blouse with a black business skirt and jacket, her hair pulled into a high ponytail and a pair of glasses that were thick enough to give her a slightly bug-eyed appearance.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury," she said, looking into the eyes of each member of the jury in question. "We've discussed the events of September 13th for a full week. I know you're all tired. You probably want to go home. But we can't leave," she shook her head, and several of the jurors actually did so as well. "Not until we know, for certain, that justice has had it's day. My client, Beatrice Trask," the woman at the prosecutor's table, a pretty blonde with sad eyes and a cast on her left arm, stood a little straighter. "Was beaten in her home, by the one person who was supposed to protect her."

She eyed the defendant, a large overweight man with black hair perfectly groomed, and eyes that were hard as they glared at the woman currently speaking. "Nicholas Trask. A man who has been accused of domestic abuse before. A man who, according to witness testimony, often used violence to intimidate and control others. When Beatrice spoke, when she told us of how the person she _loved_ became a monster, we all knew what had to be done."

Nicolas Trask's fists clenched under the desk.

"Please," she entreated. "Show Beatrice, and the other women who faced the same horrors inflicted by Nicholas Trask, that justice does exist. Thank you."

With that, Jennifer Walters took her seat with a quiet dignity. Later that day, as a screaming Nicolas Trask was placed in cuffs and dragged away, she allowed herself a smile.

"Jennifer, I really wish you hadn't taken that case," an older man said later as he entered Jennifer Walters' office.

Jennifer Walters looked up from her paperwork, noting the man who was walking forward. "Hi dad, how are you?"

"Dreaming of a daughter who doesn't get herself into crap," Morris Walters was tall, well built if with a bit of beer belly under the sheriff's uniform he was wearing. His hair was the same color as his daughters, cut short and brushed back. He sat down in the chair in front of his daughter's desk with a groan. "Sweetie, you know Trask. His guys are going to retaliate somehow."

"His 'guys'," Jennifer said. "Know full well that Trask isn't worth protecting anymore. He's burned too many bridges, dad. Besides, did you see how much evidence was piled up? I get killed, he's the first on the suspect list."

"But you'll still be dead," Morris said firmly. "Look, just let me set up some deputies to protect you. At least until things cool off a bit."

Jennifer sighed, pretending to be annoyed, rather than grateful. Damnit, she was supposed to be the hardboiled lawyer, but at heart, she was always happy to see that her father loved her. The product of being a single child of a single parent. "Fine... dinner tomorrow?"

Morris smiled. He got up and walked around the deck, kissing his daughter on her head as she gave him a mock-glare, though she was clearly pleased. "I never miss it, do I?"

"Not so far," Jennifer sighed. "Anyways, I have some more paperwork to do right now. I'm guessing you already have the deputies outside?"

Morris barked a laugh. "Of course! I wasn't going to wait for you to say yes!"

Jennifer smiled at her father and looked at the photo on her desk. As she looked at it, her smile faded. Morris noticed, and looked at the photo as well. On the picture were four people. Two older women, desperately holding onto laughing children as all of them smiled at the camera. A young girl, Jennifer wearing a pink dress with a dinosaur toy in her hand. And a young boy, laughing as he held Jennifer's hand.

"...I miss him," Jennifer admitted. "I miss _them._ "

Her father said nothing. He simply put a hand on his daughter's shoulder.

Late that night, Jennifer Walters entered her house carrying a box filled with files. She locked the door behind her and removed her shoes, sighing in relief as she clenched her toes against the carpet for a moment, feeling her sore feet slowly relax from a long day of standing in trial. She put the box of files on her kitchen table and walked over to the sink to grab some water, drinking it with relish. She contemplated going to sleep, but decided to make some coffee instead, and quickly set up her machine.

"I hope I'm not interrupting?" A voice she'd never heard before spoke up behind her.

"Jesus!" Jennifer spun around in shock and gaped at the man sitting at her counter.

He was odd, to say the least. His skin was green, and his head was massive. He eyed her with fascination, as though she had some secret she had to give him.

"Not him, I'm afraid, though I'm sure my contributions to society will be seen in the same light in the not so distant future," he said with a smug smile. "I am Samuel Sterns. A friend of your cousin."

Jennifer stared at him, her thoughts feeling cloudy. "You're... an Avenger?"

"Ha!" Sterns shook his head. "No. Only a friend, as I said. I simply wished to greet you, Miss Walters."

Still feeling off-kilter, she took a step forward, almost losing her balance. "What... What do you want?"

"To bring you to your full potential," Sterns said with a smile. "I have some... concentrations of Bruce's blood, from an earlier experiment. I believe you'll be most helpful in making them of use to me and advancing my studies more than anyone else."

Jennifer stumbled, landing on the floor as her eyes drifted aimlessly. "What-"

"I put a narcotic in your water," Sterns idly informed her. "It won't last long and there are no harmful side effects, but it will serve its purpose. Don't worry my dear. Soon, I'll give you a gift beyond imagining. Though I admit, it's mostly a gift for Bruce," Sterns chuckled. "He'll be so happy when he sees what you've become."

That was the last thing Jennifer heard before her world became darkness.

 _January 18th, 2014_

 _ **Ava Starr/Ghost**_

At the same time, in a warehouse next to a harbor, an attack had gone very, _very,_ wrong. A group of HYDRA soldiers wearing black tactical gear were roaming around the dark confines of the warehouse, spinning around as they kept their guns aimed and ready. Centipede soldiers stood among them, their eyes glowing red as they strode through the room.

"Where the hell is she now!?" one of the soldiers yelled.

"I don't know, damnit!" another replied, his eyes wide with fear. "She just-hkk!"

The men and women in the group spun to see a hand inside his chest, right where his heart lay.

The woman who had her hand in his chest was wearing an all-white outfit, armored over her chest, and with a hood that went over her head. The helmet beneath her hood was all white, with five eerie red lights that stared at them. She stood for a moment, watching the HYDRA soldiers around her. Then she squeezed her hand, and an oddly vicious, wet sounding snap came from the man.

"Open fire!" One of the soldiers yelled and they started shooting. The woman seemed to fade briefly from existence, allowing the man she had killed to fall to the ground riddled with bullets. Any shots that actually hit her, flew through her phantom-like form before she disappeared. When she appeared again, she kicked a HYDRA agent with polka-dot skin in the neck, collapsing his trachea. She disappeared again as assault rifle fire aimed at her and reappeared next to a Centipede soldier, who she punched in the face. The soldier took the blow without flinching, then grabbed her by the shoulders and lifted her up. He began to throw her at the ground, but she suddenly became intangible, moving through his form and flipping backward before pressing a hand in his head, squeezing his brain moments later, then going invisible again.

She flipped behind cover, using the enemies confusion to take a moment to breathe. "Any chance on that back up? Those Centipede guys are hard to kill."

" _On its way, Miss Starr,"_ Jarvis said. _"They were in the midst of saving people from an apartment fire, so they were a bit held up."_

Ava Starr, codename Ghost, nodded, then got up and stepped away from her cover. With a running start, she fazed through her cover, moved at high speed in between the quantum and real world, then kicked a Centipede soldier in the chest. Her kick, augmented by her phasing, sent the Centipede soldier flying. Ghost flipped in the air and went intangible to let bullets fly past her, spinning to kick a HYDRA agent in the face, then phasing through a Centipede soldier attempting to grab her before grabbing the back of his clothes and twisting so that a HYDRA agent shooting at her hit the Centipede soldier instead. Going invisible again, she dived into cover.

One of the HYDRA soldiers cursed. "Damn it, we're supposed to capture her!?"

"Just kill her already!" another one yelled. "Strucker can study her body!"

"We've been trying-hkk!" Ava blinked at the sound of the HYDRA soldier getting interrupted.

Last time she'd heard that it was because of her. But if she wasn't the reason... Leaning out of cover, she checked out the situation.

An arrow had slammed into HYDRA soldier's heart. An arrow that was blinking.

 **BOOM!**

Ava dropped back into cover as the arrow exploded. More arrows fell into the din, forcing the soldiers to scatter. Over forty men had been sent, of which Ava had killed ten since they'd started chasing her. Now, thanks to the mysterious archer, only twenty or so remained.

" _Aid has arrived,"_ Jarvis said over Ava's comm unit. _"Prepare for transportation."_

"Wait, who-"

A blue blur came to a stop next to Ava. She looked up at the being that had come into existence. "Hi, I'm Dial," the being said, in the form Ava would later learn was called Fasttrack. "Wanna get out of here-"

"Look out!" Ava yelled when a Centipede soldier came from the smoke to grab at Fasttrack.

There was a blur. Then the Centipede soldier was flying back from Fasttrack, who had taken a boxing stance. He smirked, waving his fists, which were dripping odd colored blood. "Yeah, got to hit these guys a lot to cause any damage."

He turned back to Ava. "Come on!"

Ava nodded, rising to her feet, only to blink when the alien swept her bridal style into his arms. There was a blur of motion as the room moved around them, arrows falling from the sky to kill HYDRA and Centipede soldiers. Then they were outside in front of a waiting Quinjet. Ava, panicking, went intangible and dropped to the floor.

"What just happened!?" she asked, rolling to stare at Fasttrack. He blinked. "Did you just-"

"Ava!" she turned to see the Quinjet open in the back. Inside was Bill Foster, her adoptive father, an older black man who was a bit overweight. He waved towards her, yelling as the Quinjet started up. "Come on! Let's go!"

Ava, still confused, ran into the Quinjet, Bill hugging her tightly before guiding her into a seat. Fasttrack looked at Bill Foster for a moment. "Huh. Morpheus. That's cool."

With that, Dial ran into the warehouse as the Quinjet took off into the sky.

 _ **Wolfgang Von Strucker**_

 _January 19th, 2014_

"An entire goddamn platoon!" Strucker slammed his fist onto his desk, rage in his eyes. "Fifteen Centipede soldiers, 25 of our best, all dead or captured! And we didn't even get our objective!"

"Calm down, Wolfie," Garrett said casually, pouring a glass of scotch. Malick and List were in the room as well, watching as Strucker cursed in anger. "We still got the others."

"The others are just future experiments," Strucker said, spinning the scepter in his clawed hand. "Ava Starr was a fully fledged Enhanced! Her abilities make her one of the best assassins and thieves in the world. With more like her, there could have been nothing we could not accomplish!" Strucker's scepter glowed with his agitation.

"Hey, we can still make more super-soldiers and gamma-enhanced," Garrett said, sipping his drink.

"It is not enough to simply have brute strength," Malick said. "Ava was among the best assassins in SHIELD for a reason. Only Romanov has a better record. And well, she is..."

All the men in the room thought about Black Widow for a moment, then looked around the room, focusing on the shadows. After knowing for certain they were alone, Strucker spoke.

"The fact our men were also captured is worse. They were all equipped with cyanide tablets in their cheekbones, but we can't take any risks. We need to leave," he said in a voice that tolerated no argument.

"Damn, really?" Garrett asked, sounding honestly disappointed. "I was getting used to the place."

"It's our only move right now. SHIELD will track us down. If their captives don't tell them where we are, then whatever damned AI that's helping them will. Sterns is failing to keep it at bay. We head to the secondary location, now," Strucker glared at him.

"Ah well, I guess I'll go get my stuff then," Garrett turned and left, uncaring of any other issues that might be brought up.

Malick, on the other hand, sat still in his chair. List looked at the older man, then at Strucker. Strucker nodded for List to leave, and the scientist rose from his seat, leaving Strucker and Malick alone. Malick spoke as soon as List had left.

"Sterns tells me you refused to go forward with my proposed project."

"Yes, I did. You are asking me to believe in a fairy tale, a religious leader for us to follow. It's not practical."

"Can you say that, in a world where Thor and Loki battled in New York City?" Malick asked.

"Thor and Loki are real, tangible people," Strucker answered. "I have never seen or heard of your god before this."

"And I've worked hard to make sure of that," Malick said. "But he is a power who could make the Avengers and SHIELD fear us."

"...I'm not going to stop the project, if you wish to go ahead with it but it will be on your own time and resources, with Sterns helping you when he isn't working for me. The pieces of the monolith passed down by my family are in the vault in Germany. They are at your disposal, Malick, but know this. You won't be bringing some destined leader to rule over us all. HYDRA has outgrown the idea. Whatever you bring from that portal of yours, it can only be an asset or an enemy," Strucker stated.

Malick rose from his chair, his eyes hard. "You dare to attack him, and I swear. The pain that I will bring upon you will-"

"You are not," Strucker's voice, still and hard as stone, brought Malick to a stop. The scepter in Strucker's clawed hand glowed ominously. "The leader of HYDRA. And _no one_ fears you anymore. I show you respect because you are due it. I allow you this project because I know what it means to you and I will not spend resources stopping you. But I will not allow us to follow a false god due to your obsessions. It. Isn't. **Practical."** Strucker growled out the last word.

"...Strucker. What do you know about the Inhumans?" Stucker eyed Malick, who took that as his cue to continue. "It's the name that they gave themselves, thousands of years ago. You know as well as I do that when the Confederacy starts to ask questions, they'll want more than cookie-cutter soldiers. You want your superhuman army, but you'll need something special as well. I can give it to you. But you need to understand, Strucker. Bringing our leader back could save us."

Several moments passed before Strucker visibly calmed and spoke once more.

"...Tell me about these Inhumans."

 _Author's Note:_ HYDRA is now officially assembled, WOA. I know people were worried about how many people were showing up, but that's the last named character for a while. We'll go one more chapter to dig into some of the other characters, namely Helen, Rana, Wanda, and Raina, and how they're each dealing with the current situation of needing to run. After that, we go into what Dial and Tony have been making. Ask my beta reader, I think it's pretty cool.

But yeah. Trip, who is important to Team Coulson. Sharon, important to Peggy, and therefore all of SHIELD. Jennifer, important to the Avengers. All kidnapped. Almost like someone wants to piss someone off at this point.

Ava got away though, and got away _hard_ , killing ten men and leaving Hawkeye and Dial to capture or kill others. Can't wait to show the consequences of that.

Overall, I'm proud of this chapter, but I can't wait to get to the action I've been setting up all this time. SO MUCH TALKING!


	27. Chapter 27

_**Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch**_

When HYDRA kidnapped their targets, they knew there were risks. But there were two _escape_ risks unaccounted for, who were speaking in their room.

"We leave tomorrow," Wanda said to Pietro. "After everything they've done? Kidnapping those people? We need to escape."

"Can we take them with us, do you think?" Pietro asked.

"I... Maybe," Wanda said, frowning. "But they're under heavy guard. That woman, Rana, she's watching them. And if we get caught..."

Pietro shuddered, and Wanda felt herself doing the same. Since getting her powers, she hadn't found herself fearing much. But now?

Emil Blonsky was bad enough. Combined with Rana, the Centipede soldiers, Deathlok? Wanda felt fear. Together, she was sure she and her brother could defeat them, at least escape if nothing else. But with the prisoners?

But they needed to leave. Maybe go back to Sokovia? For some reason, the idea no longer appealed to her. She felt... she _needed_ to do something. Make amends, somehow.

There was a knock at the door. Sharing a look, Pietro sped over to the door in a blur and opened it before rushing back to Wanda as though he had never moved at all.

Helen and Deathlok walked into the room. Helen brushed her hair behind her head, smiling at the pair. Deathlok simply stared at them.

"Hey," Helen said, sounding friendly. "We have orders."

"Orders?" Wanda asked confused. "What are we doing?"

"Leaving, dawlin," Helen said kindly. "Well, the others are. SHIELD and the Avengers will be on their way soon. Some of us will stay as a skeleton crew, lead them somewhere else to fight."

"I'm sorry?" Pietro asked, his accent becoming a touch stronger. "We're just going to be a distraction?"

"Not exactly," Deathlok responded. "Strucker and Sterns have a plan. And Blonsky can't wait."

Pietro and Wanda shared a look at that. Everyone knew what Blonsky wanted. It was, after all, what the Maximoffs wanted as well... or it was.

"Ok," Helen said, looking over at Deathlok. "Sugah, you mind if I talk to the Twins alone for a sec?"

Deathlok nodded, turning and walking out. When the cyborg left, Helen waited for the door to close. Then she tapped her belt, and brief noise of static came from it, followed by her turning to glare at the pair.

"Seriously, if you're going to talk about leaving, make sure ya ain't bugged," Helen said. "Or at least invest in a jammer."

Pietro uncrossed his arms, gaping. "How did you-"

"Please, sugah, Sterns and Strucker have been bugging and unbugging this castle since we got here," Helen shook her head. "Now listen closely. Because my girls and I have been talking about the crap HYDRA has been pulling, and I think we can help each other out."

 _January 20th, 2014_

 _ **Rana Williams/Aberration**_

Within the castle, in the early morning, Rana stood at Struckers right side, watching as soldiers and scientists lifted large boxes, put away equipment, and packed up chemicals and serums. Sterns was standing with them, the big-headed scientist scowling as everything was moved.

"This is not conducive to my research," Sterns said, his eyes hard on Strucker. "If you approved my experiment earlier, we could have a force capable of fighting the Avengers off."

"Not without control over them," Strucker pointed out. "As it is, we are being forced to leave America entirely."

Sterns scowled. "If you'd allowed me more time-"

"The AI has begun to track us," Strucker said firmly. "And your intelligence has proven insufficient. We can no longer even divert them," Sterns scowled at the insult to his genius. "SHIELD has taken down three bases in their rage... And the Hulk is helping. They are coming here."

Rana and Sterns glanced at Strucker. Sterns, with interest and a small smile on his face.

Rana, on the other hand, thought about that. The Hulk. She had only been changed a couple of days ago. And she'd felt... magnificent. Her strength, her durability, speed, even her healing. She felt unstoppable. But there were two beings she wanted to challenge now. She'd never been competitive. But now, even in her human form, she felt Aberration lurking in the back of her mind. A monster, wishing to challenge other monsters.

And the Hulk, no matter what Abomination said, was the pinnacle of monsters. Though a new challenger to that throne had appeared. Dial...

Sterns sighed dramatically. "Very well."

"Thank you," Strucker turned and walked out of the room, Rana following diligently. Once they were far enough away, she spoke.

"Sir-"

"I remember my promise to you, Rana," Strucker said softly. He was only ever soft with her, Rana appreciated that. Not in the way of a woman blushing towards a gentle demeanor. Strucker was soft, but only to let her understand how serious he was. "In the meantime, I need to speak with someone. Blonsky will be waiting for you."

Rana nodded. They walked until reaching the Chitauri soldiers Strucker always had some distance from him, then she turned and walked away.

It was easy to find the monster who everyone knew as Abomination. He was given a barn to live in, but the monster was often restless. It had been a problem, in fact.

Emil Blonsky was not a monster given to relaxation. He needed a battle. He needed a challenge.

So did Rana. Which meant when he'd challenged her, she immediately accepted.

It's why she walking towards the barn Abomination called home. The barn stood in the middle of a field, with a forest a short distance away and a peaceful river running nearby. She took a breath of the fresh air, only to wince slightly. Since getting her powers, her senses had been heightened, and the scent of fresh air was tinged with that of feces, blood, and more. There was the scent of vegetation and water as well, but she still had to get used to it.

She strode up to the large wooden structure and wasn't surprised to see the giant monster standing there, his arms crossed and a wide grin on his face. What did surprise her was the sight of Deathlok standing there as well.

The cyborg was a mystery to her. According to Garrett, Deathlok was his most trusted soldier, at least since he'd sacrificed Grant Ward to escape SHIELD. But she never knew what to think of the man. His face was scarred on it's left side by a large burn, but she got a sense that the pain in his eyes didn't come from that. It wasn't helped by how formidable he was. While not the strongest in HYDRA's current group, he was a strong contender for the title.

Deathlok was looking up at Abomination, who was speaking to him with a condescending tone as Deathlok listened calmly. As Rana strode up them, she began to shapeshift. Her smooth skin became scaled. Her boots stretched around her now clawed feet. Her eyes began to glow. And she felt her power increase massively. The feel of it, of suddenly gaining so much strength, that freeing sense of rage begging to lash out without worry of the consequences, made her sigh a little in ecstasy.

" **-all the power in the world,"** Abomination mocked. **"And you worry about things that don't even matter."**

Deathlok's fists tightened, and his eyes hardened. His forearms opened, and the rockets within sprouted. He looked up at the giant Abomination, standing firmly and eyeing him angrily.

Abomination smiled down at him in turn.

Rana came up then, and both monsters turned to look at her. She eyed them both calmly, eyeing them.

" **Damn,"** Abomination chuckled. **"Why do you look so much better than me?"**

"Shut up, Blonsky," Rana said simply. "Deathlok. We have a problem?"

"None at all," Deathlok turned around. "Just checking on things. Goodbye."

Deathlok leaped into the air and shot upwards. Ports opened on his back, and Chitauri energy sent him flying through the air.

" **Huh. Didn't know he'd learned how to fly,"** the giant chuckled. **"What a fun world I've woken up to."** Abomination looked at Rana. His eyes panned up and down her form. For all the height and muscle mass she had gained, he was still larger. **"They told me you picked the name Aberration."**

"Yeah, I did," Rana said, looking up at her male counterpart.

" **I like it,"** Abomination cracked his neck. **"Well, we'regonna be fighting later today, and I want a good warmup. We're allowed to destroy this place, so we can really have some fun. How about it, bitch?"**

He had to have said that on purpose. Just to anger her.

But that was the thing about those with gamma-irradiated blood. Anger came damn easy.

Rana stepped forward and kicked into Abomination's giant chest. He went flying back into the barn, destroying the doors with ease.

"I'm going to beat you to death!" Rana roared, leaping after him and landing on his chest.

Roaring with rage, she punched him in the face, her scaled knuckles smashing against his chin.

" **Hahaha,"** Abomination laughed quietly.

She chose to respond to punch him again, sending one of his teeth flying. He grabbed her by the neck, lifting her up, and Rana kicked him in the throat.

" **Enough!"** he threw her to the side, getting up and confronting her.

Rana flipped in the air, landing against the wall of the barn and immediately jumping off of it. As the wall shattered under the strength of her jump, she flipped around and kicked Abomination in the face. He stepped back, then punched her in the face in return. She took the blow as the barn around them began to shake and fall apart, punching Abomination in the stomach. He grabbed her arm and spun around once before throwing her upwards. She went flying through the ceiling of the barn, and snarled with rage as she flew straight up, orientating herself to face Abomination as he rocketed towards her. He rose over her and brought his fists down on her back with a Captain Kirk ax handle, launching her back towards the barn where she slammed into the dirt. She took a breath, then rolled over, dodging Abomination's landing. They eyed each other for a moment.

"...Is that the best you've got?" Rana said, trying to get him to attack.

Instead, Abomination blinked, surprised. Then he laughed, a deep growling laugh. The barn began to fall apart around them as he continued to laugh. **"Okay, 'Aberration'. Let's go!"**

The two scaled monsters leaped towards each other, ignoring the barn falling on their heads, and began to beat each other, forgoing tactics trained into both military soldiers for the sheer joy of brawling. They tore through chunks of the barn, turning it into sawdust against their invincible forms. Shockwaves were sent out with every punch and kick. Anyone nearby would have assumed an earthquake had begun.

They fought for about ten minutes and turned the entire area around them into a crater before finally stopping. When it was over they'd turned the entire place into dust, shattered wood, and massive craters.

A good warm up, when the Avengers would be visiting soon.

 _ **Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch**_

In another section of the castle grounds, Wanda and Pietro met with Helen. She walked them over to the river that ran through the land. Then along the shores for a while. Eventually, they reached a large oak tree standing majestically over the river. Two people sat underneath its shade, as different in appearance as night and day. When they walked up, Helen introduced them.

"This is Marian Pouncy, aka Poundcakes," Helen said with a smile. "Don't let her size fool you, sugah, she's a sweetheart."

Wanda was glad she'd said that, because Marian was the biggest woman she'd seen that wasn't Rana Williams in her Aberration form. She had neck length black hair that fell over the right side of her face, an upturned nose, and a shy smile. She also had muscles on top of muscles, all easy to see in the tight blue t-shirt she wore, while still being extremely buxom.

"And this is Mimi Gold, we call her Songbird," Helen pointed at the pixie-like blonde woman sitting next to Marian, dwarfed by the massive figure beside her.

Wanda, in fact, felt massive compared to her, she was that small. Despite that, Mimi was also as physically fit as Helen and Marian were, something Wanda was curious about. She had blonde hair cut to the scalp, and grinned confidently up at Wanda and Pietro. The tiny blonde rose up along with Marian, and the two strode forward to greet her brother and her.

"How's it going!?" Mimi said. She had a beautiful voice, one that seemed to fill the air a while after she'd spoken.

"Hello," Marian said softly. She brushed her hair out of her eyes and looked at Helen, who nodded gently, before tapping her belt. That soft buzzing came again.

"Okay sugah, we can't be heard. At least, according to BRIDGE," Helen said.

"BRIDGE?" Wanda asked, still trying to understand what exactly was going on. All Helen had told them was that she had a way out of HYDRA.

"It's SHIELD's new name," Helen said.

"How do you know that?" Pietro asked. "Haven't we had trouble getting news on them?"

"I've got my sources," Helen smiled secretively.

"Why are we here, Helen?" Pietro said, losing his patience.

The three women in front of them slowly stopped smiling. Helen shared a glance with her friends, then turned to look back at Wanda and Pietro.

"...I told you that I stayed with HYDRA after Davida was captured to get her back. And that was the plan. To find her, help her escape. And you guys wanted to kill the Avengers, Tony Stark in particular. How about this? You tell us your story, we tell you ours."

Wanda began to open her mouth. Then she stopped. An old pain filled her heart. She looked at Pietro. Her brother was staring at the ground. He licked his lips, a nervous action, and clenched his fists. The three women don't say anything, simply waiting. Wanda was about to speak when Pietro stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder, nodding when she looked at him.

"...When we were ten years old, we were having dinner, the four of us. When the bombing began that day, our home was hit. The first shell landed two floors below us, makes a hole in our floor... Our parents go in. Our home falls down around us," Pietro swipes at his nose, his breath harsh. "I grab her, roll under the bed, and another shell comes in, lands three feet from us... But it just sat there. It didn't blow up, it just stayed there. On the side was a word..."

"Stark," Wanda said quietly.

"...we were under that bed for two days, as they tried to dig us out. Staring at his name," Pietro shook his head.

"While they tried to dig us out, all I could think with every shift of brick," Wanda said softly. "Was that 'this will set it off.' For two days we stared at Tony Starks weapon, waiting for it to kill us."

"...But now we are working for people who are worse," Pietro said, cursing out the words. "I spent years, hating him. Hating America, hating the Avengers when he made them. And now... I can't even find the energy anymore."

Wanda looked at him, surprised by his admission. He looked away, ashamed.

"I'm sorry," Mimi said, the petite young woman giving Wanda a pitying look. Wanda brushed it off.

"Well, that is why we joined HYDRA. Strucker told us he would give us the power to kill Tony Stark, and he did. But we cannot be a part of this anymore."

Helen took a deep breath. "Well, our reason is a little different. We just wanted Davida back. She's been our friend since high school."

"Our sister," Marian said, the giant woman crossing her massive arms.

"We wrestled together," Helen said. "Until the car crash. We ended up in a coma for years. When we woke up, our doctor gave us powers. So we used them to do some simple bruiser work, made some small cash that way. Then Strucker offered us enough cash to set us up for life, Davida gets arrested on her first job, and Strucker asks us to work with him for the chance to help her escape."

"But then they started mutating people, kidnapping, and brainwashing," Mimi scowled. "We want nothing to do with them, and the second we got a better offer-"

"A better offer?" Wanda asked, furrowing her brow. "From who?"

The three women didn't respond, Helen giving Mimi a glare for her misstep.

"What are we here for?" Pietro stepped forward, his eyes hard.

"So you can escape," Helen said, moving to stare into his eyes. Speedster and wrestler eyed each other. "You have a chance to join in on our deal. But first, we need to tell you something, about Strucker. About HYDRA, and their role in Sokovia. Because after all this time being pissed at the blacksmith for making a sword, you've worked with the knight who wielded it."

Wanda had a sinking feeling that everything she had ever known was going to fall apart.

 _Days before, January 15th, 2014_

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

I was standing in front of the massive skyscraper that Daniel Whitehall had been using as his base of operations, watching as BRIDGE agents took away HYDRA guys away through the glass doors in front. More were being carted away by members of the US Military.

"Still hard to get used to all this," I said softly.

"Tell me about it," Creel said, standing next to me as we watched everything going on.

I looked around. We hadn't brought in everyone, but enough Avengers, new and old, had come along to make it a bit crowded. Bruce was sitting in a van nearby, looking relieved that he hadn't had to change into his alter ego. Apparently, that was called a 'Code: Green' situation. Natasha was sitting with him, listening as he typed at his laptop and spoke with her at a rapid pace.

Tony hadn't come, but Rhodey was floating over us with his arms raised and pointing at the HYDRA soldiers and personnel that were being escorted out. He hadn't had to do much, just blow up the helicopters on the roof before they could be mobilized, and the War Machine was now on sentry duty.

Steve and Sam were speaking to the press. Officially, Steve and Sam were now the team leaders, so it was up to them to talk to the media. Sam seemed nervous, but he was doing his best.

As Creel and I stood side by side watching everything, two new members of the team walked up to us. Bobbi Morse and Isabelle Hartley, two of the four women on BRIDGE's list of female assassin badasses without powers, along with Natasha and Melinda May. Bobbi smiled as she stood next to me, carefully avoiding coming close to Creel.

"We did good work," Bobbi said, the tall buxom blonde crossing her arms. "I don't think anyone ever really got hurt on our side."

"Plenty of theirs though," Hartley, still looking like an older and stronger Xena to me, if with more concealing clothes, looked on as body bags with HYDRA soldiers inside were wheeled out. Her resemblance to the Warrior Princess only increased with the savage smile on her face.

Me, I was just glad I hadn't had to kill. The Omnitrix had changed me back on the way through a lab, but a healthy amount of ICER's had kept the bad guys down. Thank god for Fitz-Simmons and the magic tranquilizing bullets they'd invented.

"How you feeling?" I asked Creel. "Taking down Daniel Whitehall."

"...Damn good," Creel crossed his massive arms, smiling. "I kinda wish I could kill him myself though, instead of capturing him."

"Aw, so do I, big guy," Hartley patted him on the shoulder. For some reason, the two of them being friendly seemed weird to me, but they'd hit it off quickly.

"Oh, Isabelle," I said, remembering. "Your sister is coming by tomorrow. I'll have her fixed up by then."

Isabelle stared at me for a moment, before smiling brilliantly. "Thanks."

"Of course," I looked up at the building. "Man, can you believe how nice the place was? Seriously, evil assholes have the best decorators."

Bobbi scoffed. "Yeah, if you like torture chambers."

"Eh, depends on the company," Isabelle joked.

"I'm thinking about buying it," I admitted. When the three looked at me, I smirked. "I stole HYDRA's money, remember? I mean, I donated half of it to charities and good causes, but I still have some cash to burn."

"That rich, huh? I ever tell you how attractive you are?" Isabelle said, grinning. I laughed but kept looking up.

"Seriously, what do you guys think? We could use a big base like this, and I bet it'd sell cheap."

"Might want to ask the director," Bobbi nodded towards someone behind us, and we turned to see the Director of BRIDGE.

She was wearing the same outfit she usually preferred, a blue jumpsuit, though she had her hair down, and the new BRIDGE logo rested on the left breast of her outfit. Maria Hill had joined Steve and Sam, and the three were answering questions together, Sam still nervous, but Maria and Steve apparently calm.

"She's a good choice," Bobbi noted.

"Well, she is better looking than Fury," I quipped. "But yeah, I'll ask her if she thinks it's a good idea."

"Kid!" Hawkeye called out, removing the last of the suit he'd worn over his costume to masquerade as that Bakshi guy. "Come on, we're flying back home!"

"Right," the four of us walked towards him, and I tapped the Omnitrix. Instead of changing into an alien, my Quinjet flew down towards us.

Our first mission as BRIDGE against HYDRA was a win. Now the war was going to begin in earnest.

 _Author's Note:_ That's the end of HYDRA's part in the war. Now we get into the Avengers and BRIDGE and everything they've started to do. I'll be posting profiles for the rest of the Grapplers later, since I really like the backstory I gave them, but all of them have actresses 'portraying' them.

As for Strucker, he's going on the run again, and leaving people to distract them. As well as preparing to get rid of a problem for himself.


	28. Chapter 28

My Quinjet had been heavily modified. I'd spent a few hours as Jury Rigg working on the internals of it, the engines, the tech, even turning the rotors into repulsor engines like on the Insight Helicarriers. I'd also added the Omnitrix logo on the side because brand recognition was important. Then I'd Upgraded it (pun totally intended), giving it the black sheen with green circuitry I gave all my creations once Upgrade did his work.

My Quinjet could fly in space or under the ocean for a limited amount of time, allowing me to go to the moon for at least a couple of days if need be. It had anti-gravity, force fields, laser guns, repulsor beams, AI functionality so I could bring X along with me wherever I fought, extra arc reactors in case the power source I'd created broke down, the quantum communications all of us Avengers had, and security so it could only be activated with an Omnitrix user or Avenger's authorization. I also included stealth tech, optical cloaking, thermal heatsinks, and sonic mufflers to make it quiet. I hadn't been able to do everything I wanted with it, since there are limits to how much you can stuff in such a small space, but it was good practice for later. It even had a fridge in the back for snacks. It was sweet as hell.

And Hawkeye and Bobbi were backseat flying.

"Let up on the throttle," Clint said as I flew us back. "You need to take some time to really learn how to fly her, you won't always be flying from point A to point B, so we should practice your maneuvers for combat."

"Well, don't go that slowly," Bobbi said, the blonde leaning over my seat. "You'll need to move pretty quick to dodge attacks."

"Dodge?" I asked, guiding the Quinjet in between two buildings. "You realize the only weapons that can take down my baby exist in space, right?"

"Don't get cocky," Hawkeye said. "And try going under the bridge over there."

With an annoyed sigh, I dove towards the street, pulling about twenty feet over it and going under the bridge.

"You two realize he's driving us home, right?" Sam asked from the back.

"Just keep drinking your beer," Clint said easily. Sam sipped at it, having gotten the drink from Creel, apparently.

I grunted at that and turned the handle so I went towards a nearby river. I guided the ship to go underwater, and turned on the lights. Some fishes swam away as we passed. With another turn, I lifted into the air, then hit the throttle. Soon, we were at the very ends of speeds that could be considered Mach.

"Look, you two clearly want a turn flying the Defiant, so-"

"Oh come on," Clint said, sounding very put out as I rose up. "We're not-"

"No, I wanted to try," Bobbi said hurriedly, rushing into the seat.

"Bobbi!" Clint said, pretending to sound shocked, though the grin on his face made it clear he was in agreement.

I walked into the back, where Sam and Rhodey were kicking back. Hartley, Creel, Bucky, Steve, Natasha, and Bruce were there as well, Bruce walking up as I joined Rhodey and Sam.

"It was a good mission, right?" I asked. "I mean, less crazy then my first Avengers mission."

"Less than mine too," Bruce admitted, smiling.

"Hey, my first Avenger's mission was yours," Sam said. "But I liked that one better. Less press."

"Ah come on, Fearless Leader," Rhodey said with a grin. "The press loves you."

"Yeah, right up until the next giant explosion," Sam leaned back in his chair. "But yeah, felt good to fight HYDRA."

"I'm just wondering how they're circumnavigating X and Jarvis," Bruce said. "They've both been hunting HYDRA, but Whitehall is the first big fish we've been able to find."

"...Sterns," I said. Rhodey and Bruce looked at me, Sam sipping his beer. "You read the files we were given right? He's the Hulk of brains, y'know. I think he's been helping HYDRA fight off Jarvis and X."

Bruce frowned. "You really think he's helping HYDRA? I mean, he was... eccentric, really eccentric, but he never struck me as evil."

"And Emil Blonsky was a war hero," Rhodey reminded Bruce.

Bruce looked away at that, looking visibly ashamed.

"Hey, it's not your fault, Bruce," I said. "For all we know, Sterns is under duress. And Blonsky was unstable before he got injected with your blood."

"..." Bruce turned and walked away.

Saddened by Bruce's lack of a response, I turned to a nearby computer screen on the wall and tapped it, accessing the quantum comms. "Hey Tony, we're on our way back."

Tony showed up on the screen. "What, is Steve driving like an old man again, what's taking you guys so long?"

"I'm not even talking to you!" Steve protested from the back.

"No, I was flying," I said, rolling my eyes. "You get it set up?"

"Mostly," Tony said, becoming serious again. "Fitz and I have done most of it, but Jury Rigg isn't so great with precision. Also, why does this thing keep randomly giving everyone that stays around it too long a random dye job?"

I winced. "Um, that should wear off in a day or so."

"I hope so!" Happy walked into view, glaring at me, and I choked back a laugh. He had bright blue hair now, which looked ridiculous. Mostly because it glowed. "Is this radioactive?" he asked concerned.

"Happy, we already tested it, you're fine," Tony said dismissively.

"I have a date tonight!" Happy complained.

"You have a date? And didn't come to me about it!?" Tony said, acting as if the news was some great betrayal.

"I can probably make something-" I began to say.

"No!" Happy pointed at me. "The next time I trust something you make, it'll be too soon! I still think Pepper shouldn't even use that armor you made her."

I rolled my eyes. "Anyways, I'll land the Quinjet at headquarters and Bruce and I will work on the final designs before we start making them."

"This'll be fun!" Tony said, grinning. "Be good to update everyone's wardrobe."

I looked down at my costume and nodded. As cool as it was, I needed an upgrade. Uh, no pun intended this time.

 _Days before, January 15th, 2014_

It was only a couple minutes more before we got to the newly named Avengers Tower. Hovering over the tower was an Insight Helicarrier, renamed _Enterprise._ And yes, I'd been the one to suggest the name. It made for quite a sight, a massive helicarrier floating over the city of New York. Even with its optical cloak on its bottom, people could still see the shimmer if they looked long enough. I brought the Defiant in towards the Enterprise.

"Nice and gentle," Clint said, calm as a cucumber. I brought my baby towards the flight deck, letting up on the throttle, lowering Defiant until she touched down. There was a shake as she settled, then I turned her off, clicking some buttons real fast. "Nice job. You learn quick."

"Yeah, well, my relationship with Defiant is closer than most," I said with a grin, rising out of my seat.

"That just sounds wrong," Clint groaned, laughing.

Everyone began to get off and when the doors opened I saw that the other vehicles from the raid hadn't caught up just yet. "X, any issues with the transport of Whitehall and his people?"

" _No sir, everyone will be arriving on schedule, barring the soldiers and personnel marked to be given to the US military."_

"Thanks, X," I said warmly. "How went your movie watching, buddy?"

" _You were correct, Chopping Mall was hilarious and very goofy. There was no logic to the film, but I still enjoyed it,"_ X confessed. _"I will be playing the video games you mentioned once I am finished with the movies."_

"Kinda jealous of how quick you are," I said with a grin.

" _We all have our advantages in life,"_ X said, and I could almost hear the grin in his voice. At some point, X had developed a sense of humor. Tony was so damn proud when he found out.

We went through the Enterprise's main door, which slid up as we walked with a classic 'hiss', and all of us walked together to the research lab at the bottom of the ship. It took a lot of engineers to turn that glass bubble on the bottom into a metal one, with a few windows left, but most importantly several floors of research and development. Important for the future missions it would be undertaking.

Everyone split up to go various directions throughout the helicarrier, leaving me and Bruce on our own to go visit Tony. We entered the labs, where Fitz-Simmons were working with Skye. I couldn't see Tony, but I could see the machine I'd created with the group resting in the center of the room.

It was a large rectangular machine, as tall as Fitz was and as long as a Diamondhead would have been lying down. The center of it was clear, and Fitz was messing with one of the side panels. Simmons was typing at a tablet as she roamed around the room, while Skye was at a computer. When we walked in, the three looked up at us, and all smiled beautifully. Seriously, why is everyone in this universe so photogenic except me?

"How'd the mission go?" Skye asked as Bruce and I walked in.

"Bad guys arrested or dead," I said, walking over to her to look at her screen.

"Well, that's good," Simmons said, blinking at my bluntness. "Um, Doctor Banner, did you have to-"

"No, no I um," Bruce rubbed his hands nervously. "I didn't have to. Where's Tony?"

"Right here," Tony said from somewhere in the room. I looked around briefly, confused. Skye tapped my shoulder with a cough and pointed at the machine. When I looked at it uncomprehending for a second, she pointed at the bottom of the machine, where a pair of legs were poking out from under it wearing blue jeans and sneakers.

"Ah," I looked at Skye, who grinned. "Okay, how's the programming going, Skye?"

"Considering I'm dealing with alien tech?" she asked. "Pretty good, I think. I'm still trying to figure out why it keeps changing everyone's hair color."

"Oh, yes!" Simmons suddenly spun to look at me, her eyes bright. "How does that work? Somehow it's been literally changing peoples DNA to give them hairstyles that simply aren't possible for humans, and I've been trying to discover the process by which it does it."

"Hell if I know," I admitted. "I'm only smart as the alien I turn into. You want to ask me about video games and movies, I'm in, you want to learn how to do a squat, hell yes, but I know nothing about how or why this stuff works."

Skye scoffed, pushing me away from her computer playfully. "Why are you even asking about the programming then?"

"Because I'm a curious guy," I answered, letting her push me away. "Fitz, we good?"

"Hm?" Fitz looked up at me, confused, before nodding. "Oh, yes I've been going over everything with Mr. Stark, and it should be working perfectly. As long as Skye can program them correctly, the catoms will be able to interact perfectly with each other."

"Well," Tony pulled himself out from under the machine. "Okay, kid here's what we got."

The billionaire walked around the machine. "Claytronics, making tiny nanomachines that can change shape and meld to turn into different objects with different functions. I was playing around with the concept for a while," Tony waved at the machine. "But with all of us, I think we can go next level with it. Jarvis, X, Skye, and I have been working at the programming, and Fitz and I having been working with Jury Rigg to make this thing work. We hit a snag though, trying to discover a power source that would be able to get mass produced. I can't just hand every guy I know an Arc Reactor."

"So what did you do?" I asked.

"I used the Quantum comms for inspiration," Tony grinned. "Seriously kid, that red gremlin of yours is magic."

"Well, not _magic_ ," Fitz replied, striding over to me as he opened a panel and pointed inside of it. I leaned in to see two arc reactors hooked up to a center device. "But using quantum entanglement, we've developed a way for the catoms to store a massive amount of energy, without any energy lost or wasted during charge or discharge," Fitz grinned. "It's really been a huge breakthrough! We might have solved so many issues with power, I mean, the sky's the limit from here!"

"Calm down, Ross," Tony said, sounding amused.

"What about the items themselves?" Bruce asked. "Did you figure out how to make all the bells and whistles work in them?"

"Oh yes, one hundred percent," Simmons said, walking towards us. "We just need a blueprint, and the Claytronics Object Creator will do its work. Well, as long as it stops changing everyone's hair color... Um, Fitz?" Simmons said, holding back giggle.

I looked over at him only to have to hold back a laugh. Tony grinned, and Bruce hid his own smile as Skye laughed.

"Hm?" Fitz looked around at us before his face fell. "Oh come on!" He rushed over to a window and stared at his reflection. His usual brown locks had turned into a magnificent red that shifted into blue at the roots, the colors flickering so that it looked like his hair was on fire. "How!?"

"Fascinating," Simmons and Bruce said in unison. I sighed, tapping the Omnitrix.

" **Upgrade!"**

"I'll see what I can do to make it work," I said, merging the Claytronics Object Creator.

Jury Rigg really loved playing games man.

It was about noon or so when we'd taken down Whitehall, and when the work on the Claytronics Object Creator was finished it was around seven PM. Jarvis and X would work on the programming while the rest of us went to get something to eat. I went to the cafeteria and got a tray of food, eating quickly before heading over to the locker room to get changed for training.

The room set up for training had once been decorated with a _very_ blatant HYDRA symbol on one wall, tentacles and all. Which... I mean, how had no one noticed? Now it had been replaced with the BRIDGE logo. Half the room was covered in mats, with some boxing bags and other martial arts tools set up. The other half was set up with weights and machines for lifting.

I walked into the room in green shorts and a black t-shirt. Thankfully there were a bunch of extra t-shirts and other clothes from SHIELD, so I had a wardrobe again. Natasha was waiting for me when I got there, Steve bench-pressing at the other side as Sam ran on a treadmill, all of them wearing workout gear.

Natasha smiled when I entered, the red-headed superhero dressed in a black tank-top and red shorts. "You ready?"

"To get my ass kicked by one of the best assassins in the world?" I asked. Natasha gave me a slow smirk, striding barefoot across the mat to grab some handwraps and toss them to me. As I put them on, she did the same.

"Actually, it's not just me," Natasha said.

A loud bang came from behind me. I turned to see Steve rising from the bench press, where about five hundred pounds had been set up. Apparently, it was a light day. Sam hopped off the treadmill, and the two of them came over to join us.

"What, you guys are in on this?"

Sam grinned. "Hey man, I'm here to get my ass kicked too."

"Yes, the former soldier is in trouble," I grunted, Sam chuckling. I put on my handwraps and punched my fists together. "Okay then. Let's do this."

"Ow, ow, ow," I grunted two hours later as Steve held an ice pack to my eye. He'd given me a hell of a right hook, and now I was sitting on a wooden bench as Natasha and Sam continued training.

"Sorry about that," Steve said, wincing.

"Well I did get in a fight with a super-soldier," I said, watching Sam and Natasha spar while Steve helped me out. "I should have expected a few wounds. Just gonna be glad nothing is broken."

"Still, I should have been more careful," Steve sat down on the bench next to me.

"I'll be all right," I said simply, breathing heavily.

Steve and Natasha had been pushing Sam and me hard. We were technically the most 'normal' in our group, being normal humans without our equipment. Sam was a trained soldier of course, but I was just a normal weightlifter, and neither of us had been trained to rip people in half with a lollipop the way most of the other Avengers had been. So they'd switched us between weightlifting and sparring, teaching us as quickly as possible while forcing us to keep moving. Crossfit had just become a thing in my world, but Steve and Natasha had mastered it in this one. The workout that forced you to lift weights and move quickly all at once, in other words, the workout made for superheroics. Good lord, I was not a fan, and I was damn sore at this point.

Sam was bouncing on his heels now, facing Natasha with a bit of nervousness in his eyes. Natasha was eyeing with a pleased look in her eyes.

"...Funny," I said suddenly. "This is how I started with you guys. Me, Sam, Natasha, and you."

Steve blinked at that, then chuckled. "Yeah, I guess it was... Thank you, again," when I looked at him, he smiled. "For everything. I've got Buck back. Everything else was worth it from there."

I patted his shoulder, wincing at my sore muscles but finishing the move. "Of course. What are friends for, right?"

Steve smiled at that, then rose from the bench. "Okay, ready to go again?"

I groaned, but put away the ice pack and rose up, raising my hands in front of my face. "Okay. Let's do it."

Steve stepped forward, hands raised as well. Seconds later, a lightning-quick fist landed in my stomach, and I was waving a fist vaguely in Steve's direction while struggling to breathe as he showed me how to fight in the simplest ways possible.

Later that night, I had dinner in the cafeteria. I was sitting at a table in the back when two people came over to sit across from me, and one next to me. I looked up at them, my forkful of spaghetti halfway to my mouth. Bobbi and Hartley sat across from me. When I looked beside me, it was Mack, the tall and black engineer of the _Iliad_ with enough muscles to give Creel and Steve a run for their money.

"Don't let us stop you," Bobbi said, noting how I'd stopped.

"I'm not," I put my spaghetti in my mouth and chewed, swallowing after a bit. "I was just seeing who'd joined me."

Hartley chuckled. "Well, we wanted to get to know you, since we're all Avengers and all."

"Not me," Mack said, raising a Philly cheese-steak up in his hands. "I'm sticking with the _Iliad._ Y'all can stay here on the crazy house."

"Doesn't the Iliad have an alien artifact housed in its belly?" I asked.

Mack froze, then shrugged. "It's locked up."

"Yay," I twirled a finger. "As one of the people who is supposed to be studying that thing one day, I'm happy to hear it."

"Yeah, you've got a lot on your plate, don't you?" Bobbi asked. "Creating tools for everyone, Avenging, and I heard you were planning on going on patrol with Iron Man tomorrow? Seriously, you're kinda everywhere."

"That's the benefit and the curse of the Omnitrix," I said around a mouthful of noodles and sauce. "All the power, and all the responsibility to go with it."

"Sounds stressful," Mack noted.

"Nah, you see the things he can do with that thing?" Hartley asked, staring at the Omnitrix. "Probably worth it."

"What, that doesn't freak you out?" Mack asked. "Changing your DNA every five seconds, turning into giant monsters?" He shuddered. "No thanks."

"Hell, I'd love to try," Bobbi said, grinning.

"Not happening," I swallowed my food. "This is the only thing that makes me special around here. I'm leaving it on forever."

"Aw, it's cute you're so possessive of it," Hartley patted me on the cheek, chuckling when I brushed her off.

"Anyways," I said quickly. "What did you guys think of your first Avengers mission?"

Bobbi and Hartley shared a look.

"...It was weird," Bobbi finally said thoughtfully. "I thought it would be a lot like being an agent, but having that much superpowered support made it kind of... relaxed? Like I didn't have to worry as much about getting hurt."

"Kind of ruined the fun for me," Hartley noted, flicking the steak knife in her hand at a high speed. "I mean, I like a good fight, but knowing the bad guys have no chance kind of ruined it."

"Well, just wait," I grumbled.

"What do you mean?" Mack asked.

I looked up to see them all looking at me. I thought for a moment before sighing. "Okay, so... we only got Whitehall due to General Hale telling us about him. Before that, someone was keeping him secret, despite two AI and the entire world looking for HYDRA."

"Maybe your AI malfunctioned?" Mack asked. He was apparently not a fan of AI programs.

"No chance," I shook my head. "X and Jarvis worked their asses off to find HYDRA, and someone is actively fighting them off. Sterns is out there helping HYDRA, which means it must be him. And if Sterns is helping HYDRA, he's had three days to begin experimenting in earnest."

"What can HYDRA do in three days?" Bobbi asked.

"Less than we can do in one," I said. "But they don't have our morals. Sterns was able to make Abomination with a few external factors and normal human intelligence. I shudder to think what he's capable of now. We know HYDRA has the Chitauri armor and weapons, and Garrett is still out there with his Centipede soldiers. We're in an arms race now, and I worry what HYDRA is going to do to try and win it. We'll have the new armor and weapons done by tomorrow, and I guarantee it'll be better than anything even Sterns can make... But I'm still worried."

"...By the way, what happened to your eye?" Mack asked.

I touched my new black eye and sighed. "Never get into a fight with Captain America, Black Widow, and Falcon."

Mack scoffed. "You kidding? My mom didn't raise a fool..."

 _January 16th, 2014_

Early in the morning, Pepper and I were waiting in Tony's room for the two people we'd invited. In the meantime, Pepper was helping me with something I'd never expected to need help with. We sat across from each other at a table, me wearing my usual costume while the Claytronics Object Creator was set up.

"So the woman's shelter you sent money to is going to be expanding now," Pepper said, handing me a piece of paper. "The scholarship fund X set up is already getting requests, so Stark Industries will be helping with that, as well as the schools you requested we support. However, there is a problem with the work you wanted to be done in Hell's Kitchen."

"What?" I asked, looking at the redhead. "What's going on with that? Edgar didn't get the money?"

"Edgar's mother is being brought to the states, with the help of our legal team," Pepper said. "But your purchase of that property in Hell's Kitchen is being fought by a company called Union Allied."

"My old employers?" I asked confused.

Pepper nodded, looking worried. "We'll look into it. In the meantime, we'll have our people work on the other stuff you wanted, the investments and such. But there are two other things. The messages you wanted to be sent to this," Pepper flipped through the papers. "Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. Jessica has responded."

"Really? I thought she would-"

"She said 'Eff you, and the horse you rode in on'," Pepper sounded amused. "Keep in mind, she didn't actually say 'Eff'."

"Now that sounds like what I expected," I said with a wince. "And Luke?"

"Not interested," Pepper shook her head. "What were you hoping for? Why did you want us to reach out to them?"

"...X pointed out some people, I looked into them. Some people are important, Pepper. Important to varying degrees. But some people have potential. And those two are-"

" _Ms. Potts, Mr. Schahed,"_ Jarvis interrupted. _"Your 6 am has arrived."_

Pepper smiled. "Thank you Jarvis, send them in," She looked at me. "Are you sure you want to hire them? We already have good-"

"Not a chance," I grinned.

The door opened, and we rose up. Two men walked into the room, both wearing suits. They were very different, for a number of reasons. One was overweight, the other was skinny and fit. One had long hair, the other had short hair and some stubble. And the skinny one was carrying a cane and wearing shades.

As the shorter one lead his clearly blind friend over, I stood up and walked around the table. I tried to remember how Wildmutt would see the world and used that experience to watch how the blind man strode in, moving to intercept the pair.

"Good morning, guys," I said, holding a hand out. "I'm Mahmoud Schahed, an Avenger."

"Oh, I know," the overweight took my hand, grinning. "Foggy Nelson, good to meet you, man."

I grinned, then remembered one of the bits of advice about how to interact with blind people, one of which was to introduce everyone in a group. Granted, he already knew she was there, but... "This is Pepper Potts, by the way."

I shook finished shaking Foggy's hand, then looked at the blind man. "And you're Matt Murdock, right?"

"Yes, I am," He held his out in front of his, about a foot to my left, and I moved around to take it. "Good to meet you."

"Likewise."

Man, my life is so freaking awesome sometimes.

 _Author's Note:_ So according to the research I did, claytronics and catoms are sort of the next level of nanotech. Programmable matter, aka nanites that have a memory to allow them to take a solid shape. I could have just said nanotechnology, but I wanted to somewhat ground this in the real world. So basically, as you can tell, the nerd brigade is developing weapons and armor that can be built from nanotech. Basically, you'd be wearing a watch, then you tap it and it shifts to become a handgun. Obviously, it has to be programmed in, so there are limits, and power is an issue as well.

That's why the Quantum stuff. Which um... Yeah, might be bullshit. I've read that power is one of the biggest issues when it comes to modern batteries, and I knew I wanted to address the concern. So the armor and gear that the Avengers and BRIDGE will be powered by Quantum batteries.


	29. Chapter 29

_January 16th, 2014_

"Please, sit," Pepper said gently, gesturing to the chairs at the table.

"Oh, thank you," Matt said politely, Foggy leading him to a chair.

The two sat down, followed by Pepper and me.

"So, um," Foggy started. "You said you wanted to hire us for a case?"

"No," I said simply. "I want both of you on retainer. Working for me."

Matt raised an eyebrow at that. "And what exactly would that entail?"

"Well, let's see," I let out a breath. "You both left Landman and Zack recently right? Can I ask why?"

"Um," Foggy seemed nervous. "Well, it was more of a mutual agreement to leave, you understand."

"We had philosophical differences," Matt said, leaning forward in his seat.

"They were helping scumbag companies get away with killing people," I said simply.

Foggy and Matt seemed surprised at that.

"Stark Industries made some inquiries," Pepper said with a smile.

"Look, here's the thing," I rubbed at my nose, leaning forward. "I got some money while taking down HYDRA. Enough to set me up for the rest of my life. And I want to use it to do some good. So I'd like to share it with you. All I ask is that you use the money I give you to help people pro bono. Any expenses paid by me, from real estate, assistants, whatever you need. In return, you guys help the helpless, make sure people stay safe."

Matt seemed to raise an eyebrow at that. I wondered what the man who would one day become, or maybe already was, Daredevil was hearing in my heartbeat.

"What," Foggy seemed focused on something else. "What sort of retainer are we talking about?"

Pepper smiled, opening a folder and passing it to Foggy. She opened another, this one in braille, and passed it to Matt.

"One hundred thousand a month," I told them. "All I ask is that you guys do your work, keep Hell's Kitchen safe. Get me?"

Matt was surprised, his eyebrows high. Foggy looked like all his Christmas' had come at once.

"Why us?" Matt asked.

"Matt!" Foggy said, smiling nervously. "Should we really be asking this very nice man why he's willing to pay us so much?" Foggy chuckled, and I grinned.

"I simply wish to know," Matt said with a smile. "Why you want us, specifically? For that kind of money, you can hire far more experienced lawyers."

"Don't tell him that," Foggy mumbled.

"...When I first started doing the hero thing, I started in Hell's Kitchen," I said, leaning back in my seat. "Taking down drug dealers, pimps, thugs, thieves, anyone who had a reason to attack a person in the area, then I expanded to do the same for New York City. I did a lot of work there. And not just me, there's someone else, a vigilante who recently started doing the same thing."

Matt didn't bat an eye at that.

"I want Hell's Kitchen to be safe. And you two want to go to work there. I think, that in many ways, our interests align, Mr. Murdock. I think we can help each other."

Matt rubbed his chin for a moment. I think, for just a moment, he was considering saying no. Just for the hell of it, or cause it sounded suspicious as hell. I was leaning towards the later. In which case I would have simply put the money into something else.

Instead, he moved his hands across the contract, reading the braille for a moment, before nodding. "Very well, Mr. Schahed. I think we'd like some time to read this over?"

"Yes, we can, uh," I rose up. "We can meet again whenever you're available. Who knows, you might see me in Hell's Kitchen one night?"

Matt laughed. "Yes, I'm sure I will."

"Thank you again," Foggy said, grinning as he shook my hand, then Pepper's. Once done with that, the pair left, with Foggy's voice slightly echoing after the door closed behind him.

"I'm still not sure what you see in them," Pepper said. "I mean, they're both clearly smart, at least according to their grades and their work at Landman and Zack. But we do have more experienced lawyers."

"Just trust me," I said, running a hand through my hair. "Meantime, you should get ready."

Pepper smiled, then raised a hand. A second later, a purple gauntlet flew through the window to wrap around her arm. More armor pieces flew to land on her form until she was in the full armor of the Rescue unit.

"You changed the color," I noted.

"Red and black wasn't doing it for me," she said, as her helmet landed in her hands. She placed it on her head, the now purple and silver headpiece moving around to enshroud her. "Tony," she said, voice slightly altered. "You ready?"

" _Since this morning!"_ Tony's voice said through our comms. A loud roaring sound came from the window, and Iron Man dropped into view to float in front of the window.

"Pepper, Dial," Tony said. "Shall we?"

I grinned and ran towards the open window next to Pepper. I leaped out of the open window and into the skies over New York. I fell for a while, passing windows and rooftops, the chilly morning winds rushing past me as the city streets came closer and closer. Then I tapped the Omnitrix and changed in a flash of bright green light.

" **Astrodactyl!"**

I pulled up at the last minute, about a foot over a yellow cab as people watched, and flew upwards in a quick burst of green star power. Pepper joined me, and we flew through the streets.

"Cutting it close, aren't you?" Iron Man asked as he flew down to join me.

"I've always wanted to do a Wronski Feint, now I can do it whenever I want, squawk!" I said with a grin.

"That really does look scary," Pepper noted as she twirled in the air, looking very graceful in her purple armor. The three of us went deeper into New York City, Tony and I on patrol, Pepper simply flying alongside her boyfriend.

A good way to start off the day.

 _ **Director Maria Hill of BRIDGE**_

Maria walked into the interrogation room with Fury on her right side, and her new Deputy Director, Victoria Hand on the left. Sitting at the table was one Brigadier General Hale, a member of the United States Air Force who had defected from HYDRA in return for several stipulations.

Maria sat down in front of her, and Hale blinked in surprise. "Huh. Things must have changed if you're Maria's lackey, Fury."

Fury smirked. "Oh, quite a bit has changed. After all, you gave yourself up with barely a fight, didn't you?"

"With none at all, if I remember," Victoria said, flipping her trademark pink stripped hair back.

Hale smiled a bit, looking chagrinned. "Point. I suppose a lot has changed."

Maria held a hand out, and Victoria passed her a tablet. "We've been looking at the conditions you gave us in return for information on HYDRA. You understand some of it will have to be negotiated and the information will have to be confirmed. Some stuff you asked for just won't be possible."

"Like what?" Hale's eye narrowed, her posture stiffened.

"Well, you won't be getting off scot-free. We will have to give you some jail time," Maria said. "Even with the information you've given, those in the world's governments will want to come after you purely for your association with HYDRA."

Hale clenched her hands together, but she only nodded tightly rather than contesting that. Not what she was worried about then. Maria had a guess as to Hale's true priorities.

"And then there is your daughter, Ruby Hale," Maria watched the fire rise in Hale's eyes. Jackpot.

"Ruby is innocent," Hale said harshly. "She's just a child."

"A child raised to be a killer," Fury replied, resting his hands flat on the table. "She's got skills, that can't be denied. Not many fourteen-year-old girls who can fight my best," Fury winced, looking at Maria. "Sorry, force of habit. _Our_ best."

Maria nodded gracefully, acknowledging the slip. "She's been trained, no doubt about it, but she's still a young girl. Quite frankly, it's hard to tell what we should do with her."

"Train her further," Hale said, imploring. "Keep her safe. I'll give every bit of information I have, I'll do whatever it takes. Just please, don't hurt Ruby."

Maria scoffed. "Hale, did you think for a second we were planning on hurting your daughter? Dissecting her the way Whitehall was planning?" Maria tutted, shaking her head from side to side. "No. But we can't exactly make a brainwashed-"

"She wasn't brainwashed!" Hale protested.

"Raised in a HYDRA facility while being told over and over to obey, kill, and worship the chain of command?" Victoria strode around to look down at Hale, her high heels clicking with each step. "Brainwashing doesn't just mean chemistry and technology. Ruby will need serious deprogramming to be seen as anywhere close to normal."

"But she can be useful," Hale glared at Victoria. "Ruby just wants to fulfill her purpose. To be a hero. Yes, she's been raised to be a warrior-"

"A killer," Fury interrupted, shrugging at the glare Hale gave him.

"She's still a young girl," Hale said softly. "She can be a good SHIELD agent. She won't be able to integrate into society, I know that. I just... I want my daughter to have a home. To be safe, and to live her life..."

Maria leaned back in her chair, resting her hand against her fingers. "So you want us to... what? Take Ruby and groom her to become an agent?"

"She's already got the training," Hale said. "You take care of her, make her strong, and I promise she can be an asset. In return, I'll give you everything I have. Every base, everyone who is still active. This information is _current._ But not for long. HYDRA will move everything the second you give them a chance. You've already attacked Whitehall, haven't you?"

None of the three answered, and Hale nodded.

"Protect my daughter. Train her. And I'll give you anything you want," Hale said.

"No attempt to make things easier on you?" Victoria asked curiously.

"Just Ruby, I went into this knowing I made my bed," Hale said, clenching her hands together.

Maria smiled slightly and slid the tablet towards Hale. "I think we might be able to work something out."

As Hale read the tablet, Maria looking at Fury, who nodded.

Maria was still getting used to being Director. In some ways, nothing had changed. The paperwork had increased, and she had to manage not only the organization, but also Tony, Dial, and the other Avengers, all of whom needed to be kept under watch, simply so she wouldn't be left surprised the next time they suggested something crazy.

But this was part of her old work. Convincing someone to do something she'd already planned on.

Ruby Hale could be an asset. Not now. But in four years, a former ticking time bomb could become something very, _very_ useful. Natasha already had thoughts on that. They'd help her, and if Ruby wanted a normal life, they would let her. Until then, she'd be kept out of the fight, but continue being groomed for it.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

Later, we got bad news. Sharon and Trip had been kidnapped.

"Any news?" I asked as I walked into the Avengers Tower briefing room. Every Avenger, Coulson's team, Director Maria Hill, and Deputy Director Victoria Hand were all there. Tony and I had arrived as soon as we heard.

"Nothing yet," Coulson said, his voice tight with anger. "We have video footage of it though. Tony-"

"On it," Tony waved his hands, and the new hologram tech we'd made sprouted in the middle of the room. It was extremely clear, made to mimic physical objects as perfectly as possible. "Jarvi-"

" _Actually sir,"_ X's southern tone interrupted. _"I was involved, I believe I have the most pertinent information."_

Tony frowned, thrown at the sudden interruption.

"Go ahead, X," I said. "Roll the footage, give us 3D."

"Sure, go ahead," Tony grumbled. "Not like it's my lab."

"Sorry," I said, chagrined.

Tony waved it off and soon X brought up a scale model of the streets of Washington.

" _As you can see, we registered the presence of an unknown Quinjet flying towards Agent Carter and Agent Triplett shortly after they left the newly bought home of Margaret Elizabeth 'Peggy' Carter,"_ Steve and Bucky's jaws tightened in unison at that. _"I attempted to warn them, and HYDRA made their move. The Quinjet dropped an unidentified Enhanced individual."_

The view zoomed in on the streets until Sharon and Trip were sitting in a car in front of us, as though they had appeared out of thin air. As we watched, a woman dropped out of the sky to land in front of them. X paused the footage, and Tony, Steve, Maria, and I walked over to look at her.

She was wearing a tank top and military pants, the boots she was wearing stretched out by clawed feet. Tall, even taller than Creel or Steve. Built with incredible muscles, from her eight-pack abs to her enormous biceps, all in a feminine form. Her skin was dark green and covered with what seemed like scales, spikes in her elbows, her fingers clawed, and her eyes glowing a pale yellow, her green hair pulled into a ponytail.

"I really hope that isn't what I think it is," Bruce said grimly as he looked upon the individual in question.

"...Gamma enhanced," I said after a moment. Silently I thought of her as a She-Abomination.

" _Crime scene forensics did find some high levels of gamma radiation,"_ X confirmed.

"Sterns," Bruce said, sounding disappointed.

"Not necessarily," Simmons replied. "The Centipede serum has gamma radiation, maybe-"

"No," Bruce removed his glasses. "No one has been able to make a true monster like me or Blonsky. This is Sterns."

"Forget how she got her powers," Maria said, crossing her arms. "X, show us the rest."

" _Of course, Director,"_ X continued the footage. We watched Sharon and Trip try to escape, only to get chased by the woman in question.

I tried to remember who she was in particular, but nothing came to mind. Maybe the Abominatrix? She didn't look as bulky as her though. Whoever she was, she had standard Hulk set of strength, including the ability to jump massive distances and the fact she could outrun cars on foot.

She had used it to catch up to Trip and Sharon, who tried to fight back as the HYDRA Quinjet flew overhead. She stopped them by pulling the engine out of the car, catching and injecting Trip with something, then doing the same to Sharon. She picked them both up, then leaped into the HYDRA Quinjet with the pair. X followed the Quinjet until it crashed into a barn, then the footage got grainy.

"This is bad," I said, crossing my arms. "And not just because they have two of ours."

"Trip and Sharon have information on a lot of what we've been doing," Coulson said grimly. "We need to move on our current operations, and get them back."

"You really think they took them for information?" Steve asked. He looked... apocalyptic. He wasn't angry, but there was a chill in his eyes.

"Maybe," Maria sat down in a chair, rubbing her eyes. "HYDRA has been in hiding for all this time, why attack now?"

"Maybe they need something?" Skye asked. "Something Sharon and Trip have?"

"Well, they're clearly making super-soldiers," Bobbi said. "She was powerful. If they have more like her, they might be able to take the fight to us."

"I wouldn't want to fight her alone," Sam noted, looking over the tall monstrous looking and buxom superhuman. "Let alone if they've got more like her."

"They'd need the gene," Bruce said. "People who have the gamma gene are rare."

"Even then, we're not exactly playing catch up," Tony said. "They're the ones hiding from us, we might as well start hunting."

"Agreed," Maria walked over to the center of the room. "HYDRA made an attack on us. We need to find Trip and Sharon and take down HYDRA in general. General Hale has given us another group of targets, in return for the protection of her daughter. I'm sending in Sam and his team to one, Steve's to another, and Coulson will go with Hand to the last."

Victoria Hand, who had been simply watching, stepped forward. "Each team has one goal that supersedes all others. Find the main ones behind all of this. Whoever is making new super-soldiers, wherever they are, we need to get them. You have the approval of the Council. Now get to work."

Tony, Fitz, and I stood watching as the Claytronics Object Creator did its work. The arms inside shifted back and forth, forming a chestplate. The plate was striped red, blue, and white, with a star in the center.

"I wish we had more time," Fitz said, rubbing his chin. "To run tests, make sure they work, let alone for the specialized gear," Fitz put his hands on his hips and moved around as the chest plate dissolved into dust. A pair of arm gauntlets were being created next.

"It'll work, Ross," Tony said. "The tech is sound, and I made sure everything was made the way the gang wanted them."

"Including mine," I said as the COC... oh god, that is a terrible acronym. I need to come up with something else.

I focused on what popped out from a port in the machine, a small backpack, the kind people used on long hikes or rock climbing. Fitz took the backpack, only to yelp as it almost pulled him to the floor.

"Careful, Ross," Tony said, taking the backpack from Fitz with a chuckle. "It's Cap's, remember? He wears the heavy gear because he likes emasculating lesser men like us."

"How heavy? Because that felt like it was made from rocks!" Fitz said rubbing his arms. "Good lord!"

"It's Cap," I said. "He thinks five hundred pounds is a light workout. Even that," I pointed at the backpack. "Is going to be lightweight."

"Yeah well, he still didn't let me put in the cool stuff," Tony said, sighing. "No repulsors, no cool guns, no flight, just some small enhancements, and jumpjets. Surprised he actually wanted it bulletproof at this point."

"It'll do the job," I watched Tony put the backpack away. "Bucky asked for the same sort of set up, Creel and Bruce didn't want anything at all."

"Well, at least Sam let me fix him up," Tony said, still grumbling. "Anyways, we've got everyone's new designs all good to go."

"Hell of a test run," Fitz said, grumbling. "At least we know the guns work."

I looked over at an armory rack that was filled with weapons. After some thought, I walked over to the rack and picked up three things. A black handle to a sword with a hole where the blade would usually be, and a handgun and rifle that both looked very scifi in style, big and boxy.

"Whoa," Fitz said as I placed the weapons to the side, replacing my Glock 19 with the handgun. "You really need all those? I mean, with the Omnitrix-"

"If it times out, I might need the BCW's, even with the armor," I said.

"I still like that name, by the way," Tony said with a grin as I looked over my new weapons. "Becuzitswrong. Kinda funny."

I smiled sadly. "Yeah well... I wanted something to, um, memorialize someone I respected greatly. So, the BCW's, weapons of the future. Model 1, Model 2, Model 3," I patted the handgun, rifle, and handle in sequence.

"Well, let's get the gear to the others," Tony said. "Time to party."

The Reserve Avengers, the team I was on, got into my Quinjet, the _Defiant,_ and headed out. Sam went through the run down as X flew us there.

There were seven of us. Sam, aka Falcon, stood in the center, Rhodey next to him with the War Machine armor hanging behind him. Bobbi and Hartley sat next to each other. Bucky was in the back, his arms crossed. I moved from the cockpit to the back, and Creel, who was leaning next to the door to the cockpit, flickered his eyes to me before looking back at Falcon. Once we were together, Sam began.

"Here's what we got," Sam said, a holographic image of the complex we were attacking appearing in the center of the Defiant's cargo bay, all of us gathering around it. "In the desert of Texas, HYDRA has maintained a facility where they keep their rejects. The experiments that failed, were unstable, or just not as powerful as they hoped. This includes corpses, but they also hold prisoners," Sam said, the Falcon crossing his arms. "They call it the Graveyard."

"Why does HYDRA always go for the obviously evil names?" I asked, growling. Bucky nodded from the back.

"Okay, here's what we know," Sam twisted the hologram for a moment, then furrowed his brow when it twisted into a ball.

"Here, let me," I said, moving forward and putting the complex back to normal then zooming in on it.

"Thanks," Sam said. "Okay, the complex is in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert, resting to the east. This place has a hanger and a bunch of tanks and heavy machine guns, so Dial, War Machine and I will work on taking out those. Creel, Barnes, Hartley, and Morse, you four will go in and take out the base personnel. Remember, the priority is taking the base commander. The Avengers and BRIDGE have the same mission for their targets. We'll also try to help the prisoners if we can, but that's a secondary objective," Sam frowned at that, clearly displeased.

I couldn't say I was happy either. Any failed experiments HYDRA had would be down there, both people and animals. Whatever we found could be innocent. But they could also be insane killers.

I reached for my sidearm and took it out, looking it over for a moment. "Okay, everyone has the new gear?"

Creel looked at his arm. While he was wearing his usual combination of a tank-top and jeans, he now also wore a large device wrapped around his arm in the shape of an arm guard one would see in a Greek or Roman army, colored a deep black. He focused, and his skin changed to a dark steel color. Then into granite, marble, blue cloth, rubber, and then the familiar shine of vibranium, black with lines of glowing blue for the raw version and the more steel-like version for the color of the processed stuff like Cap's shield. There was barely a sliver of either in the gauntlet, but they'd been taken from the piece we'd gotten when we'd captured him, enough to let him change.

"I'm good," Creel said.

The rest of the group picked up the small backpacks hanging along the wall. Bobbi seemed a bit nervous. "So, how does this work?" she asked while looking the pack over.

"You say, 'Moon Prism Power, Make Up!' And the armor will appear," I said, straight-faced.

Bobbi stared at me, looking horrified. "Are you serious?"

I grinned. "Nah, just say your codename."

"Oh thank god," Bobbi said, punching me in the arm. "You know I hate that show."

"You have no taste," Hartley, Rhodey, and I said in unison, sharing a grin.

Bobbi snorted. "Whatever. Okay," she took a deep breath, then slid her purple backpack on. "Mockingbird!"

 _Author's Note:_ So the next chapter is going to start off with a description of everyone's armor. They'll all have options specific to them, as well as helmets that can be put on and off. The exceptions are Rhodey, who has real armor, and Creel, who _is_ armor.

Also, Murdock is in the same boat as T'Chaka, aka suspicious of Dial (It's his plan all along, muahahaha!)

Hale is trading for Ruby's protection.

The COC has finally been completed, is making armor, and needs a name that can't have an unfortunate 'K' spray-painted onto it. It'll be making most armor for this story until it can be mass produced and upgraded, with Tony soon to make his own armor based on the ultimate upgrades and some advice from Dial, who has read the comics.

And finally, the base they're attacking, the home of all the failed experiments HYDRA actually kept. I figured, with all the crap they've pulled, there had to be some crazy stuff they thought was worth holding onto, despite how much pain those beings may have been in. Animal, person, or plant, some stuff must have been kept. So, the Reserve Avengers are going in to fight it.


	30. Chapter 30

The backpack on Bobbi's back shifted around to surround her body. The small catoms moved around like purple liquid, surrounding her chest, across her abdomen, then down to her legs. Then they solidified in a single moment. Bobbi gasped, looking down at herself.

She'd designed the armor herself, making the chest, abdomen, and inner thighs a shade of white, and the rest a combination of purple and black. The very center above her abdomen was triangular, with a glowing purple light that strummed. Her boots had a small purple force field hovering just above them, and her batons now had purple highlights. Bobbi looked at her hands, the blonde grinning at the sight of the light armor gauntlets surrounding her fingers.

"Whoa. This is cool," Bobbi twisted her hands, and a helmet rose over her head, a pointed design with a long slit where her eyes were that glowed purple against the white of her helmet. A hood sprouted over her head with another of her wrists, colored dark purple as well. She twisted her hands one more time, and the helmet and hood faded, leaving Bobbi grinning at us. "Oh, that is awesome. Wait, what is this?"

She tapped her chest on the logo of a bird holding an arrow.

"It's a, uh," I coughed before lying. "A Mockingbird. You can get rid of it, but I thought it was good."

"Huh... I like it."

"Good to know," I said with a grin. "How about you guys?"

The others rushed to put their packs on, while I left mine on the floor.

Hartley turned hers on first. Unlike the others, she had a small backpack, a jacket, and a fanny pack to put on, all of which weighed quite a bit. She struggled a bit, and Creel moved forward to help her with the jacket.

"Thanks, handsome," Hartley said with a wink. Creel smirked at that, stepping back to let her settle. "Warrior!" With the call of her codename, Isabelle Hartley was covered in her armor.

She looked very different from Bobbi, for good reason. When we'd created the armor designs, we gave people three options. Bobbi had chosen the light gear, made for fighters who favored movement over durability. I'd chosen the medium personally, wanting to be able to move, but also knowing I wasn't as fast as everyone else. Steve and Bucky had been two of the three who had gone for heavy armor, and those two had gone without the strength enhancers.

Hartley had chosen the heavy variant as well, and she had the strength enhancing gear to boot. She rose up several inches in height, and a thick plate of armor ran across her body, covering her shoulders, her thighs, shins, all the way to her boots. She was dressed in over three hundred pounds of weight, all of it having been spread between the backpack, fanny pack, and jacket to make it somewhat manageable. But portions of the catoms settled into an exoskeleton under her armor, enhancing her strength. She raised her arms up with ease, grinning happily at her gold and black patterned armor. She had a small skirt at her waist, evocative of Xena: Warrior Princess' skirt, which I found kinda funny. She put a hand to her waist, where the handle of a Model 3 BCW quickly formed from the catoms. She clenched the handle and raised it, smiling viciously as a blade grew from the handle to make it into a short knife. She held it sideways and furrowed her brow in concentration, grinning when the blade extended into a massive broadsword, portions of her gauntlets moving into the blade to give it the extra material.

"Whoa!" Bobbi leaned back as the three-foot blade grew in her direction, dodging it. "Careful!"

"Oh, sorry!" Hartley, embarrassed, shortened the sword back into a knife, then back to a handle, putting it away. She put the Model 3 away at her waist, then brought her arms up and twisted her wrists. Her helmet came across her face and solidified into a smooth round metal helmet that was tinged with gold around the black sections, shaped like that of a Roman soldier's. Underneath, I knew that she was currently getting an augmented reality view of the world, the suits VI helping her through the cameras and sensors.

And I did mean VI. Jarvis, X, Tony, Fitz-Simmons, Bruce, Jury Rigg, Skye, and everyone else had made sure I didn't make another accidental AI. I was very keen on not giving X accidental siblings.

Bucky went next as Hartley put her helmet away. Unlike Hartley, his armor was in the form of a single large backpack, which had to weigh around five hundred pounds. He flipped onto his back with ease and said his codename.

"Nomad," he said, not raising his voice the way Hartley and Bobbi had.

The large backpack shifted in an instant, covering his entire body. He twisted his hands immediately, his helmet rising to move over his face. His suit was black with green circuitry running through it, blending in with his robotic arm. The chestplate was thick across his pectorals, and the armor ran down his abdomen in extra plates. His thighs and shins were just as heavily armored. Yet, despite the enormous amounts of plating and a lack of an exoskeleton like Hartley's, Bucky moved very easily in the suit. The helmet that rose over his head was... unsettling. Like a bird-of-prey, somehow. There was a scope style eyepiece over the left eye of the helmet that glared out at us with a bright green light. He twisted his hands again, and the green lights on the suit faded to black. Another twist of his wrists and his entire body faded away. Active camouflage. There was an unsettling click I recognized as the Model 2 BCW Rifle. The next moment he was sitting in his seat, holding the sniper version of the rifle in his lap, making us jump at his sudden and silent move. He kept the helmet on. On the center of his chest, barely visible, was a star, imprinted on the black of his armor.

"Geeze!" Rhodey and I said in unison. Rhodey looked at me, and I shrugged.

"Bucky," I said with a scowl. "Can you be less... sneaky, when I'm around? Normal guy here."

Bucky chuckled a little, twisting his hands to put away the helmet. "You did good work. I can barely feel the weight too."

"It's over five hundred pounds," I grumbled, looking over at Sam. He was putting his wingpack on his back, and I did the same with my own small backpack. With a shared look, we said out codenames together.

Still blew my mind that I had a cool codename.

"Dial/Falcon."

Just like that, our suits rose across our bodies. Falcon's focused on his chest and wingpack, leaving large portions of his body free. His gauntlets had repulsor weapons on the back, and his guns had changed to become Model 1 variants on his hips. His boots gained rocket ports, and his wingpack was streamlined into a smooth black variant. I knew that the wings had been similarly changed. Sam twisted his wrists, and a pair of goggles appeared over his eyes. Another twist and a mask made of metal appeared. It was tight to his head, with the shape of the goggles over his eyes and a mouthpiece that connected to an air tank on his wingpack. His chestplate had a symbol of an falcon in red, feathers spread out across the black.

Sam flicked out his arms and his wings snapped outwards. He grinned at them, bringing his hands up. "Okay, we're good to go."

My own suit was simple in design. A chestplate with an angular design, armored shoulders, gauntlets that left my elbows open and the Omnitrix available. I wore armor on my legs and boots. The whole suit was colored black with green circuitry, with the Omnitrix symbol on the center of my chest. I made sure my ponytail was still in place, and touched my beard, sighing in relief when they were intact. With a snap to the side, one of my gauntlets sprouted a blade from the top in a burst of catoms moving.

"Whoa, can mine do that?" Hartley asked, excitedly snapping arms out. She giggled when two blades sprouted from her gauntlets.

Rhodey smirked at the newbies with their power suits, and got into his own. The War Machine, newly upgraded and repaired, snapped over his body, turning him into the tallest person in the room. "Okay, kids, how about we get down to business."

"He's right," Sam put his wings away. "Arm up, and get ready. X, you ready?"

" _We'll be there in one minute,"_ X responded.

I turned and grabbed my weapons, putting my handgun in my leg holster, my rifle against my back, and my melee handle to my waist.

"Okay, you all look pretty now," Creel grumbled. "Can we do this already?"

"Jealous?" Hartley asked mischievously.

"More like anxious," Creel smirked. "You heard Sam. 'Failed experiments'. That means monsters. Probably an _Alien_ situation."

"What, like Thor, or the Chitauri?" Bucky asked curiously. It was a reminder that he knew less about pop culture that even Steve at the moment. HYDRA apparently never thought the knowledge would be useful for a super-assassin.

"Well, we ain't Marines," Rhodey said, striding to the center of the room. "So we should be okay."

"In their defense, Hollywood isn't a fan of useful tactics in horror movies," I said weakly.

"Hollywood?" Bucky frowned. "Why are you taking about horror movies? Like Frankenstein?"

"Pop culture night's going to get full," Hartley noted, giving Bucky a sad look.

"If we ever have time for a pop culture night," Bobbi sighed sadly.

Creel patted Bucky on the back, before moving with the rest of us towards the back of the Defiant, Bucky following while grumbling.

"Not my fault HYDRA never let me watch movies," he said. He seemed to withdraw a bit, despite the joking nature of his comment. I put a hand on his shoulder when I noticed. Bucky gave me a quick glance, then smiled a bit. With a twist of his wrists, his helmet appeared, and we both focused on the door.

X began the countdown, and I brought the Omnitrix up, twisting the dial.

" _In three...two...one,"_ X said calmly, guiding the Quinjet down towards the ground. Closer and closer, until the Defiant came to a stop. _"Drop!"_

The door snapped down and we all leaped out into the air about ten feet over the ground. X spun the Defiant around and opened up it's guns. The fight was on.

 _ **Director Maria Hill**_

As the Avengers, Reserve Avengers, and BRIDGE went on their missions, Maria had business of her own. She walked through the hallways of the _Enterprise_ , Robert Gonzales with her this time. The older BRIDGE agent kept pace with her as they strode through the helicarrier.

"Gonzales, I want the Iliad out and doing it's work. How are the upgrades going?"

"They're going well," Gonzales said, his voice low and gravely. "Mack has installed most of it with Fitz's help. We should be ready to leave for the work soon. Will you be keeping my best agents with your little Avengers team?"

Maria looked over at Gonzales, who seemed sour. "You wanted someone you trusted to keep an eye on Creel and Bucky. They're doing it."

"And now I worry if I've given them up for a new job," Gonzales grumbled.

"Robert," Maria began to say. He waved it off, sighing grumpily.

"They're grown women. If they want to continue, they'll do it. If they want to come back, I'll welcome them with open arms," Gonzales stopped when they came to a door where Coulson and May were waiting. "Keep them safe, Director. Those two saved my life."

"I wouldn't do any less," Maria said warmly.

Gonzales nodded. He turned to Coulson and May. "I suppose I will see you both later?"

"No doubt about it," Coulson with a smile. May simply nodded, though she smiled as well.

With that, Gonzales turned and walked away.

"...He's kind of intense," May said.

Maria and Coulson gave the famously stoic May a look. She cocked an eyebrow, daring them to say anything. Since neither Maria nor Coulson were that dumb, Coulson instead opened the door.

Inside, a woman was sitting at a chair in front of a steel table, wearing a white prison uniform. She was wearing a metal collar that was a familiar black with green circuitry. Davida Devito looked up at the three and smiled.

"Ah... you didn't bring my boyfriend," she said in joking tones.

Maria cocked an eyebrow, moving to sit in front of her. "Boyfriend?"

"What else do you call a guy who gets you a ring as fancy as this?" Davida tapped the collar, smirking. Despite her seeming jovialness, she was clearly not pleased with the collar. Maria was glad for it, considering it was keeping her powers in check. Davida's eyes narrowed. "My girls. Are they safe?"

"They are," Maria took out a tablet. "You were right. They were checking that Facebook profile. We got in contact with them last night."

"Got to say, kinda clever of you," Coulson added. "Post a specific status on a agreed profile at a specific time using newly made accounts. Clever way to pass messages."

"Well it ain't full proof, but it gets the job done," Davida leaned forward. "Are they safe? Tell me that."

Maria raised an eyebrow. "Yes, they are. Helen is cooperating, but she thinks Strucker may be on to her. That he's guiding your girls specifically to places and missions that Helen believes Strucker is willing to let go of, using them in some game against the other HYDRA leaders."

Davida's fist tightened. "Then get them out of there. You know our deal, I promised you-"

"I promised that they would be safe for traded information," Hill said calmly. She eyed Davida carefully.

In the days since Dial had captured her, Davida had been almost obsessive over wanting 'her girls' to be safe. She wanted them away from Strucker, and safe from prosecution, in return for all the information BRIDGE could get.

But as of now, the data Helen, Marian, and Mimi had gotten them was minuscule. They'd been kept from knowing exactly where the castle they were in was placed in through blind flights to and from the castle, had only bare information on the experiments, and nothing on the future plans of Strucker's HYDRA. The only reason Helen had received the message was a phone she'd smuggled onto the grounds, and even GPS wasn't able to find them for some reason, most likely Sterns. Which made the fact she could even access the internet despite him very suspect.

Maria was still grateful for the information of course. Thanks to them, they now knew more about the structure of Strucker's organization then they ever had. Including that Wolfgang Von Strucker was in charge of anything substantial.

But Davida needed to know the truth.

"Strucker and Sterns are playing games, and we think your girls are being played like pieces on the board," Maria said simply.

"We'll work to protect them," May added. "The Avengers will do their best to save them. But they need to keep playing along."

"You can't guarantee that," Davida said viciously. "Tell me why I shouldn't just fight my way out and get them myself?"

The collar on her neck began to glow a brighter green along the lines of circuitry. A bead of sweat appeared on Davida's face as she fought the dampening effects of the collar. May shifted her feet and moved her hands slightly, face hardening. Davida and May eyed each other, and the tension rose.

Until Coulson stepped forward. "Actually, if I may interrupt the eminent catfight?" Davida and May glared at him. Coulson smiled genially in response. "We have two people who were kidnapped, friends who your team says are there. We have as much to gain from finding that castle as you do. Maybe we can make a deal. Something worth your while."

Davida frowned as Maria hid a smile.

Good old Coulson, the master of communication.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

Rhodey and Sam took off as soon as they jumped out of the Defiant, flying into the air. The others and I landed on the ground with ease, and I reached for my back to flip my rifle into my hand, twisting my wrists to activate my helmet. My rounded helmet snapped into place around my head, and the augmented reality vision activated. It connected with my rifle, showing how much ammunition I had and providing me with a crosshairs like in a standard FPS. With a thought, I switched to ammo type I wanted, and looked around with my gun raised the way Natasha and Sam had taught me.

Damn, I felt badass. Yes, it would have been easier to simply change into an alien, but some part of me wanted to play with my new toys.

We'd landed in the middle of a tarmac, Sam and Rhodey taking off towards a hanger as planned. I ran to join them while the others headed towards the prison complex.

I almost stumbled as I ran. My speed had been massively enhanced, and it took a bit to how fast I was now moving. I tried to remember how Fasttrack ran, and soon strode across the asphalt at high speed. I tensed my legs for a moment, and leaped upwards. The jumpjets in the suit activated.

"Yeah!" I let out in excitement as I leaped forward a superhuman distance and height, propelled by the jets. I landed, then leaped again. "It's like Saints Row 4!"

I took a moment to realize what a giant nerd I was, then focused on the job.

The hanger Sam and Rhodey were headed towards was blocked by a group of soldiers in brown camo gear, tanks, and jeeps. Some helicopters rotors were spinning, about to take off. The Defiant flew over my head, and Rhodey and my Quinjet took off towards the helicopters, leaving Sam and me to take care of the soldiers in front of us.

The soldiers had seen us coming, and aimed their guns. I knelled down and brought a hand up. They started shooting at Sam, who simply twisted in the air to dodge their gunfire.

When they shot at me, I activated one of my suits abilities. A portion of my suits armor grew from my gauntlet to form a shield in front of me, and I took a moment to grin as bullets bounced off the shield in front of me.

"Eat your heart out Steve," I said. Granted, Steve's shield was much more invincible but it still felt cool to hold a shield as it vibrated under dozens of bullets slammed into it. The shield was tall and thick, with two prongs on the bottom. A quick bit of focus created cameras at the edges of the shield, and the side facing me became became clear, showing me that there were twenty-three men shooting at me, though some were aiming at Sam. None of their bullets would have been able to pierce my armor, but I decided to stick with the shield for now.

" _You got this?"_ Sam asked, diving in the air.

"Got to use that time at the range for something," I brought my rifle up to a port on the side of my shield and remembered what I'd been taught. I took a deep breath, relaxed my body, aimed for the chest, and fired a single ICER, hitting a soldier in over his heart. He went down, and the other soldiers ducked. Deep breath, relax, fire. I missed that time, shaking a little, and focused again to hit a HYDRA soldier in the chest again. I fired again and again, missing a couple of times, but managing to do well enough to take six men down. Granted, my helmets enhanced vision, my shield, and the advanced weaponry gave me something similar to auto-aim in video games, but I felt pride nonetheless.

Sam was still flying towards the hanger. The big doors to the hanger were closed, so Sam raised his hands. He must have forgotten that his comms were on, because I heard his next muttered words.

" _Hope these don't explode."_

I took a moment to feel offended on behalf of Tony. Then Sam raised his hands up, and a familiar pair of energy blasts flew from his hands to slam into the doors of the hanger, blasting them apart with the repulsors on his arms.

" _Yes!"_ Sam cried out, diving into the hanger. I felt a bit of pride in seeing the armor I'd contributed on work so well.

At least until the tank spun its turret to aim at me.

Yeah, new awesome armor or not, I wasn't going to test it against a tank shell no matter what Fitz and Tony said about it's durability and forcefields. I thought of changing the rifle to it's deadlier mode, but decided to simply reach for the Omnitrix and twist.

When the tank fired, I was already pressing down on the Omnitrix and leaping thirty feet in the air. I changed in a burst of green light as a shell exploded into the ground below.

" **Swampfire!"**

Sam flew towards the hanger as I landed from my jump. The soldiers fired on me, tearing through my form. I ignored the bullets to rip some seed pods out of my arms and toss them at the three tanks. They exploded, wrapping around the tanks with their powerful vines. The tanks struggled to move, turrets grinding and I allowed myself a grin at the sound of metal bending under the grip of my vines, the plant-life around me singing triumphantly.

The soldiers were still shooting at me. I raised my hands.

"Better run!" I yelled as flames came to like in my palms. The soldiers ducked behind the tanks and jeeps into cover, and I waited long enough to let them before unleashing hell.

"Woo!" I shouted triumphantly, letting two long plumes of flame out to ignite the air in front of me. I kept the flames up long enough to make sure the soldiers were pinned for the next step of my plan. I stopped releasing one of the streams with my right hand, using that hand to grab more seed pods out of me, throwing them like grenades where the vines wrapped around the soldiers and jeeps. By the time I was done, six soldiers had been ICER'd, seventeen were wrapped in vines, and more were blocked from leaving their vehicles by the vines growing over them.

I tapped the Omnitrix as soon as I knew the soldiers were captured.

" **Astrodactyl!"**

"This is Dial, squawk!" I cried out, blasting into the air and snapping my wings out. "Falcon, I'm coming to help!"

A loud explosion came from over where the helicopters had been about to take off.

" _This is X, taking overwatch position,"_ the Defiant rose into the air.

" _War Machine, heading to rendezvous with Dial and Falcon,"_ Rhodey flew alongside me as we headed to the hanger.

" _Roger that,"_ Sam responded. _"Team B, how's it going?"_

Rhodey and I flew into the hanger. The building was massive, filled with aircraft and vehicles of all kinds, the largest of which was a giant cargo plane. There were dozens of men inside, Sam fighting them. He hovered in the air and raised his hands, repulsors letting lose in his palms. He twirled out of the way of a burst from a machine gun, blasting the offending soldier into a jeep behind him.

"I feel less special now," Rhodey mused next to me, taking a spot at the doors Sam had blown apart. He started shooting his own repulsor blasts, the minigun on his shoulder roaring. I flew to the upper level of the hanger, twirling to kick one of the many soldiers scrambling on the upper level in the chest with my clawed feet before sliding to a stop on the floor, my wings pulling in. I let out a energy whip from my left arm and twirled it with instinctive expertise to grab another soldier, pulling him in for a clothesline, then released an energy blast from my right hand that sent another man to the ground. A HYDRA operative raised his gun to shoot me, and I sliced it in half with my energy whip, offhandedly shooting another soldier in the back as he tried to run.

" _This is Mockingbird, we're facing some opposition,"_ I heard the crack of ICER's being fired, followed by Creel roaring in rage and Hartley laughing over the comms. _"Barnes, can you-"_ Some loud noises sounded out. _"Thank you. Falcon, when you're done with the hanger, we could use some help over here."_

"Squawk! Where does HYDRA get so many soldiers?" I grumbled. "No respect for the Conservation of Ninjutsu, I tell you."

Something hit me like a hammer, pain exploded from my right shoulder, and I squawked in surprise, stepping back from the sudden impact and pain. I looked at my shoulder to see that my scales had been slightly damaged by something, and looked up to see some soldiers on top of the cargo plane in the center of the hanger firing at me and Sam. I mean, they were shooting at Rhodey too, but he ignored their bullets to focus on the guys trying to escape, destroying a tank when they tried to get in. I leaped for the cargo plane at the same time Sam flew towards it. There must have been ten guys on top when Sam and I landed among them. I front kicked one guy, blocked a fist thrown at me, and ducked as Sam rolled over my back to punch another soldier. I uppercut a man into the air, and fired a blast into one other man's chest.

Sam blocked a HYDRA soldiers kick and punched him in the face with his gauntleted left hand. He twisted his hands when one of the HYDRA soldiers raised a pistol to his face. Sam's helmet snapped over his face when the HYDRA soldier shot him. The bullet bounced off, Sam stepping back from the impact, then stepping forward with a powerful front kick to the offending soldiers ribs.

With a bit more space to work, I snapped my arms to the side, my energy whips lashing out, and swung them outwards. I heard Sam firing his repulsors, both of us unleashing our wings to float upwards as we attacked, back to back all the while. Rhodey flew to join us.

For about thirty seconds, the three of us unleashed hell. I pulled in my energy whips to start firing blasts of green energy. Rhodey's minigun roared on his shoulder, his gauntlet guns joining in. Sam grabbed one of his new guns and fired it on automatic, yelling as the three of us flew back to back.

Just like that, it was over. Every HYDRA soldier in the hanger was either unconscious or dead.

"This is Falcon," Sam twisted in the air, Rhodey and I joining him, Sam at the front, Rhodey on his left, me on his right. "We're coming to join you, team B."

" _See you then,"_ Bucky replied calmly.

 _ **Sharon Carter/Agent 13**_

Sharon woke up gasping, taking massive gulps of air. She struggled to rise, only to feel something pulling at her arms and legs. She tried to move again, blearily looking down.

She'd been strapped to a bed by thick brown restrains. Sharon stared at them, uncomprehending.

"Sharon," she turned to see someone lying in a bed next to her. She blinked, trying to clear her eyes. When she looked again, Trip was giving her a weak smile. "Hey, girl. How you feeling?"

The young man was wearing the same restraints she was. Sharon shook her head, looking down at the IV in her arm, then at the room.

"Trip? Where are we?"

"Hell if I know," Trip looked around as well. "I woke up a few seconds before you did."

The room was like a strange combination of ancient and new. The walls and floor were all made of stone, like that of a medieval castle. There was medical equipment, computers, and some people in lab coats roaming around. Wooden doors at the other side of the room were guarded by two men in black military gear.

"Hey!" Trip yelled at a man passing by in a lab coat. "Where are we!?"

The man ignored him.

"We must have been captured by HYDRA," Sharon concluded, her mind still muddled by whatever drug had been used to knock her out. "What was that thing?"

"Aberration," someone walked up to them. Sharon struggled to look at him, only to wonder if she was still drugged. The man before her had green skin and a massive head. He smiled down at them, stepping to stand between their beds. "I apologize for the restraints. I'm afraid you both would fight against us otherwise."

"Yeah, you're right," Trip said easily, smiling. "I'm probably going to punch you the second I can, Mr. Bobblehead."

The big headed man laughed. "I'm sure you would! But don't worry. Soon enough, I'm sure we'll be great friends."

Two men wheeled carts over to the beds, stopping them in front of Sharon and Trips. On the carts were large flatscreen tvs.

"Oh hey, you brought us entertainment?" Sharon asked, trying for bravado despite the sudden realization she was feeling.

"I might need headphones," Trip said. "I mean, I love Sharon, but her action movies are way too cheesy."

"You are both funny," the large headed man smiled. "I hope my improvements to this method allow you to keep that."

The televisions turned on. Blinking swirls of lights appeared on the screens, and Sharon and Trip both began to struggle as they began to realize what was happening.

"After all, brainwashing still isn't an _exact_ science."

 _Author's Note:_ I'll try to make sure and post the armor I based the designs on soon enough. Some of it is pretty obvious I think, and there is a bit of overlap. But the colors are also important to remember. Maybe one day, when I'm talented or rich, I'll have art of the actual armor commisioned, but for now, posting pictures will have to do.

I tried not to go into too many details with the Facebook thing. It only works because either Sterns or Strucker are hoping to use the Grapplers as a weapon in some way aiming them at someone they're more worried about. Even then, whoever is letting them do it is still preventing Helen from finding out her own location. Because both Strucker and Sterns are capable of bullshit.

Anyways, I hope the action was fun to watch. If you're wondering about Jen, she gets kidnapped later that night.

By the way, you guys have any advice for a better summary? I think this one is lacking.


	31. Chapter 31

Sam, Rhodey, and I landed on the grounds in front of the prison complex. As we walked into the courtyard the Omnitrix beeped red, timing out and putting me back in human form. I grabbed my Model 3 rifle off my back, hefting it and making sure it was still in ICER mode.

The place was littered with bullets, blood, and soldiers. I felt disturbed at how quickly I'd gotten used to scenes like it.

Team B walked up to join us. Bobbi and Hartley had removed their helmets and were standing side by side near the main entrance, while Bucky chose to keep his own helmet on, his head swiveling as he kept an eye out. Creel was in pale white form, looking as though he was made of cotton. His spider silk form, Darwin bark specifically. He glanced up at us from where he was sitting, giving me a nod that I returned.

"What've we got?" Sam asked as soon as we were gathered.

"The whole upper complex is a front," Bobbi answered. "Full of guards, but anyone in charge is most likely down below."

"Want us to interrogate the guards left alive?" Bucky asked.

Sam thought about that. "...Do it. Creel, Hartley, Dial, you three go in. The rest of us will stay out here. Uh," Sam rubbed the back of his head. "Hey Dial? I've watched horror movies too. There's no chance our comms will suddenly shut off, will they? You know, static and then we can't talk to each other."

Everyone turned to look at me. I blinked. "Our comms are _Quantum_. We can talk to each from across the universe, and there are more firewalls on our gear than the entirety of the world, all of it backed up by Upgrade and Jury Rigg tech. Seriously, if HYDRA had anything locked up down there that could get past all that, they'd already rule the world."

They gave me a blank look. I don't think it was because they didn't understand, more likely they wanted to make sure I wasn't claiming my ship was unsinkable.

"No, we won't have a cliché comm cutoff," I said with a sigh.

"One day you need to show me whatever you guys are talking about," Bucky said with a sigh.

"Okay, move out," Sam said.

As I turned to leave, Rhodey tapped me on my shoulder. "Be careful, okay? We don't know what's in there."

"Well, if they have anything genetically wrong with them..." I tapped the Omnitrix.

Rhodey shook his head. "Don't make assumptions. Stay on your guard, and watch out for those two."

I looked over at Creel and Hartley, one a giant man now the same color as titanium, the other a woman in advanced plate armor with a broadsword. "I think they'll be fine," I said sarcastically.

The War Machine's faceplate lifted up to show me Rhodey's face. He smirked. "Yeah well, we all know you're the Hulk on our team, so..."

I chuckled, walking away to join Creel and Hartley while Bucky, Bobbi, Rhodey, and Sam went to start their interrogation. I wished, for a moment, I had an alien that could help with that. Something with telepathy or whatever.

I choose to focus on what I _could_ do and raised my gun towards the one door leading in or out of the place. "Ready?"

Creel reared a foot back and launched it forwards, giving the door in hard enough to send it flying, revealing the narrow concrete hallway beyond. "Ready."

Hartley and I shared a look as Creel went inside with the confidence of a man who can turn into metal.

"You heard the man," Hartley said, her helmet snapping over her head. "We're ready."

I grunted in agreement and we followed the Absorbing Man underground. Going down the hall, we were suddenly enveloped in darkness, the red strobe of an emergency light barely illuminating things.

"You know, for all the jokes about horror movies, I really expected this place to have better lighting," Hartley mused as we walked through the hallway.

"Activate thermals," I answered.

"Yep," Hartley said.

"Should have got one of those helmets," Creel muttered.

We came to an elevator with only one button. I hit the button, but nothing happened. Sharing a look, Creel grabbed the doors and shoved them open, revealing the dark shaft beyond. He leaped in, falling down for a few seconds. Soon, a loud boom noise came from the bottom, along with the sounds of metal ripping and tearing.

"All good!" Creel yelled up the shaft. "Only about two hundred feet!"

"Only, huh?" Hartley said. She leaped down, the lights on her armor glowing to illuminate her way. Once she was at the bottom, I jumped as well. My HUD let me see the bottom. I activated the jumpjets before I hit the elevator Creel had destroyed, slowing to a stop to land through the hole he'd created and on the inside. Creel and Hartley stood outside the elevator, Hartley with her Model 3 out, Carl in his steel form.

I stepped out as well and looked around the dark hallways. From the elevator, they went left, right, and forwards.

"So, which way should we go?" Creel asked.

"Split up?" Hartley suggested.

"Not a chance," I put my gun on my back and reached for the Omnitrix. "I won't be able to talk in this form, but I can sense whatever's down here. Follow my lead."

I pressed down and felt my armor disappear in an instant, replaced by orange fur. My eyes sank away and I went down on all fours, fingers changing into claws that I clenched, slicing the concrete beneath me and held back the urge to roar as I completed my transformation into Wildmutt.

"Huh," Hartley said in a fascinated tone. "He's a dog."

I growled a bit, then took a whiff of the air.

Hm. The left hallway smelt like death and decay most strongly. The right one smelled like steel and oil.

But the one straight ahead smelled of people, of electricity, flesh, and food.

I turned to Creel and Hartley and barked as quietly as I could, walking towards the middle hallway. They followed me as I prowled forward, sniffing at the air.

While the hallways were no longer dark thanks to my enhanced senses, things now seemed like they were on fire to my vision. I followed the hallway, taking a deep whiff of the air. I salivated at the scent of fresh meat, unable to help myself. While I was still me, Wildmutt still felt hunger as something altogether more primal than I did.

My claws scrabbled on the ground as I walked, Hartley and Creel behind me. We went for a long while, the scent getting stronger. Soon, we came to a vault door. It went wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor, and looked as thick as they come.

"Well that's foreboding," Hartley noted. "What the hell do you think they have locked down there?"

Creel stepped forward and put a hand to the steel. "Let's find out." His hand changed temperature in my senses to match that of the vault doors, then sank inside. He'd demonstrated this before, the ability to phase through the material he'd changed into. He rummaged around inside the vault's internal mechanisms for a bit. I growled in irritation as my enhanced hearing picked up the sounds of his metal fingers scratching and moving against the inside of the door, tiny screeching noises filling the air.

"Easy boy," Hartley scratched me at the nape of my neck, and I growled with reluctant pleasure at the feeling of her fingers running through my fur, even with the armor covering them. "Almost done, big guy?"

"Yep," Creel moved his hand out of the door and moved to the lever, twisting the large wheel in the center of the door, twisting it. After a bit, the door slid open.

I felt myself salivate at the new scents that followed. Pain, fresh blood, and fear, the scents of prey, along with loud whines of animals.

The door swung open, and the three of us walked into the place beyond

Cages. Cages all around us, arranged in rows, five high. They were as big as prison cells, with stairs and catwalks leading up to the top.

We walked up to one of them and looked inside.

A mass of flesh rested in the corner of the cage, about as big as my human self, with multiple human arms, legs, and eyes poking out of flesh, all different sizes. The eyes focused on us, and I growled in disgust. What the hell had HYDRA _done_?

"God," Creel looked in another cage, Hartley and I moving over to it with him. It was a dog, but not like any dog I'd ever seen. Later, Hartley and Creel would tell me its skin was the shiny color of metal. The cages metal, to be exact. To me, it was more like it was extremely hot. It moaned at us, clearly in pain from the metal, concrete, and plastic spikes poking from its body. He, based on the scent it was male, was connected to an IV that went up to a tube in the roof, the substance inside smelling like a slurry paste of food.

"It's like... me?" Creel said, horrified.

"Someone is going to pay for all this," Hartley growled.

A sudden sound drew me attention. I snapped my head towards it, growling.

A cage had been opened. Running footsteps ran from us, then another set of them came towards us.

I barked, getting Hartley and Creel to turn as the creature released from the cage came around the corner. My barking set off others in the large warehouse, but I focused on the creature coming towards us.

It came to a stop around the corner and stared at us, eyes enraged.

It could have been a tiger, once, the catlike portions and the orange fur with black stripes screamed it. Now it was mutated, front legs overly long, portions of its skull exposed, muscles grossly large. I roared at it, and got a horrific scream in response. Then the poor animal began to grow even more grotesque, as it's body began to heat up. Hartley later told me that it had also changed color from orange to a far more unsettling shade.

"Aw, crap," Hartley whispered as it changed it's fur to a familiar shade of green. "It's gamma-enhanced!"

The tiger screamed, leaping towards me.

I roared back, my anger and disgust towards HYDRA focusing on the animal before me, and I leaped for it as well.

The two of us clashed in mid-air, landing on the floor. It's claws went for my throat, but I ducked my head down and bit into its shoulder, hot blood filling my mouth. The tiger screamed, pushing me back and clawing my face, leaving four lines of white hot pain across it. I roared in rage, digging my claws into the tiger.

We rolled on the ground, slashing and biting each other. His right paw aimed tried to swipe at me again, smashing a crater into the ground when I dodged. I roared and scratched at his chest, warm blood pouring over my front and back legs. He bit into my shoulder, teeth scratching at the Omnitrix, and slicing into me. We rolled into a pillar and shattered it under our strength. Creel ran towards us, trying to help me.

More sounds filled the air as cages were opened up all over the place. Something leaped over from another aisle and crashed into Creel, something that had once been human, but was now covered fur, scales, and whose arms had been replaced by cybernetic ones.

"Goddammit!" Creel yelled, shifting into his polished vibranium form before bringing his legs up and kicking upwards, launching the creature back. The creature tried to attack again, only for an ICER round to slam into it's head. The creature screamed but stayed standing.

Hartley stepped forward, her Model 3 lifted high, and fired another ICER into the creature, hitting it twice more when it refused to go down. It finally fell.

I was still fighting the gamma tiger. The thing was stronger than me, but in a weird way. It was like it was getting both weaker and stronger at random. One second I was fighting a weaker opponent, pushing it to the floor with a triumphant roar, the next it was picking me up and slamming me into a concrete wall. I roared in it's face, ducking my head under a blow and uppercutting it with my claws. The gamma tiger went flying up, landing on top of the cages. I ran towards the cages and leaped up, clawing my way to the top. The gamma tiger rolled to its feet and screamed at me. I responded with a roar, snarling as we came closer and closer to each other. The tiger was healing, but slowly, the scent of it's leaking blood giving me enough that I knew I could beat it.

And god I wanted to. I could feel the blood of the tiger soaked into my claws, my own wounds throbbing. The smell of it incensed me. There was this feeling of primal rage inside me, an anger I could barely contain. I roared, letting my anger be known, proclaiming my dominance.

For a tense moment, a Wildmutt and a Gamma Tiger face each other on top of cages filled with roaring and screaming monsters. The tiger finally lost it's patience and rushed me, it's heat signature blazing in my sense. I jumped out of the way, grabbing one of the pipes that was on the ceiling and twirling around it to go back at the tiger, clawing it in the face hard enough to send it down to where Hartley and Creel were fighting. Several dogs that had been mutated into more hideous gamma creatures were attacking Creel, who tossed them aside for Hartley to take down with as many upgraded ICER bullets as she could, needing three at times for each one. One of the released dogs simply lay on the ground, it's eye staring out from a face that had been severely mutated, legs coming from a mass of flesh as it released muffled whines of pain.

One of the dogs, something that must have once been a husky but was now a disgusting mismatch of gamma enhanced muscles, spikes, and exposed bone, rushed me. I swiped a paw out, smacking the animal into the ground, spinning around to face the gamma tiger and running for it. Another dog was smacked aside, then I leaped up as the tiger did. We smashed into each other and I held it down on the concrete as the creature roared in my face, it's legs scratching at me and the floor. I bashed it in the face, cracking the concrete under its body. We rolled over once more before I smashed it back to the floor. I looked around for a moment, before deciding to cut my loses.

As best as I could, I spoke to the Omnitrix, snarling at it.

" _Understood,"_ my voice came from the Omnitrix, with more of a monotone tinge to it. _"Repairing genetic damage."_

A green beam slammed into the tiger I was holding down. It screamed, it's voice high pitched. As the Omnitrix did its work, the scream began to change, lowering and rising in pitch until it became the roar of a healthy tiger, the orange and black animal still struggling with me, but no longer with superhuman strength, its fur and skin returned to normal.

I threw the tiger aside, where Hartley shot it with an ICER, sending it to blissful sleep, then snarled at the Omnitrix again.

" _Repairing genetic damage,"_ my voice said.

A green beam slammed into the dogs, then the human, then some of the beings in the cages. I struggled to stay up as my energy was drained, trying to keep the beam going. The screaming dogs began to calm, Creel holding one up for Hartley to knock out.

I gasped, snarling in exhaustion. But I wasn't finished. I-I had to keep going. I snarled at the Omnitrix. More beams flew out, heading deeper into the area, flashes of light going along with it. More and more, leaving me stumbling in exhaustion, the sounds of people shouting in excitement, crying, dogs, cats, and other animals roaring and barking. My furred form fell to the floor, and I struggled to rise up again.

" _Warning, energy reserves depleted. Cycling to recharge mode."_

The Omnitrix symbol on my shoulder changed to red, and I fell to the floor in my human form again, my cheek pressing to the cool floor. The last thing I saw was Hartley and Creel rushing towards me as a dog excitedly barked in a cage nearby, freely changing it's form to steel and back.

"Well that won't end well," I muttered before passing out.

I woke up to feel someone shaking my shoulder. When I opened my eyes, Hartley was smiling.

"Hey, kid. How you feeling?"

A groan slipped from lips, and I raised a hand to my head. "Exhausted. I wanted to wait until this was over before I cured anyone."

"It was a good call," Hartley answered, putting an arm under my shoulder to help me up. "Everyone stopped attacking us. You cured almost everyone."

"Almost?" I looked around.

Creel was letting people out of cages. They were naked, since HYDRA apparently didn't care about the modesty of its 'failed' experiments.

Others, however, hadn't gotten off lucky. People with arms that had been replaced with those of animals, ranging from bears to stumpy gator claws, a woman with legs made from some sort of steampunk machinery, a man whose lips had been sewn together. Whatever had been done to them, it wasn't genetic. They looked at those who were cured with a strange combination of jealousy and happiness.

"X," I said pulling away from Hartley to stumble over to a computer moniter I could see at the very back of the room, sitting innocuously on a desk. "I'm going to link you to the nearest computer. Any signs of escape?"

" _Nothing so far, sir,"_ X said. _"I'm having satellites check the area for any suspicious activity as well. Whoever is in there hasn't left."_

"G-Good," I struggled into the chair in front of the computer and raised my hand up. Catoms in my gauntlet shifted as I put my hand on the computer under the desk. They entered the computer, and the monitor began to flash with files.

"Why couldn't we hack this before?" Hartley asked, walking up to join me.

"X's tech is awesome," I admitted. "But it's not magical, not really. He can hack something as long as it's every been connected to the internet, or interacted with a device that has done the same, barring whatever Sterns is doing to protect HYDRA. Nothing in this facility was ever linked up... until now."

" _Correct sir. I'm logged in. Accessing files..."_

" _Dial?"_ Director Hill messaged me, sounding confused. _"We just got a data drop from X. Is this from the facility you're in?"_

"Yep," I replied. "We're going to need those reinforments. We have former prisoners in need of rescue. Well, and normal prisoners too I guess," I said, remembering the guards. "Falcon, you reading?"

" _Yeah, we got you. We're heading in too,"_ Sam said. _"One of the prisoners told us they have something deeper in, a monster they wanted to be able to fight the Hulk, but apparently they couldn't control it. If that's true, you'll need the backup."_

"Something that could fight the Hulk?" Creel walked up, looking at the prisoners. "And should we wait until people can come to help these guys?"

I looked at the prisoners, who were staring at us. A girl, couldn't be more than five years younger than me, was crying on the floor, clutching her legs as a man hugged her with similar tears in his own eyes. None of them approached us. I didn't know why, but maybe they just weren't sure what was happening.

"I'll stay," Hartley said. "If there is something past here that can fight the Hulk, then you two are our best bet."

"That's true," Creel patted me on the back, turning into his raw vibranium form so that he was now glowing blue. He looked around at the people, who stared back at us. His fist clenched. "...We need to make them pay."

"We will," I got up and we started walking away. "We'll see you soon, Warrior."

"Take care, fellas," Hartley walked over to the people, speaking to them in soothing tones.

Creel and I went into a hallway that led to the back. "X, what is this thing? Their counter to the Hulk?"

" _Unknown,"_ I blinked as files flew up into my HUD, X flashing through them. _"There is no name in the database for the being in question. However, some of it's characteristics and capabilities have been named. It's eleven feet tall, covered in pale white fur with a grey underbelly. It's resistant to most forms of attack, but can also heal from damage, and it prefers... It prefers to eat flesh. Human flesh."_

"What in the hell?" Creel growled.

In the meantime, I feeling myself pale. No way. No way HYDRA had gotten their hands on that thing, let alone for any amount of time.

"Hey," I looked over at Creel, who seemed worried. "You okay? That watch is still red."

"Hm?" I looked at the Omnitrix. "Yeah, I'm fine. It just took a lot of energy to cure all those people and animals. Until then," I grabbed my Model 3 off my back and mentally changed the ammo, a bright blue glow coming from it. "I'm good."

We came to another vault door.

"Enough of this," Creel said, pissed. Switching to his refined vibranium form, Creel reared back to punch it open, not going for subtle anymore. His first punch left a massive dent. The next two made the whole tunnel shake. The last sent the door flying inward.

We stepped inside me with my rifle up, Creel still in processed vibranium form, and found two bodies on the floor. I kneeled down next to one, looking it over. Big portions of the body had been torn away like something had eaten them. Bits of cloth from a lab coat told me he wasn't a prisoner, rather that he worked there. I held back my gag reflex at the horrendous sight of his skull wrapped in bits of meat, scratches from teeth etched into him.

"That thing is out there," I said, looking at Creel.

"Apparently it hates HYDRA as much as we do," Creel said grimly.

I looked at the Omnitrix, grunting at the still red light, then rose up to my feet. "Sam, reinforcements come in?"

" _Army has vehicles to bring everyone in,"_ Sam confirmed. _"Although you could have told us Creel broke the elevator. That's going to make things tough."_

Creel grunted in acknowledgment but said nothing.

" _We'll be down soon. Be careful."_

Right on cue, something could be heard down the hallway. I raised my gun as Creel moved in front of me. Nothing else happened. We shared a look, then moved forward.

 _Author's Note:_ So in canon, some facilities were destroyed by HYDRA as part of their attempts to hide/fight back. The Graveyard is based around that. So yeah, its kind of a horror show in there. I didn't go to in depth, since this is still a superhero story at heart, but HYDRA really did horrific things to people.

As for the Omnitrix curing people and animals, it's a power it's shown before, and the Paradox Omnitrix, the one Dial has, can do the same. But in the show, we see that doing it on a large scale depletes the Omnitrix. It varies, but considering the fact there are multiple people and animals with varying afflictions, I thought it made sense for the poor watch to be a little tuckered out.

So, yeah... not much else to say. Next Chapter, Creel and Dial vs '?'.


	32. Chapter 32

"You know, Alien would have ended a lot faster if we'd been in it," I said softly as we walked through a dark hallway with creepy crying sounds behind us as water dripped around us.

"Well, yeah," Creel shrugged. "Wait, can you turn into one of those things?"

"What, Xenomorphs?" I asked.

"Is that what they're called?" Creel asked.

Before I could answer we came out into a large room filled with bookshelves, desks, and lab equipment. There was a massive cage in the center, one as big as a house and made of some strange metal that had tons of scratches on the surface. There were chains hanging from the top of the cage, blood on the floor within. The door hadn't been torn open but _left_ open.

The place had been torn apart. Blood soaked the floor and walls, making me swallow a bit when I started salivating at the scent. Despite being human now, I was still feeling some of the primal pull being Wildmutt in a room full of prey and fellow Alpha predators. Why didn't Ben ever deal with that sort of thing? I pulled back and focused on where the blood was coming from. Namely, the bodies.

I walked up to a soldier that was lying across one of the broken tables, his torso opened up and emptied of organs. He was one of many that had been torn apart and devoured, soldiers and scientists alike.

"Looks like we missed the party," Creel said easily. "Think that thing is still hungry?"

I shuddered, looking over at him. "How are you dealing with this?"

"I've seen worse," Creel looked over to give me a dark smile. "Seriously, where did it go-"

A noise came from among the bookshelves. I spun around, aiming my rifle.

"Don't shoot!" A woman came out of the aisle, holding her hands up. Tears were pouring down her cheeks. "Please! We need to get out of here!"

I stared at her, trying to decide if I should shoot her with an ICER or not. "You're HYDRA."

"I," she stared between us, still crying. "Y-Yes. Please, I surrender, just please help me get out of here! T-They've gone crazy!"

"Can't blame them," Creel said, striding forward. "What was in the cage?"

She hiccuped when she tried to respond. "I, um, I'm just a biologist-"

"I'm pretty sure eating people is a part of biology," Creel picked up a random arm covered in desert camo gear and waved it at the woman, who stared at him in horror. "Talk. Where is it, what is it?"

"It, uh," she hesitantly walked towards me, rather then Creel, who tossed aside the bloody arm he was holding. "It doesn't have an official name, but we call it the 'Wendigo', after a Native American legend with similarities to it."

God fucking damn it, Marvel.

Unable to see my frustration through my helmet, she walked up to a computer and reached for the keyboard. I waved at it before she could do something, bringing up the files on Wendigo. She gave me a startled look, then returned to the files, still nervous. "We, um, we put a tracker in it. The others were going to unleash it to try to, um, to try and kill you. When we tried to stop them, they locked us in here, and I..." she rubbed at her face, choking back a sob. "I hid. Here, here its... oh god."

"The monster is still in the room," I said, looking around the room. Raising my rifle, I stared around, turning on one of my vision modes. Based on the Backscatter eyes Fitz-Simmons had studied, it gave me an X-Ray vision of the room. With everything in that weird blue light that the vision gave me, I spun around, looking everywhere. It was a little disorientating.

I looked at the back of the room, thinking. Okay, where does no one ever look? ...Oh right.

I craned my head up. Creel and the woman did the same.

The snarling figure hanging on the ceiling above stared back at me, looking eerie in my X-Ray vision.

"Clever girl," Creel said softly.

The creature leaped towards me, and I reflexively fired my rifle.

 _ **Psheaw!**_

A repulsor blast erupted from my rifle, hitting the Wendigo in the chest as it dropped towards me and the woman. It was knocked off balance, slamming into the cage instead. It rolled to its feet and faced us, rising up to stand and face us. To a height way bigger than I'd expected.

"I thought this thing was eleven feet tall?" Creel said, raising his hands up. "That's a lot bigger than eleven.

"It grows as it eats!" the woman screamed.

"Of course it does," I looked at the Omnitrix, which was still red, then back at the monster.

The monster was dripping with blood from spikes stabbed across it's back and front, each one with a chain hanging from it that corresponded with the chains in the cage below it. It pulled one out of where its left nipple should have been, letting out a sound as its blood poured across its front. The spike was at least a foot long. The Wendigo tossed that spike aside as his wound quickly healed, and reached for a spike on its shoulder, tugging at it, but not pulling it out as he let out sounds. It took me a moment to realize he was laughing as he caused himself pain.

"Great, it's a freaky masochist," I growled.

"I had an ex like that," Creel replied.

"Oh god!" the woman shrieked, turning and running.

I swear, the Wendigo smiled at the sight of the woman sprinting for the exit. Its teeth flashing, it leaped off the cage, blood still dripping from its claws and around the spikes in its flesh. I shot it in the chest, diverting it in mid-air. When it landed, it rolled.

" _ **WEN-DIGO!"**_ It cried, rushing after the screaming woman with sadistic glee. It smashed through a desk, trying to run past me.

I snapped a hand up, catoms flowing, and ran forward while activating my jumpjets. The catoms formed into my tower shield in mid-flight, and I slammed into the Wendigo shield first, sending it to crash into some bookshelves.

"Run!" I told the woman as wood and papers flew everywhere, pieces of glass shattering along with them.

" _ **WEN-DIGO!"**_ the monster snarled, rising to glare at me.

"Looks like he wants an ass-whopping," Creel said, standing next to me.

"Hell, I'm ready to oblige," I growled, raising my rifle in one hand and my shield in the other. "Come on asshole, let's go!"

Wendigo rushed us with a cackling laugh as my rifle roared and Creel stepped forward with raised fists.

 _ **Isabelle Hartley/Warrior**_

"What's your name?" Isabelle asked one of the former prisoners, a young girl with red hair and brown eyes who hadn't been given clothes. She was kneeling next to her inside the girl's cage, trying to be gentle with her.

"K-Katie," the girl said. "Katie Whitley."

"Katie," Isabelle smiled, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Listen. You're safe. I'm not with HYDRA."

"Y-You're SHIELD?" The girl asked. When Isabelle nodded, the girl retreated inwards. "They said they were SHIELD too. They said they'd give me money, that I wouldn't have to work as... as a hooker," Katie began to cry. "I didn't... they did things to me. Said I could be like Captain America."

Isabelle barely kept herself from cursing.

From the first moment she'd discovered her own crewmates were HYDRA, she had hated the organization. But this? Taking people off the streets, promising them a new life, then tearing them apart? The worst was some of the prisoners who had been... abused, in all connotations of the word, but soldiers and scientists. Needlessly torn into to see where the experiments went wrong. It was cruel, beyond cruel.

"Well, I'm not HYDRA, and really, SHIELD has become something new," Isabelle gently squeezed the girls shoulder. "That's why I'm here. We're taking the fight to HYDRA. And we're going to stop them all. Kill them when we can"

Katie looked up at Isabelle, tears still running down her cheeks.

Isabelle nodded at the girl, rising to her feet and looking her over.

Katie was healthy. Extremely healthy, with the muscles of a person who'd worked out their entire life. If they'd been trying to make her into Captain America...

Isabelle turned around, whispering. "X, can you give me the files on Katie Whitley?"

" _Of course,"_ X said. _"Coming your way."_

Isabelle raised her hand, watching as catoms rose up from her gauntlet in the form of a computer screen, the screen glowing as soon as it was formed. Isabelle tapped on the new file, and stared at the screen, looking back at Katie.

The present Katie was striking, with dark brown hairs, a button nose, and a slightly large chin along with a powerful build.

The past Katie in the file was skinny, with a face torn open from sores and portions of her skull and teeth exposed, a cleft lip, and limbs of different lengths.

Isabelle stepped out of Katie's cage and looked around. Among the prisoners, there were three types that she could see.

The first made her itch to stab a HYDRA soldier in the face for all the horrors those monsters did. Those were the people Dial hadn't been able to change. Some were still in their cages, unable to move because of various body parts removed or added. Some had limbs haphazardly replaced with animal limbs, while others now had robotic pieces of varying technological eras in their bodies. When Isabelle walked up to them, they shied away from her, staring with fear that made her heart clench.

The second group was normal in every way. They seemed to be the happiest, crying with joy as they hugged others. Isabelle flipped through the files and found the image of one, an older man with thinning gray hair. He'd once been covered in green skin, with muscles so grossly large he couldn't move. Now he was hugging one of the people in the first group, tears in his eyes as the person he was hugging, a young girl with a left arm made of some plastic substance, cried with him.

The third group was intermingled with the others but was also very obvious in the differences. They were people with powers. Some had incredible physiques like Katie did, looking like Olympic athletes. Others, on the other hand, were able to change their bodies into various materials. Not like Creel, only a single one each, but they could do it. And that was only the obvious examples

Hartley sighed, looking around and rubbing her forehead. "Hill isn't going to like this."

She looked over at where the animals were contained. A large rhino looked back at her with bleary looking eyes. A dog barked happily, fur the color of steel. In the back, she could see a monkey leaping around its cage at incredible speeds.

Just then, the doors to the room opened, Hartley spinning to point her gun. Sam held his hands up as he walked in, his helmet collapsing to reveal his face. Hartley lowered her gun, smiling.

"Hey," Sam said, walking in and looking around with interest, the animals barking, the crying people, and the blood on the floor. "What the hell is this?"

"HYDRA," Bucky said, striding in after Sam. Unlike Falcon, Bucky chose not to collapse his helmet, simply looking around with his gun held carefully.

Bobbi and Rhodey walked in next, the tall woman and imposing man in black and silver armor side by side. Bobbi moved over to Isabelle, smiling. "You look dissatisfied."

"Haven't been able to actually fight HYDRA in a bit," Isabelle admitted. She looked around. "Doesn't help I have a lot more reasons to do it now."

Bobbi bit her lip, looking around as well. "Yeah. Yeah, you do."

"Mockingbird, Warrior," Sam said, waving them over. The pair went to join Sam, Rhodey, and Bucky.

"There were two other hallways," Sam said, crossing his arms. "We need to check them. War Machine, Nomad, Mockingbird, you go do that. Warrior and I will stay here and watch these people, keep them calm until the Army can get here."

"You got it, Falcon," Rhodey said with a nod.

Bucky hefted his gun with a nod of his own.

Bobbi grinned at Isabelle, who gave her a disgruntled sigh before patting her on the shoulder.

The two groups split up, Sam walking towards the people who'd been imprisoned.

"Everyone, my name is Sam Wilson," he said, Hartley at his shoulder. "I'm with an organization called BRIDGE. We're here to help you get home, or at the least to somewhere safe. Now what I need..."

 _ **Colonel James 'Rhodey' Rhodes/War Machine**_

Rhodey looked back at Sam as he and Hartley spoke to the prisoners. He turned to Bucky and Bobbi as the three of them went back into the hallways. "Every time I think, 'this is the worst a person can do...'"

"You've only scratched the surface," Bucky said darkly. "This was... pretty bad though."

"You think they'll be okay?" Bobbi asked, twirling her batons as she walked.

"No," Rhodey sighed, his suit's speakers making it a bit loud. "I don't they'll be okay for a long time."

"Even if they're cured," Bucky added. "Trust me. HYDRA sticks with you."

They came to a stop at the two hallways. "So," Bobbi said. "Which way do we go?" The three soldiers looked left, then right.

Rhodey activated his suit's sensors, and stepped forward. "I'm going to say... this way." He pointed at the one that was right from the elevator. "My suit can sense some power being distributed that way. Might have something interesting."

"Got it," Bucky walked into that hallway, Bobbi and Rhodey hurrying to catch up.

They walked in silence for a little while. "So, uh," Bucky said nervously, sounding like he was trying to be friendly, but was out of practice at it. "Have you guys seen Frankenstein?"

"Uh," Bobbi gave Rhodey a glance. He smiled under his helmet. "I have, during an old movie night with my ex-husband. I thought it was really good."

Bucky's shoulders seem to relax slightly. "I watched it with Steve. It wasn't bad. I mean, I never had much time for movies back then. But it was still fun."

"Yeah well, just wait until you see the new stuff they've done with movies," Rhodey said. "We can play catch up."

The former Winter Soldier nodded. "Yeah, I'd like that."

They came to a vault door. Rhodey grabbed it. "You guys will want to step back."

Once Bobbi and Bucky were out of the way, he pulled with the full of his suits strength. The door fought him for a moment. Then the steel crumbled. Rhodey ripped the door open, tossing it aside with careless ease.

"Huh," Bobbi noted the door. "Guess you can add bank robbing as a possible profession, huh?"

"I'll update my resume," Rhodey said, walking into the open door and looking around as Bucky and Bobbi joined him.

The room beyond was a warehouse, with boxes and shelves everywhere. The centerpiece of the room was a series of worktables with machines and robotic pieces on them. Several of which were extremely familiar to Rhodey.

"Oh, what the hell is this?" Rhodey mumbled, walking around the center table. "SHIELD said they destroyed these."

"Yeah, we had a habit of saying that," Bobbi noted with a sigh. "So these are-"

"-the drones that Ivan Vanko made," Rhodey flipped up his faceplate, looking down at one of the half-built robots.

The robot was welded in random ways, with bits of other metal attached to it at haphazard angles where portions had been blown up. A series of pictures lay on the table showing drones at the Stark Expo, shooting at people and running around the park. Rhodey lifted up one of the pictures and compared it to the robot in question.

"I think this was one of the... Navy drones. Hammer wanted them to be themed."

Bucky poked at one of the robot's arms with his gun, grunting. "These dangerous?"

"They shouldn't be," Rhodey pointed at the chest of the robot, where a plug was connected to the machine, the cable leading down to the floor. "Looks like they couldn't power them up. Tony's arc reactors are pretty much essential to make these things work."

"And he isn't exactly the sort to share that tech," Bobbi noted, coming over with a file. "Looks like they were trying to put them together with Chitauri pieces. Seriously, how many Chitauri came through that portal?" She asked, flipping through the file in her hands.

"Hell if I know," Rhodey said. "Tony didn't invite me to that me-"

The drone suddenly reached it's arm shakily to aim at Rhodey, the robot sparking across its form.

"Whoa!" Rhodey yelled backing away. He raised his gauntlets up. Bucky aimed at the drone while Bobbi spun her handgun into her hand.

The drone reached out.

All three soldiers started shooting. For about a minute, all that could be heard in the room was the sound of bullets slamming into steel, tearing it apart. The drone shook and danced beneath the impact, before letting out a final screech of noise at it finally turned into its component parts.

They stopped shooting, staring at it. "What the hell was that!?" Bucky asked angrily. "I thought you said it couldn't power up!"

"It couldn't!" Rhodey said in response, his faceplate still up so they could the see the confusion on his face. "Did you see that thing? It was slow as hell. I mean, they weren't exactly Fasttrack before, but they were a lot quicker."

"X!" Bobbi said. "Can you tell us what is going on with these drones?"

" _One moment... they are all beginning to activate on limited power. They are attempting to complete a secondary objective."_

All around the room, boxes began to shake as the three soldiers went back to back with each other.

" _Kill the allies of Anthony Stark. I'll attempt to disable them."_

"Meantime?" Bucky raised his gun and aimed around the room.

" _I suggest you go for a more manual route in doing the same."_

Bobbi, Bucky, and Rhodey shared a look. Bobbi's helmet rose to surround her face, Rhodey's faceplate slammed down, and all three raised their weapons up.

The boxes in the room exploded open, drones struggling to rise out of them like robotic zombies as the three started shooting.

"Izzy's going to be pissed she missed this!" Bobbi said gleefully, referring to Hartley.

"Take out their chests!" Rhodey shouted, focusing fire on a shaking box and leaving it torn to pieces. A drone without legs struggled to fly at him, its palms glowing with Chitauri energy. Rhodey grabbed it out of the air and threw it down, crushing it beneath his feet.

"Got it!" Bucky said, firing one bullet at a time, hitting drones in the center of their chest with ease. When one made a desperate attempt to get close, he snapped his robotic fist into the head of the offending robot, some combination of steampunk technology and Ivan Vanko's technology. Bucky's arm tore the head off the robot, followed by him kicking it aside for Rhodey's minigun to destroy it.

Bobbi waded into the drones, her batons lashing out as several of the drones came to their feet to fight. "Do these count as zombies?" she asked casually, slamming an electrified baton into one of the drones chests. The drone let out a whining sound, swinging a fist out at her. She ducked and flicked her other baton, a long blade coming out of the batons end. She came and stabbed the drone in the chest. As it fell, one of the drones raised a hand and fired a beam of purple at the Mockingbird. She let it.

The purple energy slammed into blue energy shields, stopping short of actually hurting her. She stabbed that drone, spun away from another one and kicked it in the chest.

Suddenly, in the back of the room, something exploded through a wall, stepping forward. Rhodey sparred it a glance only to blink.

"Oh come on..."

The being that came out looked like a mismatch of three robots. And Rhodey knew them all.

The chest was made from one of Tony's suits, the pieces of one that Rhodey had seen propping up a crane during the fight against Killian and AIM, with some strange brown metal reinforcing, and a strange form of purple flesh beneath. The legs and right arm were from Ivan Vanko's personal suit, hastily welded together with other pieces. The left arm and head, however, were far older. The Iron Monger suit's helmet turned to look at them, pieces of purple flesh around a drone's head barely visible as it hesitantly struggled forward, staggering towards them with a slow and deliberate pace. The whip on the right arm was sparking, unable to turn on, but trying. The left arm's repulsor attempted to activate but failed. Despite that, the enormous being stepped forward, eyes glowing with a low light.

"Izzy is really, _really_ going to be jealous," Bobbi noted.

 _Author's Note:_ Yep, a lot happening there. Dial and Creel are going to box with an 11+ tall monster with Hulk strength, Hartley and Sam are dealing with the prisoners, and Rhodey, Bobbi, and Bucky are fighting zombie robots. One of these is no fun, and it's not the fighting.

So the Wendigo fight will only really kick off next chapter, but I'm damn proud of where it's going. And uh, yeah. The prisoners, as you can tell, have been through some... yeah, not even going to joke about it. They're rescued now, something I wish happened to more people experimented that way in the MCU. Well, in all universes really.

And finally, the zombie robots. So, yeah, I always wondered what happened to the spare bits of robots that weren't picked up by Stark Industries, and I always thought SHIELD would be picking up the broken pieces. So when my beta suggested using them and ran me through the idea, I decided he was a genius, and ran with it. They're all basically the bits and scraps left over from explosions and confiscated experiments welded together in some disgusting pastiche of their former selves.

So I guess that makes them Frankenstein robots, not zombies. Still much slower and stupier version running on an old program to attack Rhodey.

Also, the reason none of this showed up in canon is that the whole place would be destroyed by a self-destruct in the MCU. That's my explanation, and I'm sticking with it.


	33. Chapter 33

I leaped up in the air over the Wendigo's charge, shooting it with my repulsor gun with beam after beam, scoring across its fur. It laughed, seeming reveling in the pain as it slammed into Creel. Creel took the charge with a bit of struggle, digging his heels into the ground as he flashed into a bluish-white and shiny metal I recognized as osmium.

A paper grocery bag of osmium would weigh as much as a car. Creel was a lot heavier than that.

He came to stop very quickly. The Wendigo reared back, swinging a claw at him, and Creel flashed into his vibranium form, the claws bouncing against Creel's body.

I landed on a bookshelf and kept shooting at the Wendigo's back, breathing and relaxing with every shot, though it was easy to hit such a big target. Portions of the Wendigo were sliced off with each shot, only for it to heal back instantly, leaving me growling in anger.

"It's just healing back!"

"Not for long!" Creel punched the Wendigo in the face, shattering its teeth and sending it back.

" _ **Wen-digo,"**_ the monster giggled, only to gasp when Creel stepped forward and uppercut it in the stomach with a left, following with a right cross to the creatures face.

The creature moved with sudden speed and wrapped a claw around Creel, spinning and tossing him aside.

"Shit!" Creel shouted, getting sent flying through the air like a cannonball, tearing through several tables and bookshelves, tumbling through the air.

The Wendigo turned to smile at me. _**"Wen-digooo."**_

I glared, not willing to let this thing scare me and shot it in the chest from my spot on top of the bookshelves.

A shot in the chest did nothing but nudge the creature a bit while leaving a quickly healing wound. It smiled even wider, fangs flashing, then slowly walking towards me. It didn't move with the same speed as before, clearly wanting to enjoy this.

I rolled my eyes, going for bravado even as tension made my voice a little squeaky. "You really think I'm scared of you? Black Widow is scarier."

Seriously. WAY scarier.

The Wendigo kept walking towards me as I shot it, barely moving as repulsor beams sliced off pieces of its body. I checked the Omnitrix. Still a solid red.

"Fine," I said, glaring at my superpowered watch as it seemed to mock me with its red color. "I'll do it myself."

The Wendigo swiped at me. I jumped over it with a yell that was part fear and part anger, flipping in the air and putting my rifle away to grab the Model 3. The handle attached to my wrist in mid-air, then snapped a blade outwards and around my wrist, becoming a sword. My other hand brought forth my shield in a smaller and more manageable form as I landed behind to Wendigo, staring up at it with a glare from beneath my helmet.

"Come on then asshole!" I yelled, trying to psych myself up to fight something twice my height.

The Wendigo spun and slashed at me with blinding speed. I barely blocked the attack on my shield and was sent flying across the floor with my feet skittering on the pavement until I hit a desk, shattering it. Still standing with my shield raised, I ducked under a blow from the Wendigo and slashed at its stomach with all of my suits speed, cutting a deep line into its gray underbelly that began to heal immediately. The Wendigo snarled, raising a fist up and swinging it down at me like a hammer. I spun away from the blow and swung my sword into that arm, slicing it off. As the arm went flying in a spray of red that soaked my blade and the Wendigo's fur, the creature screamed.

" _ **WEN-DIGOOOOO!"**_

Howling in pain, it unleashed a blind swipe that sent me flying. I flipped through the air uncontrollably, my force-field barely holding after a Hulk level attack, then lost my shields completely when I slammed into the stone ceiling above with a cratering smash.

"Ahhhh!" I yelled. Groaning in pain, I stared down at the Wendigo, who was glaring up at me while his arm slowly grew back. Because of course, his arms could grow back. Oh, and it was licking at the blood pouring out of its still leaking arm because it was a freak. My HUD sent me damage reports, showing that several dozens of the catoms in my armor had been obliterated, but I could still fight. Growling, I pressed my feet against the ceiling as I began to fall and pushed off towards the Wendigo, activating my jumpjets to give me a boost. The Wendigo jumped up towards me.

I hit him sword first, slamming into his chest. It roared, spinning in the air to hold me close. We hit the ground hard, the Wendigo still impaled on my sword, but also on top of me. He pressed into me, clawing at my shield as I held it up, depleting my force fields and clawing at me.

"You smell like shit!" I yelled up at the musty creature.

" _ **Wen-digo..."**_ It leaned down and tried to take a bit out of my face, teeth scratching at my helmet. The movement of its jaws made my neck muscles hurt as it pulled at my head.

"Aaahhgh!" I screamed in pain and fear, struggling with it, kicking at his thighs. I was breathing fast, my HUD sending me flashing alarms about the damage I was taking while my heartbeat skyrocketed with fear and adrenaline. "Get off of me!"

I let go of my shield, grabbed my handgun from my thigh holster, and pressed the gun to the creatures head, firing bullets at point blank range into his face, my helmet muffling the sound as the bullets hit the Wendigo. While the bullets bounced off his head, the Wendigo released my helmet from my jaws and rose off me with a whine of pain. My sword was pulled out of his chest with a ' **Schlick** ' sound.

I rose up and kept shooting my handgun, putting it away once I was on my feet. I was panting hard as I rubbed at my helmet, wiping away his saliva. "You bastard."

He smiled sadistically, scratching his claws at the floor.

Then Creel came in with a haymaker that sent the Wendigo back.

I fell to a knee, trying to catch my breath. "The hell took you so long!?"

Seriously, thank god my armor was so good. I could still fight, and the catoms were functioning, but fighting a Hulk strong monster is always a damn grating prospect.

"He threw me into another room!" Creel grumbled, stepping forward. "Why didn't you change into the tiger or something?"

"Because the Omnitrix is still-" I was cut off when it turned green mid-sentence. "Oh you did that on purpose," I grumbled at the Omnitrix, opening it up as Creel hit the Wendigo with another punch. Then I found myself blinking at the hologram that popped up, flipping through the menu to confirm what I was seeing. "...When did I get these _two_!?"

"Hey!" Creel yelled, getting lifted and thrown.

I discarded the thought, flipping to one of the aliens. "Guess this guy's in theme," I mumbled, pressing down on the Omnitrix. "It's Hero Time!"

Electricity surrounded my form. My muscles grew outwards, exploding. Growths similar to stitches appeared across my biceps, stomach, face, and back. Two large Tesla coil-shaped pillars of organic metal grew from my shoulder blades pointing straight up while another two grew out my lower back pointing at the floor as three smaller discs showed up on my stomach. My hair was still in a ponytail, but it had gotten longer, while my beard had gotten shorter. My skin changed to green as I rose to my full height, and I grinned.

" **Frankenstrike!"**

Green lightning fell from nowhere to hit the metal pillars on my body, sending a surge of power into my muscles and bones. I grinned, my green eyes flashing with lightning as I met eyes with the Wendigo while a surprised Creel looked on. When I spoke, it was in a voice tinged with lightning, reverberating from vocal cords that would have been considered damaged by human standards.

" _You know what they say about he who fights monsters,"_ I raised a hand filled with electricity. _"They become them!"_

Green lightning flew from my hand to slam into the Wendigo, sending it back to hit the concrete walls behind it.

" _Hey Creel?"_ I asked, walking up to him while electricity danced around my form. _"Wanna try something cool?"_

Still confused, he nodded.

The Wendigo, snarling with rage, struggled to rise, only to blink when he saw us.

Creel was grimacing in pain from where he was floating in a bubble of lightning but still managed a smirk in his metal form. I held him aloft on magnetic and electric power over my head, power flowing from the four metal Tesla type coil things on my back to hold Creel up. Green bolts surrounded us like a forest, and one crashed down in front of us.

" _Might as well say it,"_ I said with a grin, raising my arms over my head as Creel curled into a ball. _"Fastball..."_ I threw my arms down, the thrust them towards the Wendigo, launching Creel forward. Electricity flowed through me, gathering in my hands as I lowered my hands into a classic Kamehameha pose. _"Railgun!"_

Creel, held in a wave of electromagnetic power, disappeared in a blur. In science, electromagnetic weapons could launch metallic objects at speeds of up to Mach 8.8 with ease. Creel was too heavy for me to be able to do that without some prep time.

 _ **KABOOM!**_

That said, the sonic boom that sent me stumbling back was gratifying. But not as much as Creel embedded deep in the Wendigo's chest, blood pouring around his fists as they flew into a concrete wall and disappeared past it into another room, sending concrete dust everywhere. The force of the sonic boom destroyed even more tables and desks around us, sending wood, metal, plastic, paper, and glass flying in a circle away from all three of us.

I rushed after them and found they'd landed in a room full of old laboratory equipment. The Wendigo was rising up, three deep holes in its body that were healing more slowly than they had before.

" _Yeah,"_ I said with a grin at the beast of sorcery. _"Screw magic. Give me science any day."_

" _ **WEN-DI-Oof!"**_ Creel punched the Wendigo in the face, sending it back. Creel unleashed a series of quick and powerful blows, driving the creature back with sheer boxing technique alone. When the Wendigo swiped at him, Creel was forced to back off.

Then I blasted it with electricity. The spikes in its body gave me a perfect target, allowing me the attack it with all the lightning I had. I laughed as pure power filled my veins before flowing out and electrocuting my opponent. I let up to allow Creel to get some hits in, then blasted the Wendigo again. _"It's alive!"_ I cried out, laughing in a voice of lightning and damaged vocal cords. _"IT'S ALIVE! HAHAHAHA!"_

Yeah, I've seen way too many movies. On the plus side, Bucky was going to _love_ this.

The Wendigo roared, falling down to its knees and glaring at us despite the hundreds of thousands of volts burning its fur off, charring its flesh and leaving a smell in the air of burnt fur, ozone, and grilled meat. The creature roared once more, the sound somehow twisting like a scream, and scratched at the floor, trying to reach us. Portions of its face burned away, revealing a blackened skull, only to heal back again.

I stopped the electricity, and Creel stepped forward once more. He didn't let up this time. He gave the Wendigo a left, a right, then kicking it in the chest, hard.

The Wendigo fell on the floor. Creel and I stared at its silent form. Then, slowly, it struggled up again.

"Oh, come on!" Creel yelled, annoyed.

Seriously, if it wasn't for my advanced equipment, the Omnitrix, and Creel's powers, the Wendigo would have torn us apart with us being unable to touch it, and healing from anything that _could_ injure it. As it was, we had one problem.

" _What do we need to do to actually take this thing down without killing him?"_ I thought for a moment, staring at the large and furry bastard. The Wendigo was a monster, and I could tear it apart with Creel's help. But not without killing it. According to what little I knew about the Wendigo curse, it was also an innocent person, unable to fight against the things forcing it to attack. This wasn't the human's fault, all of this death. I wasn't willing to kill someone for the monster they'd been forced to turn into. Be a bit hypocritical of me... Then I came to a realization. _"Creel, lead it out here!"_

I turned and ran out of the hole Creel and Wendigo had created.

"How the hell am I supposed to- ah, hell with it!" Creel ran after me. "Come on, follow me you B movie reject!"

The Wendigo roared weakly, moving with less speed, but still chasing us. It giggled, spasming from the electric shock still running through it. Even then, I could still see the burns on its body were healing, and much more slowly than the other wounds had. I entertained the idea of simply burning it, either with electricity or by turning into Swampfire. But the goal wasn't to kill it. Waiting across it, Creel and I stood, both of us knowing the plan as we lingered near its former cage.

"Come on!" Creel roared, clapping hands of steel together. "Come on!"

" _ **WEN-DIGO!"**_ The monster cried in challenge, running towards us with the same surprising speed as before, it's eye glowing with rage.

Creel stepped forward, grunting as he turned into osmium to take the charge. I stepped forward and raised a massive fist enveloped in lightning, punching the Wendigo in the face. The giant creature stood up and swung its right claw, cutting into my chest and throwing me back. Creel kicked the Wendigo's leg, forcing it to kneel, only to get _picked up._ I wasn't sure how much Creel weighed in his osmium form besides a _shit-ton_ , but the Wendigo still lifted him and threw him at me. I leaped over the form of my friend as he crushed the steel cage's bars. With a bit of concentration, my feet were magnetized to the side of the cage, allowing me to stand against the side of the bars like Spider-Man. The Wendigo stepped forward, clawing at me, but I leaped over his arm and punched him with an electro-fist again, giving him a cross, then an uppercut, before grunting when the Wendigo hit me back, sending me back into the cage.

The Wendigo came closer. Close enough that he couldn't run or escape.

I pushed my power into the cage, bending the bars with a crunch of steel and a buzz of electricity. The bars bent to my will as the Wendigo rushed us. Then Creel stepped past its swinging claws and grabbed the furred killers waist.

"Raagh!" Creel twisted his waist, throwing the Wendigo into the hole I'd bent into the cage.

As the Wendigo fell into the cage, I roared. "Raaaggggh!"

The cages bars bent back into position. The Wendigo, seeing it was back in its cage, panicked, rushing towards the still open door.

Creel walked around the cage as I stood on the top, watching the Wendigo desperately fit its head through the door... and nothing else. It scratched at the bars.

" _ **Wen-digo, wen-digooooo!"**_ he screamed, shoulders pressing up against the door.

"You've put on some weight," Creel noted. "Bit bigger than the last time you were in there. That's the problem with over-eating. Can't move as well as you used too."

With that, Creel transformed into a dark-colored metal and punched the Wendigo hard, forcing it back.

I tapped the Omnitrix symbol on my chest.

" **Diamondhead!"**

Now that the Wendigo couldn't simply leap away, I fired my crystals like bullets around the perimeter of the cage. They stabbed into the concrete and began to grow. The Wendigo, watching as crystals began to surround it, panicked, trying to jump away, only to bounce off the walls of the cage. I stumbled slightly but kept my focus.

" _ **Wen-digooooooooo!"**_ With that final howl, the cage was surrounded in solid crystals, trapped once and for all. I kept them going, digging under the cage until a large cube of blue-green surrounded it. The Wendigo could still be heard somewhat on the inside desperately trying to break through its new crystal cage with no success.

Once done, Creel tapped the crystal. "Nice."

" _ **Diamondhead construction, for all your indestructible building needs,"**_ I quipped, dropping to the floor next to Creel.

"Maybe you should open with that next time?" Creel asked as I stood next to him.

" _ **Did you see how fast that thing was?"**_ I asked. **_"I had to contain it somehow. Besides, Frankenstrike did damn well."_**

Creel nodded, though he did give me an odd look. "So... there are aliens that look like Frankenstein?"

" _ **There are aliens that look like a lot of things,"**_ I answered simply. **_"We'd be here all day if I named all of them."_**

 _ **Isabelle Hartley/Warrior**_

Isabelle watched as the Army roamed around, carrying blankets and helping people. It was only a few of them, those who had been on their way from the moment they'd attacked, and only enough to make sure things were clear. More people would be on their way soon, as well as medical and psychological help. A general, an older white man with dark blonde hair and brown eyes walked up to her and Sam.

"How the hell did you find these freaks?" The general asked bluntly.

Isabelle decided she didn't like him.

"Sir," Sam said calmly, eyes narrowed. "These people were imprisoned. Tortured. And have been the subject of gruesome and illegal experimentation that had them in much worse states before you got here. They are not 'freaks', they are victims."

The general stared at Sam, before grimacing. "Fine. But how did you find this place, anyway?"

"Classified, general," Sam said, placing his hands behind his back. "We appreciate the assistance, and BRIDGE is sending people to aid in the transition. Please, tell your people to treat everyone kindly, and keep them from engaging with them until they can speak with therapists and BRIDGE personnel."

The general growled, apparently angered at being dismissed, before turning to walk away briskly.

Sam sagged slightly once the general left, leaning in towards Isabelle. "I'm really not cut out for this."

"You're doing fine," Isabelle grinned, her helmet down so Sam could see it. "What, not having fun being Captain America's Protege?"

"Less protege, more punching bag," Sam said, looking around. "We need to keep an eye out on these people, I think-"

" _Falcon!"_ The comms said. _"It's Mockingbird, can you send Warrior? We're in the right hallway from the elevator."_

Sam blinked. "Yeah, you need more reinforcements?"

" _Well,"_ the sound of gunfire could be heard. _"Just Izzy is fine. The boys are fighting the big one."_

Giving Isabelle a look of confusion that she returned, Sam gestured for her to go. "She's on her way."

Isabelle ran out of the door, ducking around some of the still arriving army personnel, and activating her helmet. She moved as quickly as her superhuman armor and the tight hallway allowed, going into the indicated hallway and sprinting full speed.

As she heard bullets and explosions ahead of her, Isabelle reached for her Model 3, a short blade popping out of the handle. She noted the destroyed vault door on the floor, running over it and entering the room beyond, stopping only for a moment to stare.

"Robots," Isabelle blinked. "Mack would hate this."

Then she was ducking a slow punch at her head. Isabelle stabbed outward with her sword, slicing deep into the attacking drones heart, then blocking another drone's punch with her arm. She pulled her knife out of the first drones chest to stab the other in the head, sighing in satisfaction at finally fighting someone again.

"Hey!" Bobbi shouted. "Help Rhodey!"

Isabelle looked at Bobbi, who was shooting drones with her Model 2, which was shaped like a small submachine gun, next to Bucky, who was firing on something across the room. Isabelle gaped at it when she realized what it was.

A giant, tall machine was wrestling with War Machine, trying to fight the more advanced robot. Rhodey lifted the massive robot and tossed it back, shooting it once he had some room, but only putting holes in the Frankenstein-like combination of different robots. Isabelle sprinted forward, her Model 3 becoming a broadsword, and blocked the right arm, noting the sparking whip dangling from the forearm before she raised her broadsword and hacked down into it, slicing deep into metal and purple flesh. The robot reached its other hand to attack her when War Machine stepped in, flicking his hand.

A long blade made of catoms formed from the left arm bracer of War Machine. Rhodey blocked the left arm of the giant machine and punched his blade into his opponent's chest. The left arm sparked, trying to activate repulsors but not having the power to. Isabelle raised her sword once more and swung, removing the right arm of the robot.

A drone tried to attack her, but she kicked it back and decapitated it, grinning wildly. "Oh, this is just too fun!"

"Focus," Bucky said, ripping the arm off a drone and firing automatic fire into the chest of another one.

Bobbi flipped over the attack of another robot, this one with pale green across the metal of its body, and fired her submachine gun into it before stabbing it in the chest with her baton.

Back with the massive robot, Rhodey pulled his sword out of its chest before swiping upwards, his sword slicing through metal and flesh to remove the other arm.

Isabelle sliced at the machine waist, grunting when she stopped halfway. She yelled out, pushing once more, and tore out the other side in a spray of green and purple blood and black oil that sprayed across the pair. The machine toppled over, legs kicking. Rhodey was sent back a step by one of the kicks, grunting at the impact. He raised his gauntlet, the sword poking out of it shining.

Suddenly all of the robots were falling to the ground, lights going out across the room.

" _Drones disabled,"_ X said over the comms. _"Thank you for your patience. Ivan Vanko had quite an interesting security system in place."_

Isabelle growled, kicking at the giant robot. "Damn it. Couldn't you have taken a bit longer?" Isabelle joked.

" _That would have been inefficient. Plus, I pride myself on being good at this,"_ X said.

Isabelle sighed, swinging her sword to decapitate the now dead robot. "At least I got some kind of fight."

A group of HYDRA scientists and soldiers ran through their hallways, trying to escape as the sounds of the Wendigo battling their enemies echoed, running faster when the sounds stopped.

"You think they killed it?" A soldier whispered.

"Like hell," another soldier whispered. "It must have killed them. We need to get out of here."

"The exits not far," one of the scientists whispered hastily. "We just-"

A blue blur sped into the hallway.

"Cont-" the soldier who had been yelling was punched by a tall man with silver skin.

In a few moments, the scientists were knocked out, leaving Fasttrack and Creel standing over them. Like that, it was over.

 _Author's Note:_ So, another new alien! Well, two, but the other one will show up later. It was pointed out that Frankenstrike fits perfectly with the setting for this little battle, and damned if it wasn't true. Monsters, experiments, zombie robots, magical furred wolves, Frankenstrike was made for the fight.

And yeah, he's a bit more powerful than his 10 and 16-year-old version. Granted, all of Dial's aliens are, but I think turning Creel into a railgun bullet proved it.

And yeah, the robots stood no chance, but they were still fun. Couldn't exactly let them last for too long, not when X was hacking into them, but at least Warrior got a fight and Rhodey got to show his new sword off. Actually, I think everyone got to show off this chapter. Except Sam, who only showed off some boring leadership, snore.

Next Chapter, Bruce gets news, and Dial takes a try at percussive therapy.


	34. Chapter 34

"Sounds like you guys had an eventful mission," Skye said later that night after everyone had been round up. It was just the two of us in the lounge of Avengers Tower at the bar, me with a milkshake and her with some alcohol as we leaned against the bar together. I was wearing some clothes Pepper and Tony had loaned me, which meant a red shirt with an Iron Man helmet in gold in the center, and some designer blue jeans that had to be worth more than a months salary when I was doing construction. Skye wore a brown button-up shirt and a pair of denim short-shorts and was giving me a smirk.

"It really was," I rubbed at my forehead leaning over the bar. "Seriously, the other groups didn't have to fight anything at all besides HYDRA soldiers. Meanwhile, our team fought gamma tigers, zombie robots, and a god damn _Wendigo_."

"At least you saved a lot of people," Skye said, leaning in towards me.

"Yeah... yeah, we did," I smiled a bit. "BRIDGE is taking them in to look them over, test them, figure out who has powers, who has family waiting for them, help the ones who the Omnitrix couldn't fix, all that stuff... I'm keeping an eye on them though. Or, X is keeping an eye on them. Jarvis too."

"You don't trust BRIDGE?" Skye asked, taking a sip of whatever she'd chosen while resting her head in her hands.

"I trust they'll try to do the right thing," I responded. "But three hundred people and animals were down there, a lot of them with powers. Easy to lose track of them... so, just in case."

"Huh," Skye looked at me, and I sighed. "So, the Wendigo... What was that thing?"

"According to files, HYDRA didn't know anything beyond that they picked it up from the Canadian wilderness. And everyone looked at me funny when I suggested magic."

"Wait, really?" Skye asked, grinning.

"We live in a world with gods of thunder, super-soldiers, and, well, me," I said simply. "Magic, no matter if it can be explained by science or not, isn't out of the question anymore," I took a sip of my milkshake, hiding my thoughts on the people I'd tried to get in contact with. "For now, the Wendigo is getting transported to the prison we've been building."

"The Raft," Skye said. "Is it even finished?"

"Some of it is," I said. "Enough to hold him. He'll be one of the first prisoners. As for the scientists and soldiers, they're getting interrogated. So, I guess today went well."

"Hell, I'll drink to that," Skye tapped her drink to mine. We sipped for a bit. I wondered, for a moment, about if I should get some sleep or not when Skye spoke again. "You know, um... Ward and I. We used to do this. Talk about missions and stuff. Before he was killed."

"...What happened?" I tentatively asked.

"John Garrett," Skye leaned against the bar, her eyes on her drink. "He told Ward to hold off anyone stopping his escape. Coulson tried to stop Garrett, and..."

"I'm sorry," I said sadly.

"What for?" Skye said with a sour laugh. "He betrayed us. It's not like he was ever really our friend."

"He may not have been _yours_ ," I said softly. "I never met Ward. Never got to know him... But I think you were _his_. And that it sucks, knowing that everything he said could have been a lie."

"It _was_ a lie," Skye hissed, looking at me with a glare. "He just, spent months with us, pretending he was our friend, that he cared, just to give it all to HYDRA!"

She stopped for a moment, looking at me. "I thought he was my friend... More than that. And all along, he was using me."

I didn't know what to say. Damnit, I wish I was good at this sort of thing. "Look, I just know you. So I can't speak for or against this guy. He was an asshole, I'm betting. But it probably still hurts, having to look back at all the times he was nice or kind and having to reassess them," I rubbed the back of my head. "I'm just... Skye, I can't tell you how to deal with what he did, except that John Garrett is probably the only person alive with real answers."

Skye blinked at that. Then she seemed thoughtful.

Before I could say anything else, the Omnitrix began to ring for an incoming communication. I raised it up and tapped it.

" _Dial,"_ Natasha said. _"I need you at the Enterprise. Bruce's cousin, Jennifer Walters, has been kidnapped."_

"...Oh shit," Skye and I said in unison.

I got up and ran to the windows, heading for the balcony. "Does he know?"

" _Not yet,"_ Natasha answered. _"We're keeping the information compartmentalized for now."_

"Have him meet me in the _Defiant,_ " I said, swinging my catom backpack on. "I'll tell him."

" _Are you sure?"_ Natasha said. _"Bruce has control over the Other Guy most days, but when he finds out about this-"_

"There are only a few people who can take on the Hulk," I replied. "One is Creel, whose asleep. The other is Thor, who isn't answering my calls," Natasha snorted at that. "The last one is me."

I turned to look at Skye, who'd rushed after me. "Sorry we couldn't talk more, Skye."

"No biggie," Skye brushed her hair behind her head and smiled at me. "You still owe me that suit of armor though. I'm getting jealous of Pepper."

"Raincheck," my backpack grew, becoming a simple flightpack rather than my full armor. It wouldn't let me fly for long, let alone with any maneuverability, but it would let me get up the Helicarrier above. "Talk more tomorrow?"

"If you have time," Skye grinned. "See ya, superhero."

I gave her a grin, then launched into the sky. As I rocketed towards the helicarrier, my smile began to fade. HYDRA had kidnapped Jennifer. Most likely to make her this universe's She-Hulk. Bruce was going to be pissed. Guess it was time for something impulsive.

I looked down at the Omnitrix thoughtfully.

 _January 17th, 2014_

In the early morning over the deserts of Colorado, Bruce looked over at me from the co-pilots seat of the _Defiant._ "You finally going to tell me what this is about? Natasha told me you needed my help with something secret."

"I do," I told him calmly, flying towards a plateau, the large brown mountain looking very pretty in the sunlight. "Something has happened, and I think we need to talk. I have some suspicions, and if I'm right... we need to deal with it."

"Okay, what is it?" Bruce asked. I didn't answer. "Mahmoud? Seriously, what is going on?"

"...Something bad happened, Bruce. Natasha gave me all the information before you came to the Quinjet, and the other Avengers are getting contacted."

"Oh," Bruce winced. "Is it HYDRA? Did they send Blonsky? Is it a... is it a Code: Green?"

I took my right hand off the control to rub my eyes, only to grab it again when the _Defiant_ shifted slightly. "God, I'm tired. Look, I'm going to land us real quick, do you mind?"

Bruce nodded, still looking confused.

I moved the Defiant to fly over the plateau, landing on the flat top. The back door opened and I walked over to exit the Quinjet, Bruce hurriedly following me out. We walked for a bit across the stone and dirt.

"Mahmoud," Bruce said. I stopped. "What is going on?"

"...I brought you out here for two reasons. First, it's offer to help you and Hulk find some sort of equilibrium."

"Mahmoud, I told you-" Bruce began to say, annoyed.

"Emil Blonsky is a trained killer, and he's no longer testing his powers," I turned to look at Bruce, still wearing my Iron Man shirt and armor backpack. "That woman who kidnapped Sharon and Trip is proof they have even more gamma-enhanced individuals fighting alongside them."

"Can't you just cure them?" Bruce asked. "You did to the people in the Graveyard."

There was an unspoken accusation to his words. If I could that for those people, why couldn't I do the same for him?

"Omnitrix, repair Bruce Banner's DNA," I said simply.

The Omnitrix beeped, and my voice came from it. _"Unable to comply. Bruce Banner's DNA is undamaged."_

"Are you kidding me?" Bruce asked, stepping forward and glaring at the Omnitrix with anger in his eyes, his neck a slightly lime-like color. "What does that mean?"

"We talked about it before Bruce," I reminded him. "The Gamma Gene. That little bit of DNA that lets you transform into the Hulk, rather than dying or becoming a genetic monster."

"I'm already a genetic monster!" Bruce stepped to glare at me. I tried to stay calm.

"You're not a monster, Bruce. You and Hulk have both shown that you can be in control, that you can do some good. But the people in the warehouse weren't like that or the animals. The way I heard it, some of them had spent years in pain, growing random mutations across their bodies, bones and muscle getting exposed. Compared to them, you got off lucky, Bruce."

He seemed to deflate at that. I watched him turn with his hands on his hips, breathing deeply.

"...Bruce. The Gamma gene. There's more to it... It might be hereditary."

He turned to look at me, brow furrowed. "Yeah, I know."

"As in people in your family might have it. People like Jennifer," Bruce stared at me, uncomprehending. I tried to figure out how to say what needed to be said. I went for blunt. "I'm not the only who thought of that, Bruce. Sterns did too. Sharon and Trip, yesterday? That was just the start. HYDRA has Jennifer Walters. And I think Sterns is going to turn her into a gamma-enhanced."

His eyes widened, his breath came out in a soft blast of air. He stumbled back in horror. "No. No, nonono-"

"Bruce, she's going to be all right," I said gently. "We're going to work to find her, I just want you to be ready for the fact that Sterns may be-"

" _ **NO!"**_

Bruce's voice changed, becoming a deep and booming echo of sound. He went to his knees and slammed his hands against the plateau. The earth shook. He grabbed at the ground, his eyes wild with rage and panic. Not enough.

"He's going to change her!" I yelled, stumbling as the whole mountain shuddered from his strike. "To make her a Hulk!"

His shirt began to rip. His eyes glared up at me. I kept talking, my Omnitrix already at the ready. "And when Blonsky has a Hulk of his own, your cousin, to fight against, what is he going to do? He'll see her as practice, someone he can hurt until he can get to you!"

Bruce stopped growing. He stared at me. For just a moment, I wondered if I'd gone too far. If I'd failed.

" _ **Jennifer... Jennifer!"**_

He got to his feet and stared at his arms as they exploded in size, changing from his tanned brown to a familiar shade of green. He screamed, raising his hands into the sky, his shirt and shoes exploding away from him. He grew in height and weight, muscles growing to insane sizes. The transformation looked... rough. Painful. I thought it would be like when I transformed. But there was something raw and horrific in Bruce's change.

Then it was done. Bruce Banner was gone, and the Hulk stared down at me. The eight-foot-tall, muscular, green, and extremely pissed off badass gamma monster. He eyed me, rising up with a growl, and clenched his fists with an audible crack.

Well, mission accomplished... yay?

" _ **Raagh!"**_

Hulk threw a punch at me, a slow and lazy one that told me he just wanted me to back away. At least, slow and lazy for him.

"Oh shit!" I ducked, feeling the wind from his giant green fist fly past. Holy crap, was he fast or what? I raised a hand up and leaped back. "Hulk, Jennifer needs your help! But you need to work with Bruce!"

He roared, a mindless, unthinking sound of rage. I grimaced when he leaped away rather than listen to me. I ran to the edge of the plateau to see him jumping across the desert.

"Okay, fine," I activated the Omnitrix, raising the watches dial lift up as the hologram floated over the watches face. "Percussive therapy..." I found myself grinning. "Gotta say, I've wanted to see this fight since I was a kid!" I slammed down on the Omnitrix. It was a risk, but... for this alien, it was just the right thing to do for my first transformation into him. Along with a certain battlecry. "Going Hero!"

My skin changed color, going from brown to a deep red as two new eyes grew beneath my original set. My Iron Man shirt became a black and white striped muscle t-shirt, stretching out as my biceps, my chest, everything expanded with layer upon layer of muscles and my body grew in height, taller and taller. My ponytail became longer, while the rest of my hair disappeared. My five toes became two talons, and the backs of my forearms grew large spikes as my smooth skin became thicker and tougher. Then, two bulges grew out of my oblique muscles, before exploding outwards becoming arms as massive and powerful as my other ones, golden armbands wrapping around my four wrists. I extended them, raising the two new arms with my other ones, and cried out with all the power in my superhuman lungs.

" _ **FOURARMS!"**_

The plateau cracked beneath my feet at the shockwave caused by my voice. I grinned. _**"Oh yeah! Let's go wild!"**_

I leaped, whooping with joy as the wind rushed past me. My four arms extended outwards into the morning sky. I landed hundreds of feet later, my feet digging deep imprints on the desert floor, and jumped again, cratering the wasteland below.

Hulk had a head start, so I moved quickly to catch up with him. The two of us jumped over and over, covering miles in leaps.

I jumped one more time, aiming for Hulk at the apex of his leap. _**"Hulk!"**_ I yelled wrapping all of my arms around his waist from behind. He roared in anger as the two of us fell from the sky for hundreds of meters. We crashed into the side of a mountain, sending dust and rocks flying as it cratered under our giant forms.

" _ **Ggraaagh!"**_ Hulk spun around, punching me into the air. I grunted at the impact, spinning in the air for a while before hitting the desert at high velocity. I ground into the earth for a long while, finally coming to a stop after leaving a trench. I blinked as I laid in the large amount of dirt I'd kicked up.

" _ **Huh... didn't hurt. He must be going easy on me."**_

The booming sound of something landing nearby brought my four eyes to look at the Hulk, who had landed in the trench I'd made. He glared across at me. With a grunt, I lifted myself up.

And up. And up, until I towered over him. I blinked, surprised. Hulk was around eight and a half feet tall. Which meant he was up to my waist in height.

" _ **Wow. I didn't know I'd be so much taller than you,"**_ I mused.

He took offense to that. _**"Gragh!"**_

I got punched in the jaw, hard. I stepped back under the impact, my right foot stepping back to stop me from falling. I blinked my four eyes. Then I narrowed them. _**"Okay..."**_

I rose and punched Hulk in the face with my upper right arm. He fell to his knees, a shockwave flying through the air at the impact of my fist on his jaw. The Unfriendly Green Giant spat out a tooth, roared in rage, and leaped at me. I roared back, taking his next punch before we began to brawl.

 _ **Director Maria Hill of BRIDGE**_

"Where did they go?" Maria demanded as Natasha and Steve followed her through the halls of the Enterprise. Maria wore her blue uniform, while Natasha and Steve chose to instead dress in navy blue t-shirts with BRIDGE logos across the chest and military pants.

"Dial said he wanted to tell him in a location far from any civilians," Natasha said. "But he used the _Defiant's_ cloaking system to keep us from tracking him and his comms are off deliberately. Whatever he's doing, he wants privacy."

"We can't bypass it?" Maria asked, frustrated.

"The _Defiant_ is the most advanced ship on the planet," Steve reminded her. "Tony said he's going to try and track it, but..." Steve sounded like he was amused, frustrated, and happy all at once.

"Tony says he trusts Dial," Natasha said.

Maria shook her head, her ponytail waving with the motion. "Look, I get Tony likes his little proteges, but Dial can't just kidnap our most emotionally unstable Avenger and take him to the middle of nowhere without letting us know about it."

"Tony says Dial has a plan," Natasha said with a shrug.

"A plan to do what?" Maria asked.

"To help Banner control the Hulk," Tony walked around the corner, joining the three. He wore a shirt that made Maria blink in surprise, a black one with Dial's logo in the center. "Remember the TV Dial made?" TV was the codeword for the dimensional viewer, to keep eavesdroppers from knowing anything about it. "Some of the channels gave him an idea, showed him some solutions. He's betting on the Omnitrix making those solutions possible."

"Tony," Steve said softly. "We need to know where he is."

"I've got X and Jarvis working on it," Tony said dismissively. "In the meantime, we have other problems."

Maria grimaced. "He's right. I've transferred the prisoners the Reserve Avengers rescued moved to a facility Fury gave us. It's called the Playground. We'll be using it to train and help any superhumans we find from now on."

"What are they like?" Steve asked, worried.

"Scared," Maria said simply. The four stopped in a room with a large table in it. "It varies, but that's the general feeling between them all. We're still finding out where they're from. Some aren't even American, so now I'm worried about the immigration fanatics getting on my ass."

"Is that a real concern?" Steve asked incredulously.

"You really aren't the political sort, are you?" Maria asked. "And don't forget the animals with powers, people have been asking about them."

"We going to start the Pet Avengers?" Tony quipped.

"Our first priority should be protecting everyone," Steve said firmly, everyone ignoring Tony's joke. The billionaire didn't seem to care.

"A lot of these people are as strong as you are, or have some limited form of Creel's abilities," Natasha said. "We already know China and Russia have made inquiries to be allowed to 'take in' their citizens, despite the fact some of the ones they've named actually are US citizens. People in the US government are doing the same thing, asking to study the people we've found. The fact is, we just got hundreds of super-soldiers of varying quality for free."

"And most of them just want normal lives," Maria eyed the group. "When we made BRIDGE, this was one of the reasons. To protect both worlds. We'll do that, no matter the cost. You understand?"

"Yeah, yeah, hoorah and all that," Tony said. Despite his dismissive tone, he seemed to approve. "You said most of them?"

"...Some of them have asked to join BRIDGE," Maria said.

The three Avengers blinked at that. Maria smirked. "I'm thinking of taking them up on it. We still need to figure everything out first. In the meantime, there's what your team discovered. Not as... flashy, as what the Reserve Avengers discovered, but it may have given us another target. In the meantime, Natasha, you have someone to talk to."

"Director?" a woman said from the door. The group turned to see Victoria Hand standing with Falcon. The Reserve Avengers leader gave everyone a smile, Steve and Natasha returning it while Tony gave him a wave. "We've got the interrogation with Hale."

Maria nodded, turning back to the others. "Tony, you work on tracking down Dial and Bruce. Natasha, get to your appointment. Steve, meet up with Fury and work on what all the teams found. We are going to hit another HYDRA facility as soon as possible. In the meantime, I want us to be ready to mobilize the next time HYDRA tries to take one of ours. They try it again, we stop them all."

With that, they broke off, Sam and Hand following Maria. As Maria walked, she tried to relax.

"I feel the same way sometimes," Sam said.

Maria looked at him, surprised. "What..."

"Being a leader, after spending your time following... it's hard," he said in a low voice. Hand stepped further away, the pink stripped woman apparently realizing it was a moment for privacy. "Not to mention the people we're in charge of now, some of them just insanely more powerful than us... I've been faking it as best as I can, personally. You seem to be doing a lot better than I am."

Maria almost stopped walking. Since becoming Director, she'd worked hard not to show how... overwhelmed, she was now. All the new things coming at her that she had to deal with personally, HYDRA, new technology, new superhumans, new laws, paperwork so insane she could barely handle it. She was dealing, sleeping a few hours a night to keep in top form, but... she didn't realize she'd been showing the exhaustion she'd been feeling.

"I only noticed because I feel the same way," Sam said, apparently reading her mind. He smiled. "Well, kind of. In a really small way. But you're doing fine if you ask my sorry ass."

Maria bit her lip, thinking. "...Thank you, Sam. I appreciate that."

They got to their destination, and Maria walked in without hesitation. "Hale."

"Hill," the older woman responded, smiling in her white prison uniform. "Ah, and this must be one of your new superheroes."

"Sup," Sam said, standing tall in his full armor.

"We're here about the Graveyard," Maria said, sitting down across from Hale. "About everything we found there."

Hale frowned. "It should have just been failed experiment. Dead bodies and destroyed machinery."

"It was more than that," Maria said with a frown. "Sam?"

Sam explained what his team had found. Maria watched Hale carefully, watching as she paled, frowned, and suddenly became angry. Once finished speaking, Hale clenched her fists.

"...They lied to me. Or just felt I didn't need to know the full truth," Hale smirked. "Men. Always keeping secrets, looking down on women."

Maria didn't respond. Hale had shown resentment towards men before, seeing them as holding her back. Understandable, considering the misogyny Whitehall exhibited. She had a tendency to blame all her problems on it, to an illogical extent. Once again, an understandable reaction considering how HYDRA and the Air Force had treated her.

"...Ruby?" Hale asked.

"She's in her first meeting," Maria said simply.

Something seemed to 'pop' inside Hale. Some kind of anxiety, a deep worry in her heart. She leaned back in her seat. "Okay. Then it's time I told you everything about the Confederacy. I have a feeling you'll need it."

 _ **Frank Castle/Raven**_

Frank Castle sat in a room in front of a table, his leg bouncing as he waited. The morning before, he'd been in Iraq, for the next mission. Next thing he knew, top brass had shown up and told him to pack up and move out. Then they'd taken him to a He was still dressed in his uniform, the green camo sweater and pants he always wore in his off time between missions. The military soldier sighed in annoyance, looking at the one-way mirror that dominated one side of the room. "You know, if you CIA assholes are going to drag me over here, the least you can do is actually talk to me."

There was no response to his grumpy comment. He growled, staring at himself in the mirrored window. "Will you just-"

The door opened. A man walked into the room, wearing a business suit. "Lieutenant Frank Castle," the man said with a smile.

Frank was immediately on guard. While it had been a long time since he'd seen the asshole, this man reminded him of Agent Orange. A spy. "Who the fuck are you?"

The man smiled. "Agent Phil Coulson. I work with BRIDGE, an organization that is continuing from SHIELD."

Frank scoffed. "Yeah, I heard about you guys. The Avenger's pet toys."

Phil chuckled. "Not so much actually. We do work with them, but I don't think that descriptor would work."

Frank scoffed again, looking dismissively away from Phil. The agent sat across from the soldier and put a tablet on the table.

"I must say, Lieutenant Castle, I had a hell of a time with your files. All I wanted to do was talk to you. But then, I had to deal with the CIA. Are you familiar with a man by the name of," he looked at his tablet, reading from it. "William J. Rawlins the Third?"

Frank stared at Phil, nonplused. "How the hell should I know?"

"Because you beat his eye out," Phil smirked. "I actually liked hearing about that. I'm not someone who takes pleasure in the pain of others, but everything we've uncovered tells us he deserved it."

Nothing Phil could have told him would have surprised Frank Castle more.

"Operation Cerberus," Phil continued. "Was an unsanctioned operation. We're going through, taking out all the ringleaders. You, however, were pointed out for a potential recruitment for something more."

Frank shook his head, crossing his arms. "No thanks."

Phil blinked. "You haven't even heard my offer."

"Don't want to hear it," Frank said simply.

"You don't want to go home?" Phil asked, sounding honestly confused.

Frank stilled. "...what?"

"Well, that's what the job would have as one of the benefits. You fight the enemies of the world during the day, then go home at night," Phil passed Frank the tablet. "It's part of our new Elite unit. Some of your old squad will be on it, once we find out who was tricked by Rawlins, or 'Agent Orange', as he was called at the time," Phil chuckled. "You'll get an increased salary, of course, better equipment, and-"

"This damn thing goes _how fast?_ " Frank asked, staring at the specs of one of the vehicles being described as standard equipment.

"Escape velocity is one of the descriptors I've heard so far," Phil said. "But you should know about the current enemy we are fighting. HYDRA."

"Nazi's?" Frank asked, looking up.

"Well, they don't follow that doctrine anymore, mostly, but that is where they started. You'll be working under Steve Rogers and the Avengers, aiding them in hunting down HYDRA."

"...Let me get this straight," Frank put down the tablet and looked at Phil. "That asshole Agent Orange is getting arrested. You want me to join BRIDGE. I'd be able to see my family every night after work. Work which would be me hunting Nazi's with Captain fucking America. That about right?"

Phil frowned at the language but nodded. "Essentially, yes."

"What's the catch?"

Phil sighed. "I won't lie to you. You'll be seeing a lot of combat, Lieutenant Castle. We've been fighting HYDRA for some time, and we may end up fighting them for even longer than that. This job... there won't be too many times on the job when you won't be fighting. Killing."

Frank thought about that for a moment. "...Again. What's the catch?"

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

My fist slammed into Bruce's sending a shockwave outward that destroyed vegetation and stone nearby. No, it hit the Hulk's fist. I couldn't treat them as the same exactly. I had to do more.

God, I had no idea if this would even work. What if this was all useless? For a moment, doubt filled me. Hulk hit me during my moment of hesitation, his fist hitting me in the ribs hard enough to send me into a boulder and shatter it beneath my bulk. I shook my head after a moment.

No, trust the Omnitrix. Heck, maybe Allah had something to do with this. I had gained _the_ brute force alien, then Jennifer had been kidnapped. It had to mean something.

" _ **Is that all you've got!?"**_ I yelled, uppercutting Hulk with all four of my fists, sending him spinning into a mountain. I leaped after him, punching him deeper with a double right cross. **_"Jennifer is in trouble and this is all the power you can bring to save her!?"_**

" _ **GRAGH!"**_ Hulk brought his feet up and kicked me in the chest, sending me up. I spun in the air and timed the moment for when he leaped towards me, his eyes wild. As soon as he was close enough, I reared back. When my fists hit his chest, time seemed to slow as the power gathered.

 _ **BOOOOM!**_

Time restarted and Hulk was yelling as he rocketed back towards the mountain, ripping through the top of it. I landed after a moment and jumped. A rockslide had started because of Hulk's passage through the top of the mountain, making it sort of hard to reach the top.

When I did, Hulk had gotten there as well. We eyed each other.

" _ **...Jennifer is being held by HYDRA,"**_ I told Hulk. His face lost the constant angry glare, changing into something more pitiful. **_"If you want to save her, you can't just brawl! You and Bruce need to work together!"_**

His anger returned. _**"NO BANNER! ONLY HULK!"**_

Despite his negative response, I grinned. Hulk was talking.

Then he leaped forward, punching me in the gut. I grunted at the impact, folding over his fist. Holy shit could he hit hard! He punched me in the face, leaping to get up high enough, then kept punching me, bringing me to my knees. I roared in pain as my back hit the floor, bring my arms up to block my face as he punched down at me.

" _ **HULK SAVE JENNY!"**_ Hulk screamed. For all his rage, there was a desperation in his voice. As though, if he yelled and punched for long and hard enough, he could make it true.

" _ **Save her!?"**_ I yelled, my massive arms blocking his, just as massive, fists. **_"How? Blonsky, Sterns, that gamma-enhanced woman, whatever else HYDRA can drum up! You can't beat them all up, Hulk! Not alone! You and Bruce need to work together, to be smart and strong together!"_**

" _ **HULK NEEDS NO-"**_ In mid-yell, I reached a hand up to wrap around his mouth, pulling him down to look into my four eyes.

For a funny moment, his anger filled eyes bounced up and down from one set of my eyes to the other, confused which one to glare into. _**"How can you beat them, when you can't even stop me?"**_

I punched him with three fists. Then I kept on doing it, holding him in place as my fists drummed across his chest. The earth and air shook I around us, Hulk kicking at me as I held him in place and beat on him. Then I pushed him back, rising to tower over him as I panted. He looked up at me, his chest healing before my eyes.

" _ **I'm not a fighter, Hulk. Not really. But at least I can think beyond anger. I can plan, I can think and plan. You're holding yourself back, both of you. Bruce won't let you use your full power, and you won't let him help you think things through. All you can do is punch and punch, the both of you struggling to hold onto control. Abomination doesn't have that problem. Not even a bit."**_

Hulk rose to his feet, staring at up at me. When he spoke again, it was with a pausing tone. He clearly wasn't used to talking without screaming at the top of his lungs. _**"...You, jerk."**_

I winced, realizing what a pontificating asshole I sounded like. _**"Sorry. It's just... I saw other dimensions Hulk. When you and Bruce work together, you become something so powerful almost nothing can stop you. You've both gone through the same bullshit, been hurt by the same people... you both love Jennifer. We can save her. And I bet, based on your personality, you don't want to just let someone else do it."**_

" _ **Hulk save Jenny..."**_ he blinked, as though surprised by something. _**"B...Bruce, save Jenny."**_

Oh thank god, my stupid impulsive plan had worked. _**"Then you guys have something you both want to fight for. Jennifer Walters. You work together, stop holding each other back, really fight, and Blonsky can't beat you."**_

Hulk scoffed, turning around and pacing for a bit. _**"You help Hulk?"**_

" _ **Like I can do that,"**_ I said with a sigh. _**"Bruce told me he learned meditation, to try to learn to control you."**_

" _ **HULK WON'T SLEEP!"**_ He turned and walked towards me, fists clenched in rage.

" _ **I'm not telling you to sleep,"**_ I said, raising my four hands up. **_"We have some hours to ourselves. So instead of stopping the anger, we focus it. Focus on what you need to do. To get as mad as you can, and still have control! A tranquil fury."_**

" _ **Talk too much,"**_ Hulk grumbled, yawning dramatically.

That surprised me so much I laughed. He was more like a big kid when he wasn't in combat! _**"Yeah, I do! How about this?"**_ I slammed two fists into to palms, grinning with slightly fanged teeth. **_"Let's fight, while you and Bruce try to work together! We'll go for as long as we can, or at least until someone finds us. And if it works, you can beat down Blonsky, show HYDRA and anyone else what happens the next time they try to hurt your family."_**

Hulk seemed to think about that for a moment.

 _ **Boom!**_

Then his fist was slamming into mine as he grinned. I grinned back, then I punched him in the jaw. He stepped back as I took the boxing stance Steve taught me, stepping over to tower above him. Hulk raised his hands to mimic my stance, stepping in and giving me a jab. It was a bit rough, slightly telegraphed. I blocked it and returned with a right cross, only for him to grab my arm, twist his hips, and flip me to the floor with a cratering smash. I blinked up at him as he grinned.

" ** _Banner know ju...juijit..."_** He seemed to get frustrated, going for an easier word. " ** _KUNG FU!"_**

Wondering how the hell they'd gotten such a quick rapport, I grinned up at him. _**"...For Jenny."**_

Hulk nodded fiercely. I pictured Bruce, smaller but no less determined, doing the same.

Then I flipped up and tackled him, our enormous forms falling down the mountain, smashing into each other with our fists.

Dude, turning into giant monsters, no matter the reason, is so much fun!

 _Author's Note:_ That isn't the end of course. Dial and Hulk are going to brawl for a bit longer, and more people are going to talk and discuss things back with BRIDGE.

Dial is going to keep fighting and helping Bruce and Hulk find some sort of way to fight as one. In World War Hulk, Banner and Hulk fighting for the sake of revenge for his home and wife made a Hulk more powerful and calculating than any other, with training in meditation to take that power to the next limit.

As for Jujitsu, don't forget he took some lessons in _The Incredible Hulk._

So uh, that should be everything, I think? Let me know what you guys think!


	35. Chapter 35

_**Natasha Romanov/Black Widow**_

Natasha entered the training room of the _Enterprise,_ looking across the room at the young girl currently occupying the bench near the mat. The girl ignored Natasha in favor of lying on her stomach, headphones in her ears as she idly bobbed her head to the loud music with her eyes closed.

"Excuse me," Natasha said simply. "Ruby Hale, right?" Ruby was fourteen years old, with platinum blonde hair, a bit of acne across her nose, and a level of fitness rare in a teenager. Natasha waited for Ruby to say something. When she didn't the redheaded assassin spoke once more. "We're supposed to speak about your accommodations."

The girl ignored her, still bobbing her head. As though Natasha wasn't trained enough in body language to see the way she'd shifted as Natasha entered, or how the girl's body was just barely up off the bench, enough that she could quickly move if attacked.

Natasha eyed the young girl calmly. The two of them may as well have been statues for all the movement they exhibited. "...Well, have a nice day then. I'm gonna go enjoy a movie." Natasha turned and left.

After a bit of walking through the halls of the _Enterprise,_ she heard some fast footsteps behind her. Natasha ignored the person chasing her, continuing to move through the ship with her swaying catwalk.

Someone reached out for her arm. Natasha, sensing the lightning-fast movement, stepped aside from it as subtly as though she'd never moved at all, leaving person reaching towards her to grasp empty air. Natasha turned to look at her, raising an eyebrow. "I'm sorry, did you need something?"

Ruby blinked, looking shocked. Then she pouted, trying to school her face to look intimidating. Which, she did, her face and eyes hard and cruel in a way no teenager should ever understand. But Natasha barely held back the urge to laugh. So cute.

"Where's my mom?" The teenager growled.

"Imprisoned, for working with a terrorist organization," Natasha cocked an eyebrow. "Is that really why you followed me after ignoring me? Because if so, I'm done."

Ruby scowled. "Aren't you supposed to train me?"

A lazy smile rose across Natasha's face. "Why?"

Ruby's scowl became something vicious. "You're _supposed_ to!"

The words of a young girl who had been told all her life that she was special. That she was meant to be a destined leader and warrior. So cute.

"I volunteered my time, Ruby," Natasha said simply. "I was asked if I would help you, and I agreed, but you aren't the only thing I have on my plate. I'm an Avenger, an Agent of BRIDGE, someone who works every day to protect the world from threats. I'm not going to sit and watch you ignore me because you decided you wanted to be spoiled today."

Ruby's eyes widened in rage. She lashed out with a punch aimed to collapse Natasha's larynx.

The redhead grabbed Ruby's wrist in a vicious grip. She twisted her arm behind her back while kicking Ruby's legs, slamming her to the floor.

"Yaaagh!" Ruby screamed, struggling to rise against the iron hold Natasha had on her.

"I'm sorry, did you try to punch me?" Natasha teased, her voice soft against Ruby's ear. "You really are spoiled. So used to people bending over backward for you that you thought you could attack me without even a bruise to show for it."

A female BRIDGE agent with a small afro came around the corner and stopped at the sight of Natasha holding a screaming and cursing Ruby on the floor. Natasha glanced at her. She spun and walked away, leaving Natasha to look down at Ruby.

"We made a promise to your mother- listen to me," Natasha tapped the side of Ruby's head when the teenager wouldn't stop yelling. "We made a promise we'd train you, and I can do that. I can show you things HYDRA never had access to. Skills from the Red Room, all the times I assassinated someone from childhood to adulthood, the things that let me survive an attempt by the Winter Soldier himself."

Ruby stopped struggling.

"But I'm not going to waste time with childish rebellion," Natasha let her go, rising up. Ruby curled up and rolled to her feet, popping up to face Natasha, only to recoil when she realized Natasha had stepped in closer. The older assassin was no longer smiling. "I'm not going to train you if you expect to be able to decide to listen to music when you should be at attention, waiting for me, or if you just skip a lesson because you'd rather do something else. I'm not going to punish you or waste my time even talking to you, we'll just be done. You will not question me, not for one moment. And if you do, you _might_ become an Avenger. You might even become more than that one day. But until then, you will show _discipline._ "

Ruby stared up at her, trying to hide the deep bruises on her wrist. "I..."

"Oh go ahead, think about it if you want," Natasha checked her watch. "I've got some time free. But like I said, I've got things to do. If you decide the time I invest in you isn't worth your attention... why the hell should it be worth mine? Because I'm not wasting anything if you're going to act like a teenager rather than an assassin."

Ruby huffed, crossing her arms. "I _am_ a teenager."

Natasha narrowed her eyes. "We both know better than that."

Any petulance Ruby was showing faded. She looked up at the older woman. After a long stare down between them, she nodded. There was an eager light in her eyes now, the burning of pride. "Okay, how do we start?"

"The woman who showed up just now," Natasha said, indicating the BRIDGE agent that had come upon them. "Track her down, find out what she tells others about what she saw. I'll shadow you, and you tell me what you found out. After that, we'll start with something easy."

As Ruby nodded eagerly and turned to run after the agent, Natasha felt disquiet in her heart. Here she was, doing something she never thought she would. Training a young girl to be an assassin. The Red Room, HYDRA, what did it matter? Here she was, doing the same thing.

She turned around. "What do you think?"

Clint and Bucky walked out of the shadows, both wearing BRIDGE camo gear. They walked forward with the steady and quiet steps Ruby was trying to master. They joined her, Bucky's face neutral while Clint gave her a sad smile.

"...You're going to try and deprogram her?" Clint asked.

"I'm not sure I can... It never worked on me," Natasha admitted. "All I can really do is give her better targets, layer her skills with morals and rules, try to do what worked for me. But she'll always be a killer. You can see it in her. The way she walks, the way she's always about to slice someone's throat out. And she has too much pride. No good assassin is arrogant. It'll destroy her if we let it fester."

Bucky nodded in agreement, while Clint, the only parent in the group, let out a disquieted sigh.

"We'll take care of her though... I'd like her to meet you both if you don't mind?" Natasha said. "She's showed interest in us, in heroes. I think, in her own extremely twisted way, she really does want to be a hero. Even if she doesn't know what that means."

"I'm in," Bucky said immediately. He gave them a smile so fast it might as well have not existed. "Reformed assassins have to stick together."

"Maybe we should start a support group?" Clint joked. He looked after where Ruby had gone, then back at Natasha. "By the way, is it me, or..."

"Cute, right?" Natasha grinned. "She's like a deadly puppy."

Bucky refused to say anything to that, but Natasha's grin widened at the slight twitch of acknowledgment his lips did.

"Wonder what Bobbi and Hartley will think," Clint muttered.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

A pair of loud roars echoed over the deserts of Colorado.

" _ **Ragh!"**_

" _ **Grrragh!"**_

Hulk and I had grabbed each other's hands, me using my slightly stronger upper ones, and were pushing against each other, our muscles straining as the ground under our feet crumbled. For just a moment, we struggled against each other, then I used my other two hands to uppercut Hulk, sending him back a step. I leaned down and grabbed his legs, sending him to the ground, then began to spin. Around and around, dragging Hulk through the air.

" _ **Yaaagh!"**_ Hulk yelled, his hands swinging.

" _ **Fly!"**_ With another spin, I let go, sending Hulk shooting into the distance. **_"Whoa,"_** I shook my head, stumbling slightly. _**"Dizzy."**_

With that, I leaped after Hulk, my giant leg muscles shooting me through the air.

There was a pure joy in being Fourarms. Having all that power, feeling my muscles move against each other as I flew through the air. I thought I'd felt powerful as Rath or Diamondhead, but there was something different and addicting about being Fourarms.

Maybe it was something that naturally came to Tetramands? The desire to fight and engage in combat with others that were just as powerful?

I landed in front of Hulk, who'd smashed into a plateau. He was getting to his knees and glared at me. He rose up to his feet, then sped forward to punch me in the face. I did the same, a shockwave spreading from the impact. Over and over, we hit each other, Hulk screaming in rage as I did the same.

He grabbed my arm and tossed me into a rock face, moving in to hit me in the rips with some lightning fast punches. I blocked his fists with my lower arms and slammed my upper arms into his shoulders, pushing him back ten feet. His feet grinding against the earth, he came to a stop and glared at me. I pulled my arms back. Realizing what I was doing, Hulk copied me.

Three pairs of palms slapped together, and two massive shockwaves of sound erupted from each of us. The earth shook, my ears rang, and rockslides kicked off. We roared as our powerful shockwaves clashed, nearby bushes tearing apart from pure air pressure as we caused a localized hurricane alongside the earthquake's we'd made.

Once the shockwave ended, I stepped forward at the same time as Hulk. Our fist flew forward again, my limited boxing and four limbs against Hulk's limited Brazilian jujitsu and incredible healing. One thing I noticed was that he really was getting stronger as we clashed. I'd realized while studying everyone in my first weeks that Hulk in this universe wasn't famous for getting stronger as he got angrier, but he _was_. Slowly, much slower than in the comics, but was doing it.

In the back of my mind, in between my fist slamming into his, I wondered if that was because of this new compromise between Bruce and Hulk, or if he'd simply never _had_ to get stronger before. I discarded it to kick him in the legs then slam a lower right fist into his ribs.

After a long fight, the two of us brawling on a mountain and slowly turning it into a valley, I finally had to stop, falling back to sit on my ass as Hulk panted.

" _ **...How you feeling?"**_ I asked.

" _ **Banner loud,"**_ Hulk pouted. **_"Always talking, thinking."_**

" _ **Well, that is where his strength lies. You punch, he thinks. And together, you'll always hit the right thing."**_

" _ **Loud,"**_ Hulk sat down next to me, and the two of us turned to look out at the desert. **_"Hulk... Hulk just to be alone."_**

" _ **I think you mean you just want people to stop attacking you,"**_ the smaller brute grunted in agreement. **_"Hey,"_** I nudged him with my elbow. _**"If they do, we'll all help you. I don't care who comes at you, every Avenger is going to stop them. And that includes helping Jennifer. We're your friends, both you and Bruce."**_

When I looked at Hulk, he was smiling, the sun rising across his face. Then he frowned, looking at something in the distance. I turned as well, focusing. Huh. A column of dust was coming towards. And were those... helicopters?

" _ **X,"**_ I said with a grunt. **_"Send over the Defiant. I think it's time for us to leave."_**

" _Agreed, sir. US Military forces have been sent to investigate reports of the Hulk battling an unknown being."_

" _ **How in the hell..."**_ Trailing off, I tapped on the Omnitrix, turning back into my human form. I grunted slightly at the feeling of returning to a human body but got over the lack of power quickly. "Okay Hulk, you wanna get on the _Defiant?_ "

" _ **Hulk don't want be Banner,"**_ Huh. He was a lot more intimidating now that I was smaller than him. He glowered down at me, walking up to tower even more. Apparently, he'd taken the fact that Fourarms was bigger than him as an insult because he managed to look very smug about the height difference between us.

"Well, what do you say about you staying Hulk until we get home, then Bruce can take over?" I asked. "I mean if Bruce is okay with it. You need the practice anyways. Both of you do."

Hulk huffed, blowing my hair back. _**"...Okay."**_

"Let's stop for some food first though," I said, my stomach grumbling. "I'm hungry."

Hulk seemed to perk up at that as the _Defiant_ landed behind us.

Turned out, Hulk had never had food himself before. I ended up buying a bunch of fast food of all kinds from a restaurant I'd never been to before. The big guy spent the ride home stuffing himself happily in the back of the ship.

When we got to the _Enterprise_ and landed on the flight deck, the first thing people saw when the door opened was the Hulk, glowering angrily at the flight crew. He turned into Bruce right after of course, but it was still funny, seeing the guys panic at the sight of a glaring Hulk.

Which lead to later, when Bruce and I, me in my Iron Man shirt, him in ripped pants, were sitting in front of Maria Hill and Nick Fury in the lockers, both of us on a bench.

"So, I've managed to make it clear it was a training exercise," Maria said. "But Ross has requested he be informed the _next time_ something like that happens," Maria punctuated her words in a voice that would broker no argument.

"I'll bet," Bruce grunted.

"And there is more," Fury sat down on the bench across from us, focusing on Bruce. "She wants to see you. I gave her your usual response of course."

"...Actually," Bruce said thoughtfully. "Tell her I'll meet her at Stanley's when this is over."

Fury blinked, surprised. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, yeah, um," Bruce rubbed the back of his neck, looking up at Maria and Fury. "It'll be good to see her."

"What did you two do, anyway?" Maria asked, looking between us.

"Three, technically," I looked at Bruce. "I think we have an understanding, right?"

Bruce grinned. It was a very Hulk-like grin, his eyes flashing emerald. "Something like that. We both love Jennifer. And now? The Hulk and I both _hate_ HYDRA. So you're going to want to start sending us on missions. Soon."

Maria stared at him, then looked at Fury. He smirked.

"Don't look at me, I ain't the Director," Maria glared at Fury for that.

"Anyway," Maria said with a sigh. "Let's gather with the others. We should have a mission soon. We've made some progress on tracking down HYDRA's main base."

Nodding, I rose to follow when I saw Tony outside talking to Cap while wearing a Ben 10 t-shirt. It took me a second to realize what was wrong with that. I went to go ask him about it when Bruce stopped me, grabbing my arm.

"Hey, listen," Bruce said hesitantly. "I want to thank you. I don't... I never really thought Hulk and I could talk, could understand each other. But, um... it feels good. In those other worlds, the one that you saw? Did other Hulks, other Bruces, did they do the same thing?"

"Sometimes," I said with a grin. "Usually ends with you guys destroying a planet," Bruce's eyes widened in panic and I hurried to speak when I realized how bad that sounded. "Bad planets! And it only happened once, I promise!"

"Hey," Tony and Steve walked in as Maria and Fury walked out, Tony grinning. "Check it out! Just came off the line!"

He gestured to his Ben 10 t-shirt. "Gotta say, kid, the merchandising guys are _loving_ the Reserve Avengers, especially since everyone has the snazzy armor and you've got eleven aliens to make action figures out of. Although Pepper had to yell at some guy who wanted to convince Sam and Rhodey to do a rap album. How'd therapy go?"

"...We broke two mountains," I admitted. "It was pretty Metal."

"It was actually really fun," Bruce said in his husky voice.

Tony and Steve shared a look, Steve surprised and Tony grinning. Steve sighed, moving forward to put an arm around me. "Come on. You've got training."

As he dragged me off, Tony spoke to Bruce. "You know, we can make you some clothes too if you want? That way you don't show up naked all the time. Unless you've been hiding your exhibitionist side all this time? No judgment."

As Bruce stuttered and Steve led away, the Captain spoke. "Mahmoud, we need to talk about you doing stuff like that. Today's training is based on communication."

After three hours of boxing with Cap while he talked to me about my responsibilities, I had a meeting to get to. Someone had put in a request to meet with me and I flew through New York in Astrodactyl form to get to them.

It was about 4 PM when I got to the Wakandan Embassy in Midtown. Well, the Consulate General at least. Funnily enough, I ended up flying over the Embassy of my parents' homeland, Morocco. As I landed on the sidewalk in front of the tall red brick building, people started taking photos with their phones. I ignored them to step through the gates and walk up the stairs toward the entrance. Men in black suits, all of them African, stood around the grounds of the embassy, watching me carefully as I walked towards the front doors. Two guards in green military uniforms carrying rifles stood at either side of the doors, while a beautiful African woman with a shaved head wearing a black dress waited for me.

"Good afternoon," I said politely, feeling a bit ashamed for the fact I was still wearing my Iron Man shirt, but going with it. "I have a meeting."

"I know," the woman said grimly. "I am Ayo. I will be guiding you."

"And guarding him," I added. She didn't answer, simply waving at the guards, who both opened the doors. I followed Ayo inside.

The inside of the Wakandan Embassy was all right. Not exactly what I was hoping for, as any reference to Wakanda itself were kept to some weapons along the walls, very traditional looking artwork, and the various servants roaming around. I noted the 'servants' often were bald women in great shape but ignored that. Ayo went into an elevator, nodding for me to enter as well. After a wait, the doors opened to reveal an office, where two men turned to look at us.

One was T'Chaka, the King of Wakanda eyeing me as I followed Ayo. The other I recognized from news reports. He was tall and strong looking, with skin as dark as the kings, and a well-trimmed beard. He was giving me a suspicious look when I entered. Couldn't blame him. Not nice when someone knows your country's millennia-old secrets.

I gave the Wakandan salute, both arms crossed over my chest. "King T'Chaka. Prince T'Challa. It is wonderful to meet you both. I'm honored."

"As am I," T'Chaka said, nodding towards me. "Please, sit," he gestured to a couch with a traditional looking coffee table. I moved towards it, sitting down on the sinfully comfortable couch. T'Chaka sat down in front of me in a large chair, while T'Challa was to my right in another one. Ayo stood behind T'Chaka as a servant woman with no hair walked over to stand to my left. "Now, I believe you know what I wish to talk about?"

"About how Wakanda is currently the most advanced nation on Earth, despite masquerading otherwise?" I said simply.

T'Challa, Ayo, and the servant were very, _very_ focused on me. T'Chaka simply nodded. "Indeed. I suppose, my first question, is... would you like something to drink?"

I blinked, surprised, then laughed. "Yeah, that would be nice. Something from your nation? I haven't had the privilege of trying Wakandan food and drinks."

"Tea, I believe, would suffice," T'Chaka waved at the 'servant', who walked into another room, Ayo subtly moving to another position. "Now, for my second question. How did you discover our secret?"

"Other universes had to reveal it," I said. Everyone blinked. I thought for a moment."... This information does not leave this room. I want all three of you to promise, please."

T'Challa leaned forward, the prince staring at me. When he spoke, his voice was accented, though less than his fathers. "Is it truly that important?"

"It's worth more than all of the world, no matter how much vibranium you have."

T'Chaka thought about that. "...Very well. By the Goddess Bast, I will not reveal this."

"As do I," T'Challa said. Ayo only nodded.

I spoke immediately. "I had the dubious privilege of seeing into other universes recently. I destroyed the means by which I did so, but before that, I saw other worlds, other possibilities, even futures. In more than a few out of the infinite ones in the multiverse, I saw ones where Wakanda revealed their true power to the world. In many cases, to defend the Earth from danger."

T'Chaka frowned but waved for me to continue.

"In these worlds, you were sometimes...," I glanced at T'Challa. "Sometimes dead. Old age, assassination, self-sacrifice, all the reasons a person can die. And the Black Panther steps onto the world stage. He joins the Avengers. Saves the world. Sometimes, Shuri will become the Panther as well so that you," I indicated T'Challa. "Can aid the universe."

I might as well had dropped a bomb in the room. Ayo and T'Challa seemed stricken at the thought of their king/father dead. I wondered, for a moment, if the Dora Milaje were betrothed to the king as in the 616 universe before pushing the idea down.

The 'servant' walked into the room with my tea. "Thank you," I said, taking the tea and taking a sip, wincing when the aromatic and delicious drink singed my tongue slightly. I put it down on a cloth coaster the 'servant' had provided.

"How can we believe this?" T'Chaka asked, looking skeptical, a natural response.

"Because I know too much," I answered simply, dragging up the stuff I was certain was constant between universes. "I know about the Black Panther, and the Heart-Shaped Herb. I know that you gained your power from a mountain of Vibranium sitting beneath your nation. I know you were the first in space. And that you guys have pride in having 'never conquered, nor been conquered.' I mean... there's more, but that's most of the important stuff."

T'Chaka sighed, rubbing his forehead for a long moment, eyes closed in irritation. "I suppose you will be telling your Director about this?"

"I've thought about it," I noted how Ayo and the 'servant' stiffened. "But I'm as much African as I am American, in the end. I've got respect for you and for your people. I'd rather you tell them yourself... and you'll have to."

"Why is that?" T'Challa asked, glaring at me. "Why should we tell anyone?"

"Because you're about to lose your technological advantage," I answered simply. "I'm not going to comment on all the crap that happened in the world that you people could have stopped. Those are the decisions of other kings, and I won't have you answer for that. Not like I can yell at them personally," T'Chaka's lips twitched at that. "But right now, the pragmatic decision is not to simply watch as BRIDGE accelerates the entire world past you. Being isolationist isn't going to work for long."

I stopped to take a sip of tea, trying not to reveal how nervous I was. Damn it, I was giving too many speeches lately. I put it down after a moment. "You _turned your back on the rest of the world,_ " I said, my voice taking an odd tone that made T'Challa blink. "But I won't have BRIDGE do the same. Join us, King T'Chaka. You can try to match our technological abilities, but I guarantee you, it won't last. Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, me, all the aliens we hope to make treaties or possibly trade with? Wakanda needs to be a part of the conversation."

"And you think the rest of the world will simply let us be?" T'Chaka asked. "Some will not forgive us. Others will attack us, attempt to dominate and manipulate us."

"They will," I said. "They're trying to do it to BRIDGE. To take all the tech we're making, the superhumans we've found, and use them for their own ends. I've even got people making offers for this," I said, tapping the Omnitrix. The 'servant' poured me some more tea. "Thank you. But we are stopping them. Fighting them. And in the end, I'm not saying Wakanda has to reveal itself in its entirety right now. Just to join us until your ready."

"...Hmm," T'Chaka leaned back in his chair, rubbing his chin. "I see. We would more actively support BRIDGE, give you our aid, and in return, you allow us to advance our technology alongside yours?"

"Until you reveal yourselves," I added. "That's going to happen. Considering the way the world is going, it's inevitable."

T'Chaka shook his head. "You must understand. I've worked all of my _life_ to keep our secret. Killed, to keep it. The other tribes will fight this."

"...Then it's up to you," I finished my second cup, chugging it. "I can't speak for your people. I'm only giving you a warning and some advice. There are going to be a lot of benefits. I know you've seen the tech we're making and it's only going to get crazier and crazier. Wakanda can either join us, or be left behind, and eventually get found out by a quickly advancing world. I don't want that. I have too much respect for your nation, for the legacy of the Black Panther and for Wakanda itself."

"And if we were to offer you something, in return for you joining us?" T'Chaka asked. He ignored the stunned looks the others in the room gave him. "Wakanda has many things you might find attractive. Technology, land, even women. What would you want, in trade for you, by yourself, allying with Wakanda? Advancing us to the point that none in the world can match us for millenia."

I scoffed. "Even if I didn't think you were just testing me, I made a promise to BRIDGE, to the world at large, that I'd protect it."

T'Chaka smirked. "I see... I will speak to my people... T'Challa, my son, what do you think?"

His son blinked, looking over at me. His mouth opened, then closed, a thoughtful look on his face. When he spoke, it was halting, but strong. "You are... not wrong. If Wakanda is to be safe, we may have to take some risks. But I believe, we must also keep our secret. And we may be able, for a time, to do so. If Shuri, myself, and some of the Dora Milaje join BRIDGE and the Avengers, then we can help them in trade for technology and resources. With time, we can reveal ourselves, or simply allow others to believe our advancements are due to BRIDGE's technology."

"It would be more complicated than that," T'Chaka noted. "National laws-"

"I know, father," T'Challa smiled. "But I don't believe our young friend is very political."

"He's not wrong," I said with a grin. "I'm trying, believe me, but I'm mostly the punching and shooting guy."

T'Chaka chuckled. "Very well. You have made your point, my young friend," he rose from his chair, T'Challa and I following. "I will speak to the people of my nation and come to a decision. Depending on what is said, I will speak with Director Maria Hill. I must ask, will you support Wakanda if we require it?"

"Yeah," I reached into a pocket and pulled out a device shaped roughly like a cat, handing it to T'Chaka. "Here. This is the Panther's Trail. It gives the location of Ulysses Klaue, no matter where he goes in the world. As well information on the location he hides in, it's defense, his resources, so on and so forth."

The whole room froze again.

"Klaue?" T'Chaka asked, his voice weak.

"He can't counter this, no matter what he tries," I said, tapping the device. "If you need help, I'm in, and I'll let some of the Avengers know. But if you want to do it on your own, this will help."

T'Chaka clenched the device tightly. "...Thank you, for this. Why didn't you simply offer it from the start to trade?"

"I'm no politician, but I figured you wouldn't think of this as worth the trade," I admitted. I noted the looks on their faces. Huh. Guess I'd been wrong.

Live and learn I suppose. Live and learn.

 _Author's Note:_ Can you believe there are 35 chapters to this monstrosity already? Good lord.

Anyway, the chapter. So, I really like the idea that while for normal people Ruby is a terrifying monster, actual badass assassins see her as an adorably precocious child in need of lessons. At least, Natasha does, and Clint and Bucky kinda see that. But yeah, Ruby. She shows a very spoiled attitude in the show, as well as a desperate need to prove herself worthy of attention. She's a brat taken to the next level, the Chosen One gone wrong, and Natasha trying to defuse her from that is going to take time and some tough love.

Bruce and Hulk are getting there. Not perfectly, but they are on their way, enough that they may have already made some headway. There might be some setbacks, but HYDRA really fucked up giving them something to focus on. See, asking for Hulk to fight for you is most peoples Godzilla Threshold. For Bruce and Hulk, working _together_ is the real Godzilla Threshold.

Finally, Wakanda. Later, Dial is going to regret not fanboying over meeting the Black goddamn Panther. As for Ayo, she's the Dora Milaje who says 'move or you will be moved' to Black Widow. And the reference to Dora Milaje is kinda a weird and creepy thing in the comics we'd all rather ignore, man. Better to forget that, really.

Anyways, Natasha training, Hulk and Bruce working together, Tony making merchandise, Pepper stopping stereotyping, and Dial Wakandaing. Good times. Tomorrow, both in real life and in story, Ava Starr.


	36. Chapter 36

_January 18_ _th_ _, 2014_

There's a Superman/Wonder Woman comic I read once, called _Whom Gods Destroy_. It was really weird, had Superman turn into a centaur at one point. But there's a line in it that I love that goes something like this.

'That's the nature of _destiny_. Some volunteer, others get drafted. Either way, they're all in the fight. And considering the stakes... it's a fight we have to win.'

Wakanda had it's draft notice, courtesy of me. Now it was up to them to accept or pretend they had bone spurs.

Might have lost the metaphor. Point was, the ball was in their court. In the meantime, I had a job to do.

"So then he taught me how to punch people for three hours while yelling at me about protocol," I told Hawkeye as we walked on a rooftop the next day, telling him about how Steve had 'punished' me the day before for running off with Bruce.

Clint laughed.

The two of us were in the middle of Manhattan, listening to police bands and Foo Fighters. _The Pretender_ was coming out of my Bubble Speaker, the device Jury Rigg had made for me weeks back.

"Well, he's right," Clint said with a grin. "You kinda went off without a plan, didn't you?"

I winced.

"Bet you didn't even know that would work."

I winced again.

"How close was the Hulk to taking your head off before you transformed?"

I winced one last time, sighing. "I made a guess. Killed two birds with one stone, you know?"

"Mahmoud," Clint sighed. "You need to think things through. You've got more power in that watch than anyone I've seen who wasn't named Thor. But you can't just go off for no reason, man. You've got a team to look after and to help look after you. You ain't patrolling alone anymore. As a _super_ spy, I can personally attest to how important having backup is," Clint said, putting emphasis on 'super'.

I sighed, nodding. I'd gotten used to being on a team the past few days, but I still tended to think of myself fighting on my own. But even Ben, with six years of experience fighting the likes of Vilgax, Animo, Kevin, Aggregor, and everything else in the universe had depended on Kevin, Gwen, Rook, and others to have his back.

As I was thinking about that, the police band on our comms flared.

" _Fire on Eastern Parkway and Buffalo Avenue in Brownsville, the address is,"_ The woman on the radio rattled off the number over the radio as I activated the Omnitrix and Hawkeye turned on his armor.

The suit that came across him was very similar to Bobbi's, with a purple coloration to it. Interestingly, he'd chosen a helmet that looked a lot like the one from his 616 counterparts Ronin costume. A cloak came across his body as well, flowing around him to wind that didn't exist. "This is Hawkeye and Dial of the Avengers, we're on it."

" _...Say again?"_ came the response from a likely very confused dispatcher.

Hawkeye leaped off the building as I pushed down the Omnitrix and went Astrodactyl. Hawkeye's cloak snapped out into a large glider, allowing him to float down until I got to him and grabbed his shoulders by my foot talons. In seconds we were shooting through the air towards Brooklyn, flying past office buildings under to the speed of sound so we didn't shatter windows with sonic booms.

Even with me modulating my speed, it didn't take long to reach the fire. Hawkeye, on seeing the flames, waved up at me, speaking over comms since the wind would have drowned him out otherwise. _"Go in the top floor and drop me over there!"_ Clint pointed at the top of a nearby building.

"Got it, squawk!"

I fired an energy blast at one of the windows and flew in, letting go of Hawkeye, who glided to land on the building he'd chosen on the way. As I flew inside, an arrow tipped with a bulbous canister flew past me. My feet hit the carpeted floor at the same time as the arrow hit. Hawkeye's arrow exploded outwards in a burst of foam that spread across the flame-filled room, covering me and everything else in the chilly white bubbles. The flames were instantly extinguished, and I tapped the Omnitrix.

" **Fasttrack!"**

I ran through the hallway with all of my speed, noting the arrow flying through windows and the various holes created by the fire, exploding into more foam, covering desks, bookshelves, and beds around us with the foam, all the arrows moving in slow motion to my enhanced speed. I slowed down slightly as Hawkeye spoke over comms, the light of the Omnitrix on chest flashing with each word.

" _Got three people in a closet in the next room to the left. Older woman and two kids,"_ he told me. When the Avengers had chosen their new armor, Clint had gone for every audio and visual enhancement he could get. In moments like this, he'd be the eyes in the sky, while using his bow to snipe and aid.

I ran into the room he indicated and opened the closet, looking down at the elderly Asian women clutching tightly to a pair of young children, one girl slightly older looking than the other.

"Hi!" I said with a smile. "Sorry I can't be more polite!"

Before they said anything, I picked three of them up and ran for the stairs, moving past the people already escaping, rushing the three out to the sidewalk and running back in.

" _One guy, stumbling on the second floor."_

I picked that guy up, a young Hispanic man, and rushed him out as more arrows landed around me.

" _I've got two on the top floor, trying to run to the roof."_

It was a white couple, young and panicking. I picked them up and rushed them out as well, the sidewalk getting full.

Over and over, as Hawkeye fired his fire suppression arrows and I picked people up, we emptied out the building. My fur was slightly singed but not much considering my natural toughness and speed and Clint firing suppression foam to keep the worst of the blaze contained until the fire department arrived. Finally, only one person was left.

" _It's a kid,"_ Hawkeye said calmly. _"She's hiding under a bed, third floor, middle room on the right."_

"Got it!" I said, running into that room and bending down to look under the bed.

A young black girl stared at me, clutching a stuffed blue T-Rex to her chest in the shadows as flames roared behind me, illuminating her tearful face. "Hey, sweetie," I said softly, wondering where the hell her parents were. Had I taken them already? Worry later. She was crying, covering her eyes to avoid looking at me. "Hey, it's okay. I'm an Avenger. You know them, right?"

Still crying, her eyes clenched tight, she nodded. "D-Daddy doesn't like them."

"Oh," the hell do I do now? "Well, I promise I won't hurt you. I'm just going to take you out of the fire, okay? Then you can be with your parents."

She looked at me. I reached a hand out and smiled as reassuringly as a blue-furred alien can. Must have been enough because as hesitantly as she did it, she still slowly reached a hand out to hold mine. I helped out from under the bed, tucking the small child into my arms and turned to leave.

Of course, that was when the stairs collapsed. Yeesh, the building was seriously not up to code.

"Huh," I blinked at that. "Sweetie, hold tight. I think I'm going to make my own exit."

She nodded, the tiny thing tucking her face into my fur and holding her stuffed T-Rex close. I smiled at that, then reached for the Omnitrix. I entertained the idea of turning into Four Arms before dismissing it. Better to keep him a secret for as long as possible. Plus, his strength and size might end up destroying the building due to how weak the building was. I'd go for strength without going overboard. I tapped the Omnitrix, transforming into something tough and strong enough to tear a hole in the building without hurting the child.

" **Rath!"**

The little girl seemed to find the sudden thicker fur of my new form comfortable. I gave her fond smile, then bent my legs, holding in my typical bombastic personality as Rath to keep from scaring her. With explosive force, I leaped upwards, crashing through the ceiling. The girl screamed, tiny right hand clutching at my fur and left hand holding her T-Rex close. I landed on the roof and jumped one more, landing on the sidewalk in front of the building, causing only minor cracks in the sidewalk, people leaping away from me and screaming in surprise at the giant tiger man coming out of the sky.

Firetrucks had shown up, staring at the foam covered building as they moved quickly to douse the remaining fire, water beginning to fall onto the crowd as they sprayed the building. I felt some water drip on me and held in a growl of annoyance. Rath didn't like water.

Hawkeye came gliding to join me as I looked around. I noticed the phones filming me, but ignored them. "Listen up! Rath wants to know who's cub this is!?" I raised her high over my head to make sure everyone in the crowd saw her and she could look for her parents. The girl looked around, rubbing at the tears on her chubby cheeks.

"That's my daughter!" A black woman cried out, rushing away from EMT's to come over to me. She had tear tracks going through the soot on her cheeks as she rushed forward. She hesitated, for the barest moment, when she realized just what was holding her daughter.

"Mommy!" the little girl wiggled in my grip. I gently put her down, and she rushed for her mother, who hugged her, the two crying openly.

I smiled at that as Hawkeye came over to join me. It was heartwarming.

"G-Get down on the ground!" the heartwarming moment was shattered when someone yelled at me. I blinked, turning to look.

A cop was pointing his gun at me. For a moment, we all stared at the guy.

"... No?" I said, confused. "Rath just helped everyone. Rath is starting to wonder if you're dumb, and that's saying something coming from Rath!" I finished bombastically.

People in the crowd giggled nervously. Hawkeye tapped his chest, his armor turning into his quiver. "Officer, we're Avengers. Please, put your-"

" _Hawkeye, Dial,"_ Maria said suddenly. _"We just got a message from a former SHIELD scientist by the name of Bill Foster! He's asking to be pulled in with an asset, and you two are the closest to him. I'm sending in a Quinjet."_

A Quinjet, one of the newer models, dropped out of the sky just a few moments after that message, hovering into the street and opening its back doors as people shouted and pointed. _"X tells us HYDRA is after them."_

Hawkeye and I shared a fast look then, turned and ran for the Quinjet.

"I said freeze!" the nervous cop yelled, shooting me in the back.

I ignored the bullet that bounced off me, leaping into the Quinjet and turning to look out. "Rath is going to go fight HYDRA! STAY BEAUTIFUL NEW YORK!" I raised my fists in the air, the Quinjet closing as cameras stayed on me and a laughing Hawkeye.

"That building there," the Quinjet pilot Maria had sent said. Apparently, he'd been on his way to the helicarrier and had been moved to pick Hawkeye and me up instead. He pointed at a warehouse next to the harbor, where another three Quinjets, HYDRA, were parked by the docks. Our Quinjet's cloaking was keeping us hidden for now. We were hundreds of feet above the building in question and still heading to it.

"Okay, swing over those Quinjets," Hawkeye said, his bow shifting as he moved towards the back of the Quinjet, with me following quickly.

"You want me to lower down, sir?" The pilot called back at Clint.

"Nah, I'm good," Clint lifted his purple bow and clenched his hand around the grip. When enough pressure was put on it, the bows catoms moved and flowed, more moving from the quiver on his back to add to it, making the overall bow thicker and longer, increasing its poundage. He picked an arrow tipped with a three-pronged hook from his quiver and pulled back on the bowstring as the Quinjets back door opened up, aiming for the enemy Quinjets' when we passed over them. "So, you think you'll take up archery?"

"I'm thinking about it," I admitted, watching him.

He fired three times. Seriously, that was how it felt. As though the motion of picking out an arrow, nocking it, pulling on the bow, and firing, was all as fast as though he'd simply been firing a gun. Damn. All three Quinjets had been hit at the exact point where the power could most easily be interfered with and the arrows sent catoms flooding through them, the tiny robots transforming to 'eat' at a three-foot radius from their point of entry.

"Let me know if you ever want lessons," Hawkeye said with a grin.

The Quinjet flew toward the warehouse and landed in front of it. I leaped out and landed on the ground.

"I'll keep an eye out!" Hawkeye yelled. I nodded, then activated the Omnitrix. Hawkeye's armor flowed back over him, turning him once more into an intimidatingly cloaked and armored being. He pointed his arm at a nearby building and tapped his fingers to his palm. A line shot out, the end tipped in a chemical based on Goop's adhesive, the end attaching. The powerful motor on the other end reeled in the line, shooting Hawkeye towards the roof. As he left, so did I.

I ran into the warehouse through a door that had been blown off its hinges while activating the Omnitrix.

" **Fasttrack!"**

" _There's a man being chased through one of the hallways,"_ Hawkeye said. _"That will be Bill Foster. I've got him. You want to focus on Ava Starr, she's the Enhanced HYDRA's after,"_ I heard the twang of a bow firing several times. _"Foster's headed to the extraction point. Looks like Ava was distracting the other soldiers. She's down the hall in a big room. She's fighting Centipede soldiers along with the normal HYDRA assholes. I'm giving her support."_

"Got it!" In seconds, I was down the hall and looking at a big room filled with crates. One of the doors was open, revealing the river outside the warehouse and giving the whole room the smell of the murky river. Soldiers were standing around pointing at a crate with their guns. Right up until an exploding arrow slammed into one's chest, piercing through the metal roof to make the shot.

 **BOOM!**

More arrows fly in, scattering the forces. I grabbed a soldier running by me and punched him a bunch of times in the chest, turning his ribs into dust, then rushing to the crate they'd been pointing at. Figuring this was where Ava was hiding, I ran around to get to her, only to blink at the sight.

Ava was Ghost. Except Ghost in the comics was a man. I mean, she had the same costume and everything, but she was clearly a woman. Pushing away my brief confusion, I waved at the white-helmeted woman.

"Hi, I'm Dial," I winced at how cheesy that sounded. "Wanna get out of here-"

"Look out!" she yelled, pointing behind me.

Time slowed from my speedy perspective. I turned to see a Centipede soldier coming out of the smoke, aiming to wrap his arms around me. I stepped into his grasp with my hands raised and started hitting him. Damn. Felt like punching steel. I bashed him in the chest as fast as I could, jabs, uppercuts, and hooks until I felt a couple of my knuckles split from the constant meeting of my fists to enhanced flesh covered in metal.

When he went flying back, I tried to smirk to make Ava feel less nervous. "Yeah, got to hit these guys a lot to cause any damage," I turned to her. "Come on!"

She got up and I quickly swept her into my arms. I ran out to the extraction point, slipping around soldiers with ease and keeping myself moving until we were outside.

Suddenly, Ava did... something, turning into the Ghost that gave her her codename. She went _through_ my arms, falling to the floor.

"What just happened!?" she yelled up at me as I blinked in surprise. "Did you just-"

"Ava!" the two of us looked up at the Quinjet parked in front of the warehouse, the back open. I found myself staring because inside was Laurence Fishburne, the guy who'd played one of my favorite characters in one of my favorite standalone movies ever. Because it had _NEVER_ gotten a sequel.

I watched as Ava ran into the Quinjet, hugging Bill Foster. "Huh. Morpheus. That's cool."

With that, I ran back into the warehouse as the Quinjet took off into the sky.

Inside, Hawkeye had pretty much finished most of the infantry, who were running out towards the Quinjets, leaving thirty of their people behind. The Centipede soldiers were still up and fighting though, six of them left. I entered the warehouse and tapped the Omnitrix, turning into someone a little stronger.

" **Blitzwolfer!"**

In my werewolf-like form, I towered over the men and women around me. One of the Centipede soldiers stepped forward to punch at me. I blocked it on my forearm and punched her in the face, dropping her to the ground. Two others rushing me got a quick sonic blast that sent them flying into crates, wood shattering under their bulk.

A hit to my lower back got a grunt of pain from me. I turned to see a tall man, who backflipped to hit me in the muzzle. I stumbled back as two other Centipede soldiers stepped in to punch me in the stomach.

" **ENOUGH!"** I roared/sonic blasted, sending all three flying. As they fell to the floor, I jumped on top of one and punched him in the face, knocking him out, blocked another as he rolled up to kick at me, and clawed his chest, leaving deep line across it. I roared once more, my sonic blast destroying crates behind the guy as he flew back into a wall, denting it massively. Then I tapped the Omnitrix symbol on my chest.

" **Goop!"**

Flying above the room, I spun at high speed and started firing pieces of myself at the soldiers still on the floor and the female one who'd just started to stand back up. I flowed through the room in my spinning form, adhesive goop slamming into the Centipede soldiers until they were all struggling to fight out of the powerful grip of the green slime surrounding their bodies. I stopped and shifted to my bipedal form to look around.

The female Centipede soldier, apparently thinking she'd snuck up on me, swung her fist into my back, coming out the other side in a splash of green liquid. I shifted my body, my head and limbs going the other way so I was facing her. Her blank face looked up at me.

"Rude," I said from the floating Anti-Gravity Projector above my Goop form. I flowed around and surrounded her, soaking her in my adhesive form, then moved away to leave her in a pile of adhesive. She struggled, left unable to move in the makeshifts bonds I'd created. For a moment, the room was quiet except for the sounds of Centipede soldiers fighting to escape. I noted how none of them really had expressions. It was kinda creepy. Even movie zombies at least growled or something. These guys and girls simply stared at me.

"All done?" I shifted my body to look at Hawkeye in his full armor, who shivered at the way my fluid body moved. "Seriously, that is crazy looking."

"Sorry!" I said in the robotic voice from my projector. In a flash of green light, I turned back into my human form. "Well, we have prisoners now, right?"

Suddenly, one of the Centipede soldiers began to scream. Hawkeye ran to him, leaning down. "Shit! They're trying to activate the kill switch in their eyes!"

It was something Coulson's Team had told us about. All Centipede soldiers had some useful upgrades, among them a slick eye implant that let them see through walls. But, it was also able to be used to kill the soldier. The ultimate way to keep your soldier from being interrogated was to simply kill them.

"Jarvis!" Hawkeye yelled.

" _I'm stopping them,"_ Jarvis said to us over comms. _"But their programming has been upgraded from what Skye and Fisk have told us. I'm pulling in X to help."_

More Centipede soldiers began to scream until all six of those awake were wailing in pain. Others, the ones I, Ava, and Hawkeye had killed or knocked out, started to shake before going still.

I tried to think of some way to help. Brute strength was off the table, Jury Rigg would take to long, soooo...

In a quick turn of the Omnitrix, I flipped through my Omnitrix's menu. In that time, two soldiers died, their right eyes twisting around in their sockets. I pushed the Omnitrix down and transformed. My skin became inky-black with green circuitry.

" **Upgrade!"**

I leaped towards the female soldier, my body slipping into her eye as she screeched in horror and pain.

"Oh my god!" Hawkeye yelled, the sight of my massive nanite form flowing into a woman through her right eye apparently surprising him. As the last of me entered with a 'slurp-slurp' sound, he held a hand over where his mouth would be under his helmet. "I'm going to be sick."

I ignored him, instead joining with the woman's implant. It was the work of a quick thought to disconnect her from her handlers network. I flowed through the rest of her only to meet with something interesting.

She had other nanotechnology in her body. And it was angry.

Where I had been thinking of myself as a fluid being, I was suddenly split into millions of tiny bodies, battling nano-sized beings that were constantly rewriting the woman's genetic code, giving her some of her superhuman strength and healing. They were also fucking crazy. If it wasn't for the strange makeup of her body, she would have started exploding at some point. As it was, her platelets had been modified to stop herself from doing that.

The nanotech, obviously Extremis, tried to attack my form, tearing at me. I took the blows and absorbed them, shifting them into becoming a part of me. I flowed through her, into the Centipede device, and winced mentally at the feel of the gamma radiation within it. Seriously, with the way her body had been set up, she'd soon self-destruct without constant maintenance. I didn't have time to fix it, however. The surviving Centipede soldiers were dying. Once I took over her form, I connected to the wireless unit that had been trying to kill her, piggybacking onto it and connecting with the surviving soldiers, Jarvis moving aside to allow me in. One more man died in that time. Then I disconnected them from the wireless, leaving the women connected. I flowed into that link, Jarvis joining with me as we bounced through the internet chasing our opponent. They tried to fight us, but I went through it. Just before I could find it, we received a message. A message that had been sent to someone on the other side. With some work, I realized I'd hacked the email of one of the Centipede soldiers handlers. The soldiers were being controlled. And the people controlling them were... Fuck.

In the millisecond it took to read it, I changed tactics.

"Shit, they're dying!" I said, sending malfunction reports, moving a portion of my body off the woman's shoulder to look around.

Hawkeye stared at me, giving the clearly alive Centipede soldiers a look.

" _Go with it, sir,"_ Jarvis sent him.

"Well, stop them!" Hawkeye yelled, moving to take a mans pulse.

"I'm trying!" I yelled dramatically, rereading the message. Once I knew what I had, Jarvis moved with me, calling out for X.

Soon the three of us had gotten everything. Some of the volunteers had been hired. But most were former computer technicians and such, normal people. They'd been pulled in using what HYDRA called the 'incentives program'. Blackmail.

What we found was a series of images of people. Women, men, children, all locked in rooms, some crying, some angry or confused. They all had guns aimed at them. Over each image was something simple, each personalized. Each horrific.

 _If you do not follow our orders we will kill them._

 _You want to see your wife again, don't you?_

 _Do as we say, or we'll kill your son._

Hostages. They were threatening to kill hostages in return for someone to help them. I pulled back, furious. If I went too far, then I'd end up getting innocents killed. I needed to work around HYDRA. We needed to find the facilities they were being held in first. Hill had to hear about this.

I sent false reports of the Centipede soldiers with us dying to the kill switch in their eyes before pulling back into the woman. I concentrated on her for a bit. First, use the Extremis nanotechnology to heal her. Then pull the cybernetics out of her, Extremis repairing her organs and right eye back as I removed the machinery connected to them. The Centipede device and Backscatter eye implant were joined to me.

I left her body through her eyes. In seconds, I was standing in front of her. She gave me a shuddering look. Then she passed out. As she slumped within Goop's green adhesive, I focused on the Extremis nanotech, Centipede implant, and the backscatter eye implant that were part of me, 'spitting' them onto the floor.

"...That was gross," Hawkeye stated, likely a little green under his helmet

"We have issues," I said, trying to show how I wasn't even sure what the hell I'd just done. "We need to talk to the Director."

 _Author's Note:_ By the way, Dial does know about the Matrix sequels. He just doesn't like them. Who does, really? I mean, I like some of the small portions, but the movies as a whole are not great. And even the first is kind of overrated.

As for the chapter as a whole, I had some trouble with the Upgrade scene. The point was to make it so that Dial would find out about the incentives program. Now that he knows, some ramifications he's not ready for might come up. After all, what's the point of hostages that might get rescued?


	37. Chapter 37

_**Ava Starr/Ghost**_

The woman known as Ghost was being hugged tightly to her adoptive father as they waited in a room together. She hadn't truly felt the need to hug or be hugged by him on most days, but this... felt necessary.

They'd been taken to a helicarrier, a massive flying ship, that was currently floating above the Avengers Tower. Apparently, it was called the _Enterprise_ , something that her father had found funny.

Ava sighed, looking at him. "How long do we have to wait?" she asked, indicating the white room they were waiting in, two chairs and a simple table being the only things inside. She winced as the constant pain that always filled her flared for a moment. She was still wearing her Ghost suit, though she'd removed her helmet. But the Ghost suit really didn't help as much anymore to prevent the pain.

"I don't know, Ava," Bill said, giving her a soft look. "But Fury promised to try and help us. To help _you._ "

"Was that before or after SHIELD turned out to be HYDRA?" Ava asked, her voice becoming vicious.

Bill winced, his arms tightening around his daughter. "After, technically... They offered me my old job. I think, with their resources-"

"Who's to say they won't just keep doing what they were before!?" Ava went intangible, moving away from her father to stand in the center of the room. "Just turning me into a weapon, feeding me lines about they'll help me!"

"Ava..." Bill said, standing up as well.

"You know it's true!" Ava shouted, spinning to glare at him. "Why did you call them!? Why didn't we just escape? What if they just keep using us!?"

Before he could respond, the door to the room opened. A woman, tall and fit, wearing a blue jumpsuit with her black hair done up, strode inside. Behind her was a young man. He was slightly shorter than the woman was, with dark skin calling to an Arabian or possibly Indian heritage, long hair pulled back into a ponytail, and short scruffy beard, his large bare arms revealed by the Iron Man t-shirt he was wearing. The woman smiled at the pair.

"I'm not planning on doing any such thing," she said simply.

Ava and Bill shared a look.

"Who are you?" Ava asked coldly.

"I'm Maria Hill, Director of BRIDGE," Maria said, crossing her arms behind her back and gesturing to the man behind her. "And this is Mahmoud Schahed, Dial of the Reserve Avengers."

"Reserve?" Bill asked, curiosity in his voice.

"We're thinking about a name change," the young man said, smiling. He had a dimple in his right cheek when he smiled, something that made him look even younger.

"I thought we were meeting Nick Fury," Ava said.

"He's in the midst of picking up someone we are considering under threat," Maria said. "That said, I can help you with any concerns you have."

"And if we just leave?" Ava asked.

"Ava..." Bill said softly.

"No, I want to know!" Ava felt her body twist through existence, unable to stay together through her agitation. "What if I don't want your help!?"

"..." Maria looked over at Mahmoud. He looked out of his depth. After a moment, he shrugged. Maria turned around frowning before speaking. "We'd want to at least some way to contact you. And you would have to sign a contract promising not to use your powers to hurt others or for ill-gain, with the understanding that such actions will result in BRIDGE coming after you."

"BRIDGE?" Bill asked.

"Bureau of Reconnaissance, Intelligence, Development, and General Enhancement," Mahmoud explained. "We really wanted to spell 'bridge'," he finished sheepishly.

Ava ignored that. "You'd just let us go?"

"No," Maria said with a frown. "The fact is, your powers are unique. Others might try to find you the way HYDRA did, try to kill or use you. But you would be allowed to refuse any help we might offer. All we'd do is keep in eye on you, to keep you safe and keep you from causing harm with your powers."

Ava scowled, stepping forward. Mahmoud, to her surprise, stepped forward as well.

For a moment, Ava met eyes with the brown-skinned man across from her, noting his nerdy shirt, ridiculous backpack, and bright green watch. He looked like a geek. A muscular geek, but a geek. But he was simply meeting her eyes, not flinching as she felt her body tear itself over and over, shifting her around into flickering images.

"How about you see what we want to do to help you?" Maria offered.

Ava looked over at her, which Maria seemed to take as acceptance. "We're pulling experts on Quantum mechanics in, and have some of our people studying your machine," Maria said, looking at Dr. Foster. "We've actually made some headway into that."

"Using quantum batteries," Mahmoud said. "It's something we made for our equipment. We'll be able to plug you into the Quantum realm. We're just dealing with something... unexpected, but Tony, uh, Tony Stark that is, says he's confident we can help you."

"And what do you want in return?" Dr. Foster asked, the older man crossing his arms. "I won't do anything that hurts Ava, especially if you keep forcing her to kill."

Maria crossed her arms, sighing. "Well, I'd hoped to possibly invite her to join the Avengers-"

"Not happening," Ava spat out, shifting briefly around the room. "I'm done."

"Then I suppose we'll simply do our best to cure you," Maria looked at Dr. Foster. "Will you be accepting our offer of employment, Doctor?"

Bill seemed surprised. "Um... what would that entail?"

"Working with our research and development team to help us with some of our projects," Maria said. "We are interested in your knowledge on Pym Particles of course, especially since we've had no luck contacting Hank Pym," Maria raised an eyebrow when Dr. Foster's fist clenched. Ava scowled at the name of the man who had ruined her biological fathers' life. "Well, more that he refuses to talk to us. For now, your insight could be invaluable."

The older man rubbed his chin, sighing slightly. "...Ava?"

She looked around. The man, Mahmoud, was eyeing her calmly. Seriously, _this_ guy was an Avenger? Maria was just as relaxed, while her adoptive father was simply waiting for her response.

In truth, she had no idea what to think. SHIELD, HYDRA, BRIDGE. What was the difference? She'd spent years, being led by false promises, killing people, giving up pieces of her soul for the mere chance to get rid of the pain that had plagued her since childhood... But some part of her wanted to reach out and take another chance. Just once more.

"Only if Dr. Foster is there," Ava said, still glaring at Mahmoud as she spoke to Maria.

Bill looked between Ava and Mahmoud before sighing. "Okay. Then we're in."

"Great," Mahmoud said with a smile.

"Excellent," Ava replied more coldly.

They kept eyeing each other, Mahmoud apparently confused. Ava wasn't sure what she disliked about him. Maybe it was the careless way he carried himself, as though he'd never faced real issues. Maybe it was the way he was clearly challenging her. But he rubbed her the wrong way.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

"What the hell was her problem?" I grumbled after meeting Ava Starr and Bill Foster. What should have been a cool moment, meeting Goliath as played by Morpheus, had been ruined by Ava's hostility.

And the thing is, I wasn't sure what I'd done wrong. At one point, she'd stepped forward as though about to attack and I'd stepped forward to intercept. And it was as though she'd never been so insulted. It wasn't like she hated me I guess, more that I was the sort of person who she couldn't get along with. I just didn't get it. And I tend to be the sort of person who obsesses when people dislike me. I can't help it. It's a flaw that doesn't come up often, but if someone ends up disliking me, I tend to obsess about it for years after, resenting them. Imply I'm stupid, unfunny, annoying, whatever it is, I'll think about it for the rest of my life. It ain't attractive, and I try to do better. But right then, trying wasn't helping.

I was musing on this in my room, during my downtime. Trying to push the thought away, I looked around for something to get my mind off it.

My eyes panned to the video game system and TV, and I thought about seeing what video games were like in a Stark-designed world. Then I dismissed it. After the Omnitrix, I just couldn't see much interesting about video games, at least not right then. I turned on the TV anyway, switching it to the news, then grabbed my BRIDGE issue tablet and powered it up as I paced.

I had some messages waiting already. Skye reminding me of my appointment to make her armor and hang out. The contract from Stark Industries merchandising department I had to sign. Mostly to use my image, aliens, and property in their products, which I read slowly before signing. Fitz-Simmons had finished their new machine, and the Claytronic maker was officially in working order.

After a frustrated moment, I tossed aside the tablet and laid back against the couch. It was supposed to be my downtime. But I couldn't think of anything to do and everyone else was busy...

Fuck it.

I got up and went to the window, reaching for the Omnitrix when there was a knock on the door.

"..." I stared at the door for a moment, then back outside the window, where New York awaited. Another knock at the door came. I sighed and turned away from the window, walking towards the door and opening it.

Clint, Creel, Bucky, Sam, Steve, and Tony were standing there, all of them holding paper bags. I blinked. "Uh... hey guys. What's up?"

"Sup!" Clint pushed his way inside, the others following. "I heard you were moping in your room."

"I wasn't moping," I grumbled, watching as the superheroes and former supervillains strode into my room. "What's going on?"

"Movie night," Tony said cheerily, the billionaire holding bags full of junk food. "Well, day I guess. Hill gave us a few hours to relax, so we came down here."

"You don't mind, do you?" Steve asked, concerned. "I didn't know they were springing this on you," Steve gave Tony and Clint a glare. Both men grinned at him as they put down the food they'd brought.

"No, I don't mind," I said, deciding to go with the flow.

"Good, because I'm getting drunk," Creel said, heading towards my kitchen.

"Can't," Sam called out to him. "We've still got to get back to work after this!"

"Plus, I don't have alcohol," I said, grinning at the disappointed look on Creel's face. I walked to my couch and sat on the floor, leaning back against it. "What are we watching?"

" _Frankenstein, Alien,_ and _The Thing_ ," Bucky answered with a grin. The former Winter Soldier seemed to be almost trying a bit awkwardly to have fun, sitting down on the couch with more energy than required, but none of us commented on it.

"Jarvis?" Tony said, grabbing a bag of barbeque chips.

" _Already playing sir,"_ the AI said.

Soon, we were watching classic horror movies together. I looked around and found myself grinning. It's good to have friends.

 _ **Samuel Sterns/The Leader**_

In his lab, Sterns worked carefully, putting the final touches on the chemical he'd been putting together for the past few minutes. As he worked with the blue liquid, John Garrett walked into the room.

"Hey, Big Head!" Garrett said jauntily. "All done?"

Sterns held in his anger. Garrett was rude, uncouth, and useless. The only use he had, as far as Sterns could tell, was that he had men under his command. The HYDRA leaders had some sort of use, but Garrett? Sterns only held his control with great discipline, an easy task for a genius of his caliber, and something Garrett didn't deserve.

"Yes, I believe I am," Sterns looked up as another person walked into the room. "Young Raina. You have the final component?"

"Yes, Doctor Sterns," Raina said with a bright smile, the young black woman wearing a pretty silk blue dress with flowers all across it.

"You sweet talking my girl, Sterns?" Garrett asked with a grin as Raina handed Sterns a blue vial.

Sterns held in his thoughts on that. "Raina has been helping me. She really has quite the gift for genetics," Sterns poured the contents of the blue vial in with other chemicals. "Sadly, synthesizing this has been quite difficult, and some of the versions I've created broke down. But this is the final and completed serum. Thankfully for you, I've gained quite a bit of experience in alien genetics recently," Sterns poured all of it into a glass and handed it to Garrett. "Go ahead and drink that."

"What, just like that?" Garrett eyed the blue fluid within the glass. "I thought it would be a bit more... complex. Although I do like that one of my fellow death cult members is handing me kool-aid."

"Yes, very quaint," Sterns sighed. "Now, please leave."

Garrett blinked at Sterns. "Thought you'd be more excited about this stuff, Sterns. You know this Jesus juice can bring the dead back to life, right?"

The gamma-enhanced genius smirked. "Yes, I do. And while I'm sure less intellectual minds would find that interesting, I foresee far better things in my research."

After a moment, the other man shrugged before drinking the blue liquid. For a moment, nothing happened. Then Garrett gasped, his back twisting as he stumbled. Raina and Sterns watched him calmly as he fell to his knees, eyes wide. "What... what is this?"

"Power, I suppose," Sterns said simply.

"With Dr. Sterns help, I've been able to make incredible progress in my research," Raina added with a sweet, cold smile. "With all of the enhancements already in your body..."

Sterns turned and walked away, leaving Garrett to heal. Raina followed.

As the gamma-enhanced genius walked through the halls, he could hear Garrett laughing deliriously in the background. All according to plan. When Sterns had realized that there was a sort of genetic memory in the blood of whatever alien the vials Garrett had given came from, he'd come upon a plan.

Garrett was an issue. For all of his crudeness, he had men and resources that he'd allowed Strucker to use. Garrett gave Strucker manpower that the leader of HYDRA wouldn't otherwise have. But, if Garrett became so obsessed that he decided to cut ties with Strucker... well, Sterns hadn't had to work very hard to make sure the serum he'd given Garrett would give him an extra dose of the genetic memories within them.

"Raina," Sterns said as they walked together.

"Yes, doctor?" Raina asked politely.

"Is Project: Blood Diamond ready?"

"Of course," Raina said, following Sterns through the castle. "The subject is now under our control, and the crystals have been placed in the particle infusion chamber. She's been injected with the purified serum you created, though I should warn you we had to use the only one you created."

"Wonderful," Sterns said with a smile. "Do you know the story of how HYDRA obtained her?"

"They found her in Mexico, right?" Raina asked.

Sterns chuckled. "Yes, they did. And that was when HYDRA came into conflict with another organization. When HYDRA took her, this organization attacked them. Now, I haven't found any records of what that group was called. But they followed this young woman wherever HYDRA hid her, calling her 'Black Sky'. HYDRA and this organization killed each other across America, all over her."

Raina stared at him, surprised. "Why did this organization stop?"

"In an ingenious maneuver, HYDRA faked her death in an explosion," Sterns smiled. "But make no mistake. If this organization is still around, and they find that she is alive? I do believe they would do anything they could to capture her."

The pair walked into a room. Inside, the subject of their conversation was sitting placidly on a bed as scientists roamed around her.

"Are you ready, my dear?" Sterns asked the blank-faced girl.

She'd changed since he'd last seen her. Still thin, almost painfully so, but her once matted black hair was now clean and combed. She wore white patients clothes and looked up at Sterns. Sterns noted that unlike others, she didn't seem to notice his massively enlarged head, only meeting his eyes placidly.

"Estoy feliz de cumplir," the young woman said.

"Ah, my dear girl," Sterns said fondly, shaking his head. "Such a sweetheart now. Please," he gestured to the large gray metal tube that had opened up to reveal a space large enough to sit in. "Enter the chamber."

Without hesitation, the girl rose up and walked over to it, standing inside and lying back as the three large rectangular lights on either side of her glowed within the chamber.

"Are you sure this will work?" Raina asked. When Sterns scowled at the perceived insult, she hurried to continue. "I trust your calculations, Doctor. But it seems... fantastic."

Sterns slowly softened. "Yes, I suppose it does. But the chamber has been tested before, and I believe now we have found the perfect material to make use of and a subject most likely to survive the process."

Strucker came through the door then, followed as always by Rana Williams in her Aberration form. Sterns held in a sigh of disappointment at the sight of Rana being so loyal. What a waste. Such beautiful power, all wasted in servitude to... Well. To each their own.

"Excited, Strucker?" Sterns asked as the chamber closed around the young girl within it.

"In many ways, yes," Strucker admitted. "I was first put on this project by Whitehall himself. While Creel was quite the success, his abilities were far too... temporary, for our tastes. Seeing what you make here will be interesting."

For once, Sterns didn't feel distaste towards Strucker. In this, both men were in total agreement. While Strucker could never match the incredible brilliance and magnificent intellect within Sterns, he was still a scientist.

"I suppose we should begin," Sterns said with a smile. "One hundred percent."

"One hundred, sir?" the black haired scientist at the massive cube device next to the chamber asked, shocked.

"Did he stutter?" Strucker said with a frown.

"N-No sir," the scientist leaned down, his face distressed, and began to activate it. The gray cube held all the materials they'd chosen within, ready to be used for the process.

Sterns looked into the window on the chamber, where the girl was staring out calmly. "Now, according to all our research, a person who is already enhanced will more easily accept further enhancements. Raina, why do you believe that is?"

The young woman smiled. "Because their genetics are more capable of withstanding and healing side effects?"

A crude answer. Sterns felt disappointed, but he easily hid it with fake pride. "Indeed, my dear."

Raina smiled, easily fooled. Sterns had her pegged. She wanted to be special, to become someone with power and beauty. Raina's sin was greed. It made her dangerous, but it also made her easy to draw into the influence of others. All Sterns needed was time with her.

He put away that thought to focus on the Particle Infusion Chamber. The panels behind the device began to glow.

"I am saddened we lost our original choice for this experiment," Strucker said. "But losing Ruby Hale and gaining this young woman may have been to our advantage."

"Does she even have a name?" Rana asked, standing next to Raina. Despite their similar names, the two couldn't have been more different, Rana towering over the smaller woman.

"Hm," Strucker said, adjusting his monocle. "I'm not sure."

Suddenly the girl within the chamber grimaced, gritting her teeth. Raina frowned, sharing a glance Sterns, who simply smiled.

The girl shouted, then roared, a surprisingly intimidating sound. Strucker stepped forward with a fascinated look in his eyes.

"How much?" Sterns asked the scientist at the controls.

"Fifty-nine percent infusion!" the man yelled, with far more emotion than Sterns really felt was necessary for what amounted to a medical procedure.

The girl shouted again, eyes snapping open. As they watched, her eyes began to change color.

"Is that supposed to happen?" Rana asked, the gamma-enhanced woman staring.

"It's the DNA of the material imposing itself," Sterns said calmly. "How much?"

"It's accelerating! Seventy... Eighty... One hundred percent, that's all of it!"

The lights across the machine shut down, the panels behind it turning off as well. The chamber opened and the girl was revealed.

She was panting, her chest heaving as she sweated, soaking her clothes. The thin young woman stared around angrily, hissing.

Rana still in her monstrous form, stepping in front of Strucker, only for him to shake his head and step forward.

The girl's eyes glowed a bright yellow. No, they didn't glow. It was more like... they'd become that way. They had turned into smooth topaz-like gems, the light making them glitter.

"Show us," Strucker said softly. "Show us what you can do."

She twisted her wrists. From each hand, in between pinkie and ring finger, and her middle finger and index finger, four blue-green crystals shot out, two for each hand. They were shaped like curved blades, claws of crystal. The girl grunted in pain as blood poured from the holes the claws ripped in her hands to come out but didn't seem too bothered otherwise, the bleeding stopping almost immediately as the wounds healed around the claws. She focused once more, and a ripping sound was heard as she stumbled out of the chamber. From her back, shoulders, and along her arms, more crystals sprouted, piercing her skin and ripping at her clothes. She closed her eyes, and all the crystals pulled back except the ones in her hands, leaving her clothes to flutter to the ground as she stared at them with calm eyes. All the holes in her skin sealed, then healed over in moments.

"Incredible," Strucker said, gently removing his coat and stepping forward. He eyed the blood on her body and claws before chuckling. "Truly," he said, putting his coat around the girl. "You are a Blood Diamond."

The girl stared blankly, her claws glittering in the light as topaz colored gems gazed upon them.

 _Author's Note:_ Oh boy. People are either going to love or hate this chapter. Okay. One at a time.

People seemed to think Ava would have a crush on Dial or something, but they're two people who just wouldn't get along. One is kind of a jerk, the other is a bit naive. There are more differences, but Ava and Dial are not going to get along easily.

As for Blood Diamond, she's a culmination of various things. While she is a shoutout to Laura/X-23, she's got powers closer to a fusion of Spike from the X-Men with Diamondhead. Her DNA has the regenerative serum Sterns created, Petrosapien DNA, and the mystic power of a Black Sky.

That said, easier to think of her as a Laura expy.

Oh right, and the boys are having a movie night, sans Fitz and Bruce. They're only watching a couple movies, since they only have so much time to relax as a group. Later I'll show what everyone else is doing today.


	38. Chapter 38

"Oh my god!" Steve yelled in horror as we watched a snake-like creature burst from John Hurt's chest. The super-soldier yelled again, ignoring Tony laughing at him.

"Whoa," Bucky said, blinking as the crew of the Nostromo screamed in horror at the sight of their friend giving what I've heard described as 'violent chest birth.'

"How awesome is that!?" I yelled, grinning at the reactions of Bucky and Steve. "And you guys thought it wouldn't be scary!" I thought about mentioning how the actors fear was real since the directors had never told them what was going to happen. But that was better told after the movie, to make it better for a second watch.

Steve continued to stare, eyes wide with shock. Bucky only shook his head, not as shocked, but still looking surprised. Guess everyone reacts differently to the chestburster scene.

We'd watched Frankenstein already, of course, so Alien had been the obvious next film. As Steve and Bucky continued to watch though, I realized eyes were on me.

I looked around. Creel, Sam, Tony, and Clint were all staring at me. No, wait. They were staring at the Omnitrix.

A sigh left my lips as I rolled my eyes. "I told you, there are no Xenomorphs in the Omnitrix."

"Oh yeah, but there are _Frankenstein aliens?_ " Creel pointed out smugly.

"I'm with Mr. Periodic Table over there, I'm not taking your word for it," Tony said with a grunt. "Barton told us about you going into that ladies eye."

"Her eye was cybernetic!" I complained, leaning away from the couch to look at a disgusted Tony. "It's just how Upgrade works!"

"..." Bucky stared at me, his robotic arm very carefully moving to hide behind his back.

Before I could decide if that was speciesist towards Upgrade or not, Sam sighed. When I looked at him, his mind clearly wasn't on the movie. I nudged him until he looked at me.

"You okay?" I asked, slightly concerned.

"...Just want to go on the next mission. Feels like we should be doing something right now," he admitted.

The mood lowered. In truth, I think we all felt that way. Like we were just forcing things.

"We'll go soon," Steve said, putting a hand to Sam's shoulder. Bucky frowned at that but didn't speak. "We're just waiting for Hill to finish the interrogations. In the meantime, we need to take our chance to breathe. Too much time on the front lines will wear anyone down, you know it as well as we do, Sam."

"I wonder how those interrogations are going anyways," Creel said idly.

"Probably great," Tony said with a smirk. "I heard she's threatening to sick Upgrade on the Centipede soldiers."

"Seriously?" I asked incredulously.

"Well, the ones who weren't being given 'incentive'," Tony said with disgust. "Apparently the chick you 'cured' is screaming about how you stole her powers."

I had no idea what to think of that... I thought I'd been doing a kindness, considering how destroyed her metabolism had been

Steve sighed, reaching for the remote and pausing the movie. We probably weren't going to focus on the movie anyway. "Hill says that she's working to find the people who are being held hostage, but it'll take some time," Steve shook his head, a deep sadness in his eyes. "Still no word on Sharon, Trip, and Jennifer though."

"Well with that, the mood is officially ruined," Clint mumbled, though he seemed as dismayed as the rest of us.

Sam gave Clint a look, shrugging. "Sorry, Clint."

"What, for ruining a party?" Tony asked sarcastically, grabbing a package of Oreos and taking a stack of them out. "Turning us all into angst-ridden teenagers?"

"Tony," Steve said, glaring at him. "Sam's right. We're trying but... I think we all know HYDRA is on our minds."

"Hey, I'm just saying," Tony replied. "Could have spent a bit of time talking about how there are apparently alien Frankensteins out there in the universe. Instead, we're talking about HYDRA again. I'm seriously getting tired of those guys dominating my thought processes these days. Could be making more cool toys with those brain cells."

In his defense, Tony was right. Ever since the Triskelion, pretty much every conversation I'd been in came back to HYDRA at some point. Seriously, I was pretty sure the Avengers ended up fighting other bad guys. Where were AIM, Ultron, Galactus? ...Actually, thinking about the last one, I felt a bit of relief in retrospect. I didn't want to even _see_ Galactus without at least Atomix helping me.

"That's the way war is," Steve said with the wise and sad voice of experience. "HYDRA is always going to be in the back of our minds."

Tony didn't seem satisfied with that. I don't think any of us were.

"Well, on that depressing note," I said with a sigh, rising off the floor. "I gotta meet Skye. You guys can hang out here, just please clean up when you finish," I directed the last bit more at Sam and Steve, the ones I actually trusted to do it.

"Skye, huh?" Tony said with a glimmer in his eyes I didn't like.

I decided to ignore him, said my goodbyes, and walked out to head to the elevator. It didn't take long to get to the Claytronics lab from there. Inside I found Fitz-Simmons and Bruce were there working already. As soon as I stepped in, Fitz-Simmons were on me.

"We heard you met Dr. Foster!" Simmons said excitedly.

"What was he like?" Fitz added with equal amounts of enthusiasm.

"Did he talk about working with Dr. Pym?"

"Did he say he'll help us make Pym Particles?"

"Can you imagine the implications?" Simmons asked Fitz, looking positively giddy.

"God, yes," Fitz said with a sigh. "Being able to make any material you need giant sized-"

"Creating full sized machinery, then shrinking them to a nano-molecular level," Simmons continued.

"Nano-surgery, super-precise manufacturing, scientific study on a molecular level...!" Fitz replied.

Seeing that I was no longer necessary for their conversation, I stepped around them to walk towards Bruce, who was working on his own project now.

"Any luck?" I asked him as he worked at a computer.

He shook his head, taking his glasses off to rub at his eyes. "Not so far. I really thought this was worth a shot, but something keeps blocking me."

I grunted in acknowledgment. Since finding out gamma-enhanced beings were being created and used, Bruce had started using a method he'd developed with Tony during the hunt for Loki to try and track gamma radiation activity that could match what HYDRA was doing. But apparently, HYDRA had planned ahead for that.

"Hey, Mahmoud," I turned to see Skye walk in, grinning at me. I smiled back. "You ready?"

"Yep," I said with a grin. "We just need a blood sample," I turned to where Simmons and Fitz were still getting hyped for Pym Particles. "Simmons?"

"Hm?" Simmons turned to look at me, then smiled at the sight of Skye. "Hey, Skye!"

"Hey guys," Skye said with a returning grin. "Mahmoud says I need to give a blood sample?"

"Oh, it's to make sure no one else can use whatever armor you get," Fitz said, the two British genius walking over to the Claytronics Nanoforge, newly named after Tony cracked one too many jokes about the other name.

Simmons went over to her station, which was a lot cleaner than mine. In my defense, Jury Rigg was very untidy, in the sort of organized chaos kinda way where he knew where everything was, even if no one else could figure it out. Simmons pulled out a syringe and turned.

"Um, actually," Bruce interrupted, walking towards her. "I'm going to get a set for myself as well."

We all stopped to stare at him. Bruce blinked, blushing slightly.

"You want armor?" Skye asked, looking much like I felt. "I mean, the Hulk in Iron Man armor is kind of-"

"-overkill," I finished. "And _I'm_ saying that. But hell, I'm down to do it."

Bruce chuckled. "No, uh, I just want to have something that will change with me. Something tough enough to take some hits. That way I can stop spending so much on extra pants."

"No extra bells and whistles?" Fitz asked, sounding excited. "We can give you the sword we gave Mahmoud and Isabelle?"

"A sword?" Skye asked me. "Isn't that a bit redundant?"

"Right up until I cut Wendigo's arm off," I said in reply, crossing my arms. It was honestly one of my proudest moments. Granted, it had been scary as fuck at the time, but taking on a giant monster with a suit of power armor was still a cool moment for me. "And Fitz has a point, Bruce. Having some weapons for Hulk in an emergency would be good... and it's worked before."

Bruce, one of the few people who knew I had some knowledge of alternate universes, seemed thoughtful. Skye turned to me. "So what about me? Do I get an Iron Man armor?"

"As soon as we get your blood work in," I said simply, looking Skye up and down. Skye was one of a few people I interacted with who didn't have a comic book counterpart, most of whom were in Coulson's team. I didn't remember anyone named 'Skye No-Last-Name' in the comics. "What were you looking for, anyway? Something like what Pepper got?"

"Yeah, basically," Skye watched as Simmons pulled out a blood sample from her arm, wincing a bit. "Just flying would be cool. I always wanted superpowers, you know?"

I felt the same way. Having the Omnitrix was a dream come true really, even though I was nowhere close to unlocking it's real potential yet. Flying at sonic speeds with Astrodactyl, running through New York like the Flash with Fasttrack, brawling with the power of Rath or Four Arms, feeling power run through me as Frankenstrike, _feeling_ the world as Wildmutt and Bliztwolfer, or the brilliance of Jury Rigg, and the feel of merging with tech as Upgrade. I'd often dreamed of having just one of those powers. Now that I had them all, I really felt like giving people some portion of them would be awesome.

"Okay, let's look at your blood in the new genetic sequencer," Simmons said, putting Skye's blood inside before going to Bruce. I went over to the machine myself, curious. Skye walked over as well.

The machine was basically a microwave with a computer screen on top. Mostly because Jury Rigg had made it out of a microwave, a computer screen, and Fitz's smartphone.

"Still can't believe you stole my phone and broke it," Fitz said sourly, glaring at me.

I winced. "Sorry, Jury Rigg just kinda got in the zone. Besides, we got the genetic sanguine sequencer out of it," even if the name Jury Rigg insisted on was kinda dumb. 'Sanguine', really? Plus, Simmons apparently hated the name for its inaccuracy.

Fitz glared at me harder in the memory of his phone. I focused very hard on the computer screen.

"What does this thing do anyway?" Skye asked me.

"Well, all sorts of things, really. But it's going to be the only one of it's kind for a while," since Skye's DNA was taking a while to be read, I switched the screen over to some of the stored data. "I made it to be able to read and interpret the genes and such of people. I'm not much of a scientist, sadly, so I can only really give layman's terms about what it does. Uh, sorry in advance for how dumbed down this is going to sound to you, guys," I said to Bruce and Simmons.

"Oh, don't worry," Simmons said, giving me a smile as she took Bruce's blood. "I don't expect you to know anything," when I gave her a look, she seemed to realize what she had said, and became very flustered. "Um, I didn't mean-"

"I get it," I said, sighing a bit. Real tough being the dumb one in the room when not in alien form. Can't wait to unlock Grey Matter or Brainstorm... "Anyways, basically it reads DNA like I said. This is Tony's," I showed the swirling pillar of sequences to Skye, who at least feigned interest. "And here's how it compares to Steve's."

Skye blinked, noticing what I did. The sequencer flashed at the differences in Tony and Steve's DNA. The super-soldier serum had made a whole lot of things more... refined in Steve's DNA. I could barely understand the differences and what they meant, but they were what made him a super badass patriot.

Then I showed mine, and Skye looked up at me. "Why is your DNA changed too?"

I pointed at the Omnitrix. "It's bonded to my DNA. Anyone trying to steal the Omnitrix without knowing how my baby works will get nothing but trouble."

Skye's DNA was still being read. I took the sample of Bruce's blood from Simmons and put it in the machine. When I tapped at the screen, one of Jury Rigg's programs activated.

"Oh, come on," I grunted in annoyance. Instead of DNA, footage from _Godzilla vs Megalon_ popped up. I slapped the machine as Skye gave me an amused look. At which point a panel rose up and slapped me right back in the face.

'Of course, Jury Rigg would make that a feature,' I mentally grumbled as I nurse my nose and pride as Skye tried hard to suppress her laughter. To little success based off her growing laughter.

"Huh," Bruce said as Godzilla slid on his tail to slam his feet into Megalon while Jet Jaguar held the monster in place. "That's... not really plausible."

"Yeah well, that's the magic of Godzilla in the _Showa Era_ of movies. Less about reality, more about fun," I looked up at the group. "Simmons, Fitz, can you guys-"

"Yes, let me," Fitz stepped forward and started to type at the screen as giant monsters continued to fight. He somehow turned it off, then activated the program again, bringing up Bruce's DNA. "Okay, Simmons?"

"Yes, right there," the redhead pointed at the DNA. "Is that the Gamma gene, or some evidence of the Hulk?"

"I have no idea," Bruce admitted. "I'd need to find someone with the gene who isn't already enhanced."

"Well, Skye's DNA is next. And it's..." I stopped, staring at her DNA. "...Goddamn it."

Skye stared at me, surprised. "What, what's wrong?"

I sighed. "I'm just tired of surprises, Skye," I pointed at the screen, rubbing my eyes. "Your DNA is human, but only about 99.8 percent. The rest is something new."

"The Gamma-gene?" Simmons asked, sounding fascinated.

"Or maybe from when we injected her with the GH.325 formula?" Fitz continued.

Skye looked a little freaked out at this point. "Guys, what does this mean?"

I kept rubbing my eyes, feeling a little overwhelmed. Kidnapped allies, Graveyard refugees, Gamma-enhanced beings, cyborgs, a Quantum powered assassin, and now a friend with clearly modified DNA. This was getting exhausting. There were so many balls up in the air for me now. And the worst part was, I knew it was selfish to think that way. Skye was giving me a hurt look, clearly pained at the idea that I was treating her like a problem.

"You should be good," I said with a smile. "Just in case, Omnitrix? Can you detect any damage to Skye's genetics?"

" _Skye's DNA is undamaged,"_ the Omnitrix said in my voice after a quick scan.

"Then what's wrong with me?" Skye said, sounding shaky. Bruce stepped into her line of sight getting her attention.

"Don't worry," the older man said. "We'll figure it out. We've got enough geniuses in this building to find out what's happening, okay?" his smile was gentle. "Believe me, I know what you're feeling... at least, on some level."

Skye didn't seem calmer, and I only frowned.

What was it? The Gamma gene? Was she part alien, or even just a latent superhuman like the Inhumans, X-Men, or even some sort of magically enhanced person?

"Fuck it," I said simply, shutting down the machine.

"Mahmoud?" Skye asked me, confused.

I glared around. "I promised armor. I'm making armor."

"I think we have bigger issues-" Simmons said gently.

"We'll always have bigger issues," I said as firmly as I could. "There'll always be another bad guy, another superhero, another assassin, another world ending or controlling threat, more of us getting hurt, more of us finding some deep dark secrets we didn't even know about ourselves at times," I looked around. "Who cares? I want to make power armor for my friend so we can go flying together. I'm going to focus on that now. Skye? You want to choose the color?"

Skye looked at me. When she spoke, it sounded a little forced. "Well... I do like pink. And orange. But those wouldn't be good colors."

Yeah, little forced. But I'd go with it. I went to the Claytronics Nanoforge and started moving the display around. "Yeah, you'd end up looking like a Power Ranger with either of those. Not saying Power Rangers aren't awesome, but..."

Simmons, Fitz, and Bruce gave Skye and I a look as I forcibly ignored the issue of Skye's DNA.

"I'll... run tests," Simmons said, giving Skye a worried look. "I'll have to inform the director."

Skye frowned. "...yeah. Okay."

Simmons gave her an apologetic smile. Going to the machine, she hesitated. "Dark blue was always a good color for you?"

Skye looked up at Simmons, giving her a smile and nodding. "Yeah, I think that would be good. Mahmoud?"

"Dark blue," I nodded, tapping at the controls and shifting the color screen. "The design will be similar to the Iron Legion and Pepper's armor, with the defenses and such. Any extras?"

As Skye moved up to chose her armor, I tried to focus on her. It was oddly easy for me.

Still, Skye's odd DNA was exactly why I would never mass-produce or improve on the genetic sequencer. A machine that could read DNA, find what was 'superior', what was different or strange? Yeah, knowing the Marvel universe, that was something I didn't want getting into the wrong hands. People would either become Magneto or Trask. Using the thing to decide who was and wasn't human, when the difference was negligible.

Screw that. Being human wasn't the difference. Being sentient, being capable of giving a damn for others regardless of race or origin, that was what mattered. Azmuth made the Omnitrix to be the best tool for ambassadors, to allow someone to walk in another species' shoes alongside it's other functions. If I had to use it to represent and protect humans, super-soldiers, gamma-enhanced, cyborgs, metahumans, and people like Skye, then I'd do it, alongside all the aliens.

I pushed aside those melodramatic thoughts and focused once more on making power armor for Skye.

"Just be careful with it," I said to her as we worked. "No fighting unless necessary."

"Got it," she confirmed.

 _January 19th, 2014_

The day after finding out about Skye's DNA, we caught a break in the hunt.

"The facility is the last place we managed to track all the communications to," Hill said from across the hologram of the facility in question. In the main gathering room for our forces in the _Enterprise_ were three groups. One was the Avengers, all of the original founders in the center, with Steve closest to Hill. The second was us Reserve Avengers, Sam standing behind Steve, me next to Rhodey.

The third group was a mixture of new and old, joined by someone I was kinda giddy/terrified to see.

Frank Castle, the Punisher himself, was in the center of BRIDGE's new Elite unit, looking like he didn't know what to think, but still being professional as possible. He wasn't as massively muscled as I was used to, and he was only wearing the BRIDGE casual uniform of a blue sweater, but it was the Punisher, before his wife and kids were killed. Which I was damn well going to keep from happening. He was sitting on a metal folding chair with the other Elite's, all of them watching Maria give the briefing. Coulson and his people were there as well, Coulson looking pissed.

"As far as we can tell, this place was a decommissioned Air Force base, with no relation to HYDRA until recently. They've been using it to land their ships and refuel them. Davida's girls managed to get a photo of it to us, and our people discovered their location. I'm sending two members of the Avengers and Reserve Avengers there."

"Only two, ma'am?" one of the BRIDGE soldiers next to Frank asked, a guy by the name of Gunter.

"Four, technically," Maria corrected. "Dial, Hulk, Iron Man, and War Machine."

The four of us stepped forward.

"Another group will be here," Maria waved at the hologram, which changed to show somewhere pretty familiar to me. After all, I'd been living there before showing up in New York. "Portland. A woman by the name of Audrey Nathan, a cellist in is at risk of attack. We believe one of the prisoners HYDRA captured is going to attack or kidnap her."

Tony stared at her, shocked, then looked at Coulson. Coulson nodded, his eyes hard. Tony... I mean, I'd never seen him be truly angry. But he looked it then. He looked...

"We'll be sending-"

"Maria," Tony interrupted. "I'd like to go on that second mission, if it's all right."

Tony was being polite. Not a hint of snark. One hundred percent serious.

Maria, after a moment of staring at him, panned her eyes to Coulson. He nodded, and Maria looked back at Tony. "Okay. Nomad?" Bucky stepped forward. "You'll join the attack on the facility."

He didn't seem to mind, only looking over to nod at the rest of us.

"As for Portland, I'm sending in heavy forces. Audrey Nathan will most likely be attacked by one Marcus Daniels AKA 'Blackout', a man who has the ability to use what we call 'Darkforce' to absorb energy and attack others. He is _one_ of the many prisoners broken out of the Fridge and most likely recruited by HYDRA. As he is a confirmed Enhanced with the possibility of other forces aiding him, I won't be taking any chances. I want Audrey safe, and I want him taken down hard."

Maria's eyes panned across the room. "Falcon, Black Widow, Punisher," Sam, Natasha, and Frank looked up. "You'll defend the perimeter with your teams while Coulson, Captain America, and Iron Man meet Ms. Nathan and bring her in."

Coulson paled at that.

"You have your assignments. Move out."

Later, Bruce, Tony, Skye, and I met up with Coulson on the Bus in his office, where he was preparing his team.

"You going to be okay?" Skye asked Coulson.

Coulson only gave her a look.

"That bad, huh?" she asked quietly.

"Well, he did break up with her via death," Tony said unhelpfully.

"Tony!" Bruce shouted, shocked.

Coulson seemed legitimately hurt. He sighed, sitting down in his chair. "...I didn't want to see her again like this... With Daniels attacking again."

"Well, we'll keep her safe," Tony said, his eyes hard. "I've got something to bring him down. And if anyone else tries to back him up, we'll take them down too."

As Coulson seemed to relax at that, I realized once again that Tony and Coulson had a _really_ complicated relationship.

"Well, we'll finish up as soon as we can," Bruce said, his eyes flashing green. "Maria thinks Daniels or the base will have information on where Jennifer is. Um, and Sharon and Trip too," he said quickly. It was clear where his thoughts lay though. "We'll stomp the base out, then come to you if you need us."

"We won't," Tony's eyes were flinty. "Believe me."

Yep. Tony was a scary fucker when he wanted to be.

"In the meantime, Skye," I said to her. "I know you have your armor now, but don't use it in combat unless necessary. We don't know what sort of effect Darkforce will have on arc reactors and Quantum batteries."

Skye snorted. "Yeah, fine. No using my cool new armor to fight bad guys," she said, feigning disappointment.

I frowned. "Skye, seriously, I'm not just saying it to be careful. We can't make any assumptions."

She looked at me, glaring. "I'm not an idiot, Mahmoud. I'm not just going to run in and fight."

"I know that, Skye, I just-"

"Just what, think I'm going to rush in like a moron?" she crossed her arms.

"Skye, I just don't want you to rush in and get hurt."

"Yeah, you keep saying that. You know, I handled myself pretty well before you showed up to nag me about something I _already know not to do._ "

What the hell did I do wrong? For some reason, I felt like the older guys in the room were amused. "Skye, I know you're smart, I just-" she turned and stormed out leaving me with my mouth gaped. "I don't... what the hell just happened?"

"You made it seem like you didn't trust her to be smart or capable at her job," Coulson said simply.

"Wha- I just meant I wanted her to be-" I frowned, trying to figure out where I went wrong. "I feel like I was being reasonable."

"You were," Tony said. "But then you piled on. That's around the sixth time today you've told her to be careful."

Damn it, really? I didn't even notice.

Left feeling a bit off, I finally turned to Bruce.

"Hey, you made a mistake. You just need to apologize," Bruce said with his hands raised to say this wasn't his problem.

...Nope. I'm just going to ignore it and go fight HYDRA.

Four Arms time baby.

 _Author's Note:_ A bit more of a personalized episode this time around. I decided to stop hurrying through the little conversations and really focus on the character interactions.

So yeah, a bunch of stuff happening. But for me, one of the fun ones is that Castle's codename has changed from _Raven_ to _Punisher._


	39. Chapter 39

I piloted the _Defiant_ towards the facility we'd be attacking. I felt a bit of tension. While this place wasn't going to be an insane risk to attack, it was also _important_. According to what we knew, HYDRA was using it as a necessary hub for refueling and resupplying. Davida's team had managed to sneak us a photo, which had been analyzed by BRIDGE personnel and was used to find the location. From there, Jarvis and X started analyzing it. We knew as much about the base as one could without actually living there.

"How's your movie watching going?" I asked the empty air.

" _I'm enjoying it, sir,"_ X said over my comms. _"I quite liked_ The Animatrix. _"_

"I wondered what you would think of it," I said with a smile. "Especially of the Matrix as a whole."

" _I preferred the_ Ghost in the Shell _manga and anime. But I still enjoyed them overall."_

"Any idea what you want to watch next?" I asked.

" _Actually, I believe I'll take a break from movies for a week, sir. I'll be putting more time into literature and manga."_

Before I could respond, Bucky poked his head into the cockpit. He looked at me, then moved into the copilot's seat. I waited for him to speak. Bucky was doing well all things considered. When he was around Steve, he joked around, made fun of his friend, laughed. But he was still a former assassin working for redemption. So I waited as he thought of what he wanted to say.

"...You might end up killing again. Are you prepared for that?"

I thought of what to say to that. I no longer had the same bravado I had the last time. I'd spent time thinking about what I'd done, and every mission after I'd done what I could to stop myself from killing anyone.

But my role this time called for me to do serious damage. The Hulk and Dial, going in and **smashing** anyone in our way. People would likely die, in the same that even though everyone enjoyed giant monster fights, there was still the fridge logic of the thousands of people dying in the midst of the Kaiju fighting.

"I'm prepared as I can be," I said at last. "I don't want to, and I'll try not to, but... I think the Graveyard got rid of any sympathy I have for HYDRA."

The Graveyard. Where they tortured, tested, and experimented on 'failures' of HYDRA experiments going back decades, with the numbers going into the thousands. Considering how many people go missing worldwide, there may have been more. And when they were done, well... the Wendigo had to eat. The files I'd seen of what they had done would haunt me forever. HYDRA certainly did their Nazi roots proud.

I wasn't going to be the sort of person in love with carnage and killing. But the thought of HYDRA dying at my hands no longer made me reflect on a knife piercing through flesh. Instead, I thought of victims on hospital beds in a BRIDGE facility, crying as their painful prosthetic and animal limbs were being gently removed.

Bucky patted me on the shoulder awkwardly. "That's good. I mean, you shouldn't start to like it or anything, but, um..." he stopped and gave me the helpless look of a man used to all the moral sides of killing trying to figure out how to word them.

I smiled a bit at how hard he was trying to help a naive superhero like me. "Okay, so you know the plan?"

Professional Bucky came back in an instant. "Drop Hulk and you from above, War Machine and Defiant taking out any escaping aircraft. I'll go in with the hard drive, sneak into the facility while everyone focuses on you, insert the hard drive, defend it for as long as it takes for the virus to finish while Hulk and you destroy and engage enemy vehicles, personnel, and heavy weapons. Once done, rendezvous with the other team and see about our next target."

It was actually chilling to hear Bucky bring out the assassin in him. I nodded. "Yep. Should be fun. Specially since they've got nothing but tanks and gunships. Small time stuff."

"The worlds really changed when that kind of firepower is considered 'small time,'" Bucky noted.

"Cavemen probably had the same complaint once," I joked. "Besides, Steve, Clint, and Hartley are still representing how strong the old school weapons can be in the right hands."

Bucky frowned. "Yeah. Plus there are still assassins who use katanas and such. Guess a good knife will never really go out of style."

"Katanas..." I said thoughtfully. The Hand, maybe?

Before I could consider that, the console in front of me began to beep, showing the location ahead. We were flying over forests, heading to a valley where the Air Force had nestled their base into. I don't know why it had been shut down, as the files I'd read hadn't focused on history as much as assets and targets, but it was now HYDRA owned.

"X, take over," I said, rising up and moving into the back.

" _Of course, sir,"_ X replied.

In the back, Rhodey and Bruce looked up at us. Bruce was wearing what looked like a purple skintight suit with some boots and armor over the chest and back, newly made yesterday, and was working on the War Machine suit with Rhodey, who was wearing his Air Force uniform despite technically now being a BRIDGE officer.

"How's she running?" I asked the pair.

"Like a dream," Rhodey tapped the arms on the War Machine and watched as the right sprouted it's sonic cannon while the left sprouted a sword. He tapped them again and they pulled back into the armor. "At least until Tony finishes making the next one along with his armor."

"We're almost there, by the way," I said to Bruce. "You both ready?"

Bruce closed his eyes, breathing deeply, then opened them. "I think so... I thought about what you said, about using my anger while also keeping calm. Hopefully, we'll both be able to do that."

"All right then," I walked to the back, where the door began to lower as we flew through the air, Bruce following me. The base was below us by a few thousand feet, shadowed by the forested mountains around it. Hangers, tanks, Quinjets, and gunships could be seen from the air. There were some surface-to-air missile defense systems that weren't able to detect the _Defiant._ I could also see some giant tanker planes, the kind used to refuel aircraft in mid-flight. I pointed at one of them.

"I take the left, you take the right!?" I yelled over the wind rushing past us.

"Sounds good!" Bruce yelled back.

With that, I tapped my chest, my armor sprouting over my form and covering my head with my black helmet. Then I activated the Omnitrix, flipped through the menu for a bit until I got to the big guy. Then I jumped out of the floating Quinjet from thousands of feet in the air, Bruce joining me seconds later.

" **Going hero!"** I cried out as loudly as I possibly could as we fell together.

I pressed down the dial and changed as Bruce shifted, both of us gaining hundreds of pounds of muscle in an instant, Bruce's new armor growing along with him.

" **Four Arms!"** I yelled out happily.

Hulk gave me a thoughtful look as we fell before yelling as well. _**"HULK!"**_

I laughed at the idea of him copying me, and together we fell feet first into a pair of gasoline filled tanker planes, smashing through gray steel with a crack of metal shattering under our speed and weight. The smell of fuel filled the air, pouring across the pavement, covering the both of us in the stuff. I bent metal out of the way to exit the tanker, blinking fuel out of my eyes in time to see a HYDRA soldier in a black uniform staring at me.

" _ **I'm here to speak to the manager?"**_ I said with a grin.

She yelled out, raising her handgun and shooting me between the four eyes.

" _ **Rude,"**_ I grunted in annoyance, stepping out of the tanker and 'gently' tapping her in the head, sending her flying a good distance and rolling onto the ground. **_"Hulk! You okay!?"_**

The tanker plane next to mine split apart and a wet Hulk came tearing his way out. He landed next to me, looking up at me with a grimace.

" _ **Tastes bad..."**_

" _ **Well yeah buddy, it's fuel."**_

The sound of tank treads rolling on pavement brought our attention towards the tarmac, where several tons of metal rolled towards us. Three tanks pointed their turrets at us, with several soldiers pointing their guns.

Hulk and I shared a look. Then we looked over at the tanks, me flashing my fangs. _**"They seem pretty brave. How about we give them a round of applause?"**_

Hulk grinned.

Together, we pulled our arms back.

" _ **THUNDER-"**_ I yelled.

"- _ **CLAP!"**_ Hulk cried out.

We slammed out palms together, and a hurricane burst out in front of us, sending the planes we'd smashed into flying to the sides. The powerful wind hit the soldiers and sent them flying as bullets scattered in the air from accidental trigger pulls, dozens of men flying.

The tanks were less affected, only get pushed back a bit.

So Hulk leaped on top of one, his eyes vaguely glowing green. _**"HULK SMASH PUNY TANK!"**_

Steel tore under green hands as he grabbed underneath the turret and pulled upwards, ripping the whole thing off the tank. Bullets bounced off Hulk's armor and skin as he jammed his fingers into the tank, tearing it in half before tossing them aside.

I grabbed another tank and lifted it high, laughing at the feeling of power as I lifted over 60 tons with all the stress of lifting a small rock. In the distance, I saw a gunship try to rise into the air, only for a black dot to fly in and blow it apart with repulsor beam. With a roar, I threw the tank in my hands at another then leaped for a Quinjet nearby.

The Quinjet had been about to lift off when I slammed into it, bringing it down to slam into the tarmac. The pilots inside stared up at my grinning face in horror.

" _ **You guys aren't cleared for flight!"**_

I used my bottom two hands to dig handholds into the Quinjet and climb up the thing, getting to the wings. _**"Raaugh!"**_ My upper arms swung into the wings on either side, steel, and electronics buckling under my fists. I unleashed punches like rain, tearing the wings off and leaving the Quinjet to spin into the ground.

Suddenly a shell slammed into the Quinjet's cockpit, sending me flying. I landed and rolled to my feet looking at the Quinjet I'd brought down. The cockpit had been blown out, leaving the pilots dead. A bloody hand was raised in the air, still dripping.

I spun to look at the tank that had fired at me, which turned its turret to face me, then fired.

Apparently, my reflexes were fast as hell. I caught the shell out of the air with my right upper arm, leaning back to withstand the force of the shot before stopping, standing to glare at the tank.

" _ **You HYDRA punks have no loyalty, huh?"**_ I squeezed down on the shell, ignoring as it exploded in my hand and sent a shockwave outwards. **_"Fine. I already knew you were assholes anyway."_**

I leaped over to the tank, dodging the next shot it fired, and landed on it with a four-fisted punch that dented the front inwards as though a meteor had hit it. In the background, I could hear Hulk roaring as I tore into the tank in front of me. A Humvee flew by, followed by Hulk jumping to slam into a fighter jet and destroy. I roared in return, the two of us began the task of tearing the base apart. As we did, the Defiant flew in under cloak to drop a World War 2 vet where he could do the most damage.

 _ **Matt Murdock/The Man in Blackmail**_

In a diner in Hell's Kitchen, Matt Murdock listened with a smile as his friend spoke.

"I can't believe you're still considering saying no!" Foggy said, his voice incredulous. "I mean, we will get to work with _superheroes_! They're going to pay us _millions_ to do what we said what we'd do!"

Matt chuckled. "Well, yeah, it is very tempting, Foggy."

" _Tempting_? I still have funny feelings in my pants thinking about the money they offered."

Matt snorted in laughter, water spilling down his nose. Foggy grinned at the reaction of his friend before sobering, the sounds of his muscles shifting giving Matt an image of the reactions. "Seriously, Matt, what's wrong?"

"..." Matt thought about that for a moment.

In truth, the idea was exciting, for many reasons. Money to do nothing but work in Hell's Kitchen like they wanted, enough that they could take pro bono cases even. Money he could use to fund his 'other job.'

But the whole thing was too suspicious in a lot of ways. How did Mahmoud Schahed, the man who went by 'Dial', know about them? More importantly, how did Mahmoud know about his other identity?

Because he did. Everything about the deal screamed it, from how they'd been messaged out of the blue, the way Mahmoud's heartbeat had sped up as though he recognized him when he saw him, to the sheer amount of money being offered to two rookie lawyers with no cases of their own. He had no idea how he knew, considering 'blind' was enough to stave off suspicion, but he did. Was the deal Mahmoud's way of controlling him somehow? Bringing him into BRIDGE? Everyone knew that organization was taking in superhumans, and rumors on the internet said they were training them, with some conspiracy theorists claiming BRIDGE was building an army...

Matt couldn't 'see' everything about the deal... But part of him, his instincts, screamed to accept. Didn't mean he shouldn't be smart about this in case they were wrong.

"How about this?" Matt said at last. "Let me meet him on my own? I want to talk to him, find out what he's about."

"Pff," Foggy waved a hand dismissively, the air shifting with the movement to press against Matt's skin. "I bet you just want to get an autograph from Captain America, don't you?"

Matt chuckled. "I'm, uh, actually partial to Black Widow myself."

"Of course you are because Matt Murdock can always spot the hottest girl in the room, even if he hasn't met her," Foggy's eyes made the subtle sound that indicated a roll. "I bet you'd somehow end up dating her, too."

"Foggy..."

"Oh don't you dare," Foggy said, his voice mock-angry. "Matt Murdock and Natasha Romanov. Sounds like a match made in heaven."

Matt laughed, rubbing his head. Foggy became serious once more.

"Be careful, Matt. I might want this deal, but you're right. This came out of nowhere. As much as I like the idea of working with superheroes, we might end up suing super _villains_ too. Which isn't exactly something law school trained us for," Foggy smiled again. "More defending them actually... But if we have to say no, I'll support you. No matter how many superheroes tell otherwise."

The blind lawyer from Hell's Kitchen focused on his friend for a moment. That was the thing about Foggy. Happy-go-lucky on the outside, the sort of person people thought of as soft. Then you backed him into a corner, and his humor became pointed, the steel beneath his softness revealed. There was a reason Marci Stahl found him so attractive after all.

"I'll be careful... Foggy Bear," Matt teased.

Foggy raised his eyes to the sky. "Ugh! Will you never let me live that down?"

Matt grinned. "Not until Marci does."

Foggy threw a sugar packet at his friend, Matt letting it him and pretending to be surprised while still smiling.

 _ **Agent Phil Coulson**_

Phil had an impression of Tony, one built up over long study and direct conversation. That impression was simple. 'Surprisingly complicated.' One would assume that was a vague description, but it was true.

People assumed, even with his relatively new status as a superhero, that Tony was a childish playboy. Childish? Sure, when he was relaxed. He'd snark, joke, pout, and act like a billionaire's kid. Until he no longer liked you. Suddenly his sarcastic comments and jokes became pointed, tearing people apart as they gaped. He wouldn't pout, but frown as he absorbed the information around him, and came up with a way to tear one apart. And those billions, in the end, hadn't been made by his father, no matter who claimed otherwise. His father may have given him incredible resources, but Tony's brilliance had brought Stark Industries to the incredible heights it stood at now. Anyone who assumed otherwise soon had that genius aimed at them.

And in the end, Tony was a killer. Not in the way Natasha or Bucky were. But he'd killed in combat, killed for the sake of others, killed out of rage. Push him far enough and others would find that out as well.

Tony was a mixture of things. Mature, childish, dangerous, genius, reckless, all of that somehow flowed in one man.

Which meant that when Tony ended up insisting he be in the same car as Phil, he wasn't that surprised.

In dark hours of the morning before the sun would rise, Tony sat in the passenger seat while the two waited in the park near the trail Audrey was known to run on.

"When was the last time you saw her?" Tony asked quietly.

"...About a week before I died, maybe?" Phil admitted. "She was preparing for a show, I think."

"She misses you, you know that?" Tony said quietly.

"I know, Tony, I just... it'll hurt her. Even though I didn't have a choice, the fact I took so long to make contact afterward," Phil sighed, his hands tightening on the steering wheel as he thought of Audrey.

"If it helps, I'm going to tell her anyways," Tony shrugged at the glare he got. "What? You don't want the push?"

"You're a terrible therapist," Phil decided.

"Bruce isn't any better," Tony noted. They sat in silence for a while longer, watching the trail. "...What was it like? Dying. I mean, I've come close a couple of times. Had my heart stop, you know, but, uh... nothing real."

"I don't really know. I don't remember anything about what happened after that... Fury told me I was the one who actually worked on the project, that I was the one who had it shut down... I still don't know if I can forgive him or May for that."

"The scary one?" Tony asked.

A small smile appeared and died on Phil's face. "That's her. She apparently built my team to monitor me. To make sure I didn't go insane, all while she kept an eye on me. May lied to me. Even if it was for my own good, I don't know how to trust her."

"Kinda hypocritical of you," Tony looked over at him. "Getting mad about a spy for lying, especially considering you not telling anyone you were alive. And you know that you would have done the same thing, Coulson."

Phil opened his mouth, then closed it. "...Damn it."

"What?"

"I hate when you're right about something. You act so smug."

Tony laughed, Phil shaking his head in amusement.

"...We'll protect her, okay? No matter what this guy does."

"...Thanks, Tony."

 _ **Frank Castle/The Punisher**_

Frank took a moment to marvel at how things had changed in his life. Just yesterday he'd been able to spend some time with his wife and kids, to see them and have a good night's sleep in his own home. And now, he was wearing armor more advanced than anything he'd ever had, allowing him to camouflage against the trees he was currently hiding behind like that _Predator_ movie he'd watched as a kid. Not to mention the man next to him.

"Seeing any movement?" Captain 'Fucking' America asked him, camouflaged as well. It was a bit disturbing, hearing a voice come out of a clear shape in the air that could barely be seen.

"Nothing yet, sir," Frank said, eyeing the forest along the path.

In truth, Frank had been disappointed in Steve at first. The man was built like a bodybuilder and had an almost carefree attitude Frank hadn't ever seen in a commanding officer before. He acted more like a fellow soldier, a pretty green one at that.

Then they were out in the field, and he seemed to transform into the perfect soldier every American knew him to be. Even now, standing next to him, Frank could barely believe the 'aw shucks' nice guy from earlier was the calm military commander in the forest right now.

"Punisher," Captain America said. "Give me your assessment. If you were HYDRA, how would you aid Marcus Daniels?"

Frank thought about that for a moment. "...I don't know. I'm not used to all this superhero stuff, sir. Darkforce, repulsors, Hulk, aliens. I just point and shoot."

"Take my word for it soldier. It's the same as any other war. The old tactics still apply, they just get... flexible. Think of Blackout as you would any heavy unit. HYDRA's target is Audrey, so..." the World War 2 vet trailed off.

Frank looked around the forest, switching between his visual aids, going from thermal to X-ray. He thought carefully.

"...Marcus will want to intercept Audrey, so he'll have HYDRA surround her. He's unstable, so instead of knocking her out and taking her with him, he'll try to talk it out. We don't know who's leading HYDRA's forces or how involved Marcus is with HYDRA. But if they are working together..." Frank pointed to the North. "They'll surround the area with some supporting teams. This whole thing is too showy, so they're probably trying to keep this guy happy by following his lead. If it was me, I'd send in a small team to kidnap her in the middle of the night, no one the wiser. Her apartment is unguarded, has been for the past two days, with only a basic alarm. Move in with three guys, with more on overwatch, inject her with a sedative while she sleeps, move her out of the window, take her home. The fact they're being this sloppy tells me that someone powerful but sloppy is in charge. Some fuck that doesn't know what he's doing, just what he wants."

"I know the type," Captain America said, apparently undisturbed by Castle's cold assessment of the situation.

"As it is, they'll have most of their soldiers keep the rest behind Blackout to support him while also using him as protection, the only safe move while being this sloppy. Like a tank charging across the trenches with soldiers defending it. Same with the other one."

"Other one?" Captain America asked.

"There will be one more," Frank said, instinct guiding him. "If they can spare it. Another enhanced to help Blackout. If HYDRA is really gathering them to fight us off, they won't just risk sending one of them on their own. Another enhanced, one they feel can back this one up enough to keep them from being captured... It's risky. Riskier than I'd want to do. But I think it's what HYDRA will do. Just a hunch, sir."

"...Might be true. What do you think, Clint?" Captain America asked.

A shadow above them shifted in the treetops. "He could be right."

Silence filled the air a moment longer. Frank breathed quietly, grip tightening on his BCW, then loosening again. The wind blew through the trees and Audrey Nathan began her run.

 _Author's Note:_ Next chapter, Hulk and Dial finish things off, Rhodey flies, Bucky fights, Frank fights, everybody fights while dealing with _emotions. (SHUDDER)_


	40. Chapter 40

_**James 'Bucky' Barnes/Nomad**_

Bucky landed quietly in the shadow of the control tower that overlooked the base, where no one could see him. He took a moment to watch as Hulk and, what did Dial call him? Four Arms? Bucky watched as the two massive monsters 'played' with tanks. They were currently throwing a tank between each other in an impromptu game of catch.

It took Bucky back, watching that. To days as a kid in Brooklyn, playing with Steve on his team. He was terrible but damned if he wasn't determined. Of course, once they'd played a couple of games after Steve had gotten his powers, Bucky ended up feeling like the weak link on the team. It was kind of hilarious actually.

Bucky put aside those thoughts as Four Arms batted a Quinjet thrown by Hulk into the distance with a bat made from a crumpled tank turret. Instead, he looked over at the door to the watchtower. His job was simple. Enter the tower, get to a computer, insert a hard drive, and defend it until X and Jarvis had hacked their way in and found HYDRA's main base of operations.

He leaned towards the keypad next to the door, one with green glowing buttons. He had all sorts of tools made to bypass devices like this in his armor now but...

Bucky jammed his metal arm into the door frame, tightened his grip on the door itself, and proceeded to ripe the whole thing off its hinges where it dropped to the ground with a clang. Alarms were already ringing out across the base the sounds of destruction echoing even from over here. There was no need to waste time trying to be clandestine on the keypad when Four Arms, Hulk, and War Machine were already causing a ruckus.

He entered, his rifle up and at the ready. Nothing was there but a hallway leading to stairs.

"This is Nomad, I'm in the control tower now," Bucky said quietly.

" _War Machine, I read you,"_ Rhodey said, the only other 'professional' in the group. _"Continuing to act as air support, but let me know if you need backup."_

"Copy that, War Machine. Nomad out," Bucky started up the stairs, moving at a fast clip. As he did, he activated his X-Ray vision, his eyes adjusting to the blue-white vision with long hours of practice. He could see two guards a floor up, waiting to surprise intruders with a hail of bullets. Bucky strode up to the floor, activated the silenced mode on his rifle and took aim. He waited for the flying form of War Machine to pass with a loud burst of sound.

 _'Ffft, Ffft!',_ two bullets went through drywall and entered the heads of the guards. Bucky felt a bit of satisfaction. While silencers only made it hard to spot where the noise was coming from, rather than totally muffling it (Nothing on Earth can truly silence a gun) the tech of the BCW made such sound whisper quiet. Along with a combination of War Machine flying past and the other gunshots outside, Bucky doubted anyone would notice something was up unless they checked up on the guards in question.

Bucky moved higher through the floors, switching between his thermal and X-Ray vision, moving carefully and quickly. He ignored several floors full of personnel and soldiers, going for the top. "X, can you hack them yet?"

" _I am unable to,"_ the AI actually sounded frustrated. _"Samuel Sterns' firewalls are adapting. I can destroy them with a direct line."_

"You'll get it," Bucky reached for his waist as he came to the final floor, pulling out a round object with a magnet on the flat side. He pressed it against the door and stepped back, raising his left hand up. Catoms flowed to create a massive tower shield from his arm, as thick as two thumbs and chest high. He hefted it, aiming his gun with his right hand as he sent a signal to the object.

It exploded inwards with incredible power, turning the door to ashes. Bucky took the shockwaves on his shield and armor, rushing into the room as soon as the explosion passed.

The top floor of the control tower had windows looking out onto the base all around the room, with consoles and computers everywhere displaying all manner things such as radar. There were ten guards and about a dozen personnel, several of them screaming or holding hands up to block the smoke caused by the explosion. Bucky aimed and shot quickly.

One guard went down, then another. A man ducked behind some computers, raising his gun over them to spray and pray. Bucky ignored him, moving on. One shot, one kill. One shot, one kill. The guards aimed and fired at Bucky, only for their bullets to bounce harmlessly off his shield. Some would think it sad, in some ways. Bucky was an enhanced cyborg trained in assassination by the most ruthless people in history, covered in the most sophisticated armor ever designed without being worn by Tony Stark. The guards were men with guns in the end.

Bucky felt no sympathy for the men. HYDRA had made their choice in this case. He killed them all with machine-like proficiency, striding into the room. One of the men, a dark-skinned man with wide eyes, tried to tackle him. Bucky shot out his kneecaps, then fired one into the man's head, noting how much ammo he had left. Plenty left for the others.

All the targets were dead when he was done. Bucky moved to the computers and reached for his waist once more, taking a small device out and plugging it into the USB port. "I'm in."

" _One moment,"_ X said politely. _"Jarvis and I are working... We're making contact. Uploading virus, downloading files."_

Bucky raised his shield and faced the door, waiting patiently. He kept his head on a swivel, watching the windows as well. Nothing to do but be patient. He was good at being patient.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

" _ **Raagh!"**_ I leaped into a hanger, diving into a cargo plane's nose. My fingers tore into the nose, ripping through it. Once a hole was big enough to let me in I dug into the rest of the mechanics, red hands rapidly pulling apart steel and wires to get into the plane. I heard the cockpit collapse behind me in a rush of squealing metal. Sparks surrounded me, and I left four-fingered hand holds in my passage into the plane. My head ripped into the cargo hold where I grinned 'bloodthirstily' at the HYDRA soldiers waiting for me. _**"Heeeere's Johnny!"**_

One man let out a loud screech of horror when I said that. Not a fan of movies, I guess.

Once inside, I went wild. I punched everything I could see, ignoring the bullets bouncing off my skin to instead punch the cargo, rip apart the plane, and 'gently' sent HYDRA soldiers flying as I rammed through the cargo doors back into the hanger.

My assault had a purpose. The hanger the plane I was currently destroying was in happened to be far from the main control tower. Any forces getting diverted would be sent far from the tower, giving Bucky less opposition to deal with. Hulk smashed down through the roof and landed next to me as the plane exploded behind us. War Machine flew over to join us as well.

" _ **How we doing Rhodey?"**_ I asked.

"We should be good. Director Hill is on her way and most of the HYDRA forces on the base are-" A shell slammed into me in the middle of his sentence. The force of the shot hitting my chest sent me back a couple steps from not seeing it coming and feeling kinda like what a weak punch felt like when I was human. "Well, most of them are done," Rhodey finished, the three of us looking at the incoming group of tanks and APC's, five and eight respectively, joined by a gunship flying in the air and heading towards the hanger.

" _ **Oh you son of-"**_ I was cut off when Hulk leaped into the air, roaring.

" _ **YOU HURT HULK FRIEND!"**_ with that battlecry, Hulk slammed into the gunship, causing it to spin wildly in the air and bringing it down with incredible force as he roared triumphantly.

" _ **Hulk, I'm not... wow, he's really tearing into that thing,"**_ I blinked as Hulk started tearing big handholds out of the gunship, the helicopter's rotors smacking into him and bending fruitlessly.

"Better them than us," Rhodey said, raising his arms. "Come on," he fired a repulsor beam that slammed into one of the APC's, sending it skittering. "Let's go work for a living."

With a nod in response, I sprinted forward, running through a hail of gunfire before tackling a tank, lifting the front and flipping it upside-down before kicking it away. Hulk tossed another tank for me to punch out of the air while War Machine flew under my arms to fire a barrage of bullets at a HYDRA soldier aiming a rocket launcher at me. We moved forward, carving a path through the HYDRA soldiers. I leaped up to grab a Quinjet out of the sky, slamming it into the ground in a slam dunk motion. War Machine unleashed a barrage of explosions on a group of Humvees with heavy machine guns. Hulk used a tank turret like a war hammer, destroying more vehicles with a pleased/angry grin on his face.

Then we got the message.

" _This is Director Hill, we're on our way,"_ our leader said over the comms.

" _Negative, Director,"_ X said in response. _"There are several_ _active anti-aircraft weapon emplacements around the base that could prove deadly to any landing force not properly cloaked. I'll work on shutting them down while in the system."_

That gave me an idea as I ripped the treads of a tank and tossed them to Hulk, who used them as a whip to destroy the rotors of a helicopter.

" _ **I**_ _ **know a faster way that will hamper the whole base,**_ _ **"**_ I said as firmly as I could, trying to seem leadery. _**"X, are they all connected to the same power source?"**_

" _Yes sir, a series of generators to the north of your position."_

" _ **Then I'll get them,"**_ I tapped the Omnitrix symbol on my chest.

" **Fasttrack!"**

"See you guys in a bit!" I yelled to War Machine and Hulk, the latter waving his tank turret/war hammer. With that, I sped away to the north. In mere seconds, I was on the other side of the base. A HYDRA soldier was yelling into a walkie-talkie as I ran by. I punched him aside, sending him flying. A little further was an electrical plant, the kind I'd torn apart in _Just Cause 3_ a thousand times before, with the tall spires, wires, and large steel boxes, all in an area as large as an apartment building.

" _Directly ahead sir,"_ X informed me.

"I see it!" I replied, tapping the Omnitrix.

" **Feedback!"**

In the form of the tall and black skinned Conductiod, I could feel the power around me flowing between the wires. I grinned toothily and pointed my hands at them.

In a burst of light, blue electricity flowed from the metal spires, wires, and boxes and into the air.

" **Fzzt-cat-fzzt!"** was the crackling sound it made as it slammed into the plug like extensions on my fingertips.

"Hahahaha!" I laughed, the feeling of energy flowing into my body getting to the edges of intoxicating. Like feeling a hot tub full of minerals bubbling against your skin, that all over rejuvenating tingle all throughout my body.

" _The anti-aircraft emplacements are shutting down, but I suggest you continue taking their power,"_ X said. _"Troops are heading to attack you, sir. Coming from the southeast. I suggest neutralizing them."_

I nodded, still taking power from the generators, then looked over to the southeast. I could see soldiers running towards me, back-dropped by the forest that surrounded the base. I thought of changing forms before dismissing the idea. Instead, I turned my left hand from where it had been absorbing electricity to raise it into the sky as I kept pulling power in with my right hand. About ten guys.

"..." I stared at the group for a moment. Then I sent power through my body over my head, the tendrils on my head lifting up. An orb of blue power gathered over my head, growing to the size of a beach ball. I reared back and threw it at the group.

They tried to scatter when they saw what I was doing, but few things can actually out-speed lightning. The blue ball grew in the middle of its journey and slammed into every single one of them in a wave of power. Electricity soaked them with hundreds of thousands of volts.

I watched with a neutral face as they shook on the ground from muscles clenched by lightning. Then I turned back to the generators. I took comfort in the feeling of electricity, absorbing it until there was nothing left to pull.

" _Very good,_ _sir. All weapon emplacements have been shut down along with the vast majority of enemy systems in around the base,"_ Jarvis said, surprising me.

"Thanks, Jarvis. How's X?"

" _I'm doing well, sir. The virus has done its work, and we will be interpreting the data,"_ I turned away from the plant and blasted the tarmac beneath me, launching myself into the air on jets of lightning to land on top of a three-story building forty feet away. I looked out over the forest, to where a fleet of Quinjets was flying towards the base, with US military vehicles driving on the roads through the forest to get to us. _"We've won, sir."_

"This fight," I smiled a bit, looking out over the forest as War Machine flew to land behind me. A loud crack of concrete told me Hulk had done the same. I took note of the powerful energy I could feel coming from them but focused on the view. "After this though, the real fight starts again."

The three of us stood on the roof, watching our reinforcements arrive.

 _ **Audrey Nathan**_

Audrey stretched underneath the light she'd been using as her starting point for her run for years. The cellist was wearing a black hoodie and gray yoga pants, her running shoes a bit beat up, but still serviceable. She looked up at the dark morning sky, the sun still a few hours from rising, before taking out her phone and flipping through her playlist, smiling as the familiar sound of classical music began to play. She truly loved listening to music, almost as much as playing it. Hearing each string of a violin and cello get plucked, hearing the wind instruments join in as a skilled drummer took the song along its path. There was a beauty to it, something that spoke to Audrey.

She began to jog, shivering slightly at the chill that suddenly rose in the air as she ran. The beginning of the song played with the steps of her feet, with the beat of her heart, Gustav Holst's _Mars, the Bringer of War_ , playing. The beginning drums and trombones started to pick up, then the tubas, violins, picking up with each step she took on her run through the dark forest-

Then the music started to sputter about five minutes in, and whining crackle coming from her earphones. She frowned, taking her phone out to look at it. The phone died. And so did the path lights around her.

Confusion filled her for a moment as a cold wind floated around her, the shadows lengthening. Then a memory, from long ago, filled her with fear. She turned around. The sight behind her filled her with fear and horror.

Marcus Daniels was a tall, thin man, with combed back hair, sallow eyes, wearing a dark long coat that seemed to absorb the light around him. He strode towards her, a terrifying look in his eyes that she remembered. As though he had seen something beautiful he wanted to make his at all costs. The shadows around them lengthened.

Beside him was someone she didn't recognize, a young man with a gray hoodie. His face, in some ways, was more terrifying than Marcus'. It was blank, uncaring, eyeing her with no emotion. The cold wind picked up.

At the sight of her superhuman stalker's return, she turned and ran as fast as she could.

 _ **Frank Castle/Punisher**_

"Contact," Frank said into his mic softly, moving towards his target. HYDRA in dark green and brown gear, moving through the forest as quietly as they could. They shone to his thermal vision, nine men moving as one towards where Audrey had begun her run.

Frank and the three other BRIDGE Elite's circled around them, moving in silently under cloak. Hawkeye was in the treetops, flitting through the forest branches like some elf from a fantasy movie. Captain America was next to him, moving even more skillfully along than Frank was.

At the moment before Frank struck, he found himself humming something his daughter had taught him for some reason. 'One batch, two batch...' A strange thing to have in his head before he killed someone. He put it aside. He'd see her later. For now, he had work to do.

Frank pulled out his Excalibur as the handle grew into a long Bowie knife, moving towards the HYDRA soldier in front of him.

" _Now,"_ Captain America whispered softly.

Frank grabbed his target around the mouth and stabbed him in the back, the long blade slicing into his enemies heart. Captain America grabbed his own targets head and twisted. The other BRIDGE Elites went for knife stabs as well, one of them slicing a HYDRA soldier's throat out.

Five HYDRA soldiers went down, leaving three to turn in surprise. Even as quiet as they were, the BRIDGE Elites and Cap still made enough noise to grab attention.

Which is what Hawkeye had been counting on. He fired three times in a brief second. Two arrows killed their target, while the last was an ICER tipped arrow, knocking out the target.

Two BRIDGE Elite's rushed in while Frank looked towards Audrey, his thermal vision showing her. And two other... things. Strange, negative beings in the shape of humans, only seen by how the warmth in the surrounding area acted. One seemed the draw in the warmth and energy around it. The other seemed to do the opposite, somehow radiating in a way that almost...

"I hate when I'm right sometimes," Frank whispered. "Sir, two enhanced."

"Mockingbird," Captain America said quickly. "Get Audrey out! Tony, move in!"

 _ **Audrey Nathan**_

"Please!" Daniels yelled as she ran away. "You have to come with me! I can make us happy!"

Audrey ran faster. She ignored the chill in the air, the shadows surrounding her as tears ran down her cheeks. Again. The monster was back, the man who claimed to love her without even knowing her. Her monstrous stalker. She was in a nightmare again. And there was no one to-

A motorcycle sped out of the forest, spinning to join her. The woman on it, a tall blonde looked at her. "I'm with BRIDGE, get on!"

Audrey felt fresh tears fall as she hastily got on the motorcycle, barely listening to her words and simply choosing the fastest means of escape.

"NO!" Marcus yelled, rushing after her. "Not again! Stop them!"

The last was yelled at the young man next to him, who raised his hands.

Something fell out of the sky to land between the women on the motorcycle and the two men following. When it rose up, Audrey felt something within her relax.

"Dude, can't you take a hint?" Wearing gold and black armor that was mirror polished to perfection, the familiar figure of the Iron Man suit Audrey had seen on the news stood tall. "She's _so_ not into you. Try Tinder, find a girl who likes black paint, dark shadows, and My Chemical Romance."

"See ya, Tony!" the woman Audrey was clutching yelled, twisting the throttle and taking off quickly into the night. "Hold tight! We'll keep you safe!"

"Thank you," Audrey whimpered, feeling shame for how scared she'd been, but still holding tightly to the waist of the woman who'd saved her. "Thank you..."

 _ **Agent Phil Coulson**_

Phil ran out to join Tony as soon as Audrey was safe, so focused on her that he'd nearly forgotten his own role.

"Daniels!" Phil yelled as he joined Tony. "Surrender, please! We just want to keep you safe and keep you from hurting... Donnie?"

The figure next Daniels didn't respond. But Phil knew who he was.

"Wait, Donnie Gill?" Tony stared, surprised. If Phil had to guess, Tony was probably looking at files on Donnie from the HUD in his helmet. "The blizzard kid?"

The young man with a newly shorn head only stared placidly.

"Enough!" Marcus yelled, enraged. "You're the one who put me away... but they made me stronger," he smiled sadistically, raising his hands. "Strong enough to kill you!"

With that insane scream, Daniels fired a blast of power. The Darkforce seemed to absorb the world around it as it flew towards Phil, only visible because it sucked in the light around it.

Tony fired a ray of concentrated light at the beam, stopping it in its tracks. The Darkforce and light rays fought for a moment, filling the area with shining light and wisps of shadow. Daniels yelled in rage as the bright gold sections on Tony's armor glimmered against beneath the black sections, illuminated by the strobing lights.

A tiny explosion filled the air and Daniels stopped, panting in rage. Iron Man stopped as well.

"We don't want to fight you," Tony said calmly.

"But we will, if we have to," Phil added sadly, raising his ICER pistol to aim. "Surrender."

"...No," Marcus said, his eyes insane with rage. "Blizzard! Take the Iron Man!"

Donnie lifted a hand up and narrowed his eyes.

A cloudy line of ice flew from Donnie's and into Tony at what had to be sonic speeds. Tony yelled out as he was sent flying back, covered in chunks of ice that began to grow over him. He struggled to move as Donnie kept shooting him.

Then Daniels joined in, blasting his own powers. The cold beam of ice flowed with the shadows to become a strangely beautiful attack made of blue-white ice and black ink-, the two negative energies pushing Iron Man back further.

Phil raised his gun and fired at Daniels, only be blasted back by an errant shot of Darkforce that felt like it cracked his sternum.

"Kill him!" Daniels yelled, joining in with a still emotionless Donnie. "Kill him!"

"Man, screw you!" Tony yelled, spinning to blast a beam that fought back against the two superhumans attacks. He roared, feet skittering as the forest around them and pavement beneath began to get covered in frost.

Then loud gunshots began to echo from the forest around them.

" _Tony, Phil, we're on our way, just hold on!"_ Steve yelled over the comms. _"HYDRA is trying to stop us!"_

Daniels spat to the side. "Damn... Fine! Blizzard!"

Donnie, without a shift of expression, blasted the ground at the same time as Daniels. An explosion of cold shadow surrounded them, blinding Phil and Tony. Iron Man fired at the explosion with his repulsors of concentrated light, made specifically to overload Daniels, struggling with the ice covering his form and making it harder to move.

But when the obscuring ice dust and shadows faded, Daniels and Donnie were gone.

"Fuck!" Phil yelled in an uncharacteristic burst of anger, struggling to his feet.

"Phil!" Steve ran over, still cloaked, but slowly coming into view as he joined them. "Tony! What happened?"

Tony swore, rising to his feet with a crack of ice falling from his armor to hit the floor filled the air. "They ran away. We could have had them, but I got surprised by their whole attack combo thing... We should get one of those."

"Sir," Frank Castle joined them, wearing his heavy armor. Phil noted the black colors and the white skull emblazoned on the chest, looking almost spray painted onto him. "Fifteen HYDRA dead or captured. The rest ran with Daniels and Donnie."

Steve shook his head. "Okay, this is still a win. We got Audrey out, and we know about Donnie. Reconvene at the Bus and we'll find a way to track them, keep them from their target," Steve looked around as his camouflage dropped away, revealing the red, white, and blue armor he was now wearing, his face concealed by a faceless helm that faded to its trademark shape. "The day's just getting started. Jarvis, is the other team finished?"

" _Yes, Captain,"_ Jarvis responded. _"They will be joining you soon."_

"Let them know about Donald Gill," Steve said calmly.

"...Okay," Tony's faceplate rose up, revealing his face, eyes glimmering with a darkness matching Daniels. "He won't get away. Not again."

"No," Phil said, eyes meeting Tony with the same dark thoughts. "No, he won't."

HYDRA had taken Trip, tried to take SHIELD... Taken Ward before he'd even met him. They would not take Audrey.

 _Author's Note:_ Coulson is mad. Tony is made. Daniels is mad. And only two of those people have made it to Infinity War. Oy.

So yeah, Donnie Gill. The kid is _severely_ brainwashed, under control by HYDRA and now working with Marcus. It was only until after planning this little team up that I realized I'd accidentally done a Pitch Black and Jack Frost thing, but I don't know how many people have actually watched Rise of the Guardians.

Next chapter, the team makes plans, assassin ladies kick ass, Bruce Banner loses his pants. Same old, same old.

EDIT: By the way, going to try the Twitch thing again tomorrow, Noon Pacific Time. Just in case anyone wants to hang out.


	41. Chapter 41

_**Agent Phil Coulson**_

A loud crack filled the air as Phil fell back against a wall, his cheek burning in pain. What really hurt was look in Audrey's face.

"You let me think you were dead!" Audrey yelled, her eyes glaring even as tears poured down her cheeks and she lowered her hand. Phil looked away from her. "I went to your funeral, I..." Audrey shuddered, staring at Phil as though she didn't know if she was going to slap him again or not. "Why? Couldn't you even call me? Just let me know that you were alive?"

Phil opened his mouth but found himself unable to respond. "..."

Tony nudged him with his elbow. Phil looked at the billionaire, who raised an eyebrow at him.

The billionaire, cellist, and spy were standing in Phil's office on the Bus, the massive cargo plane Coulson's team used as a mobile headquarters.

"I did die," Phil finally said weakly. "I was brought back through an experimental project."

"...How long ago?" Audrey asked.

"What?" Phil said, confused.

"How long ago were you 'brought back'?" Audrey said angrily.

"...August," Phil said softly. "I've been awake since August."

"Five months," Audrey shook her head, more tears falling down her cheeks as her fists shook. "You were alive for five months and you just... you just let me think you were dead."

"Audrey," Phil stepped forward with his hands out. She slapped them away, shaking her head.

"No. Don't touch me... I need time to think," her voice was shaky.

Phil gave Tony a helpless look. Tony shook his head, clearly at a loss. Phil turned back to Audrey. "Okay... we have some rooms on the plane. I have teams watching your apartment, but it's safest if you stay with us."

She nodded, still not looking at Phil. A deep pain filled him at the sight of the woman he loved unable to look at him. He walked to his desk and pushed a button. "Simmons? Can you come to my office?"

The door opened fast enough that Phil had to guess Simmons had been extremely close by. The British scientist gave everyone in the room a bright smile as she entered. "Hello, sir! How can I help?"

Phil took a moment to thank god for the bright smile gifted to Jemma Simmons when Audrey seemed to relax at the sight of it. "Can you show Aud-... Ms. Nathan to a room? She'll be staying with us for a bit."

"Of course, sir!" Simmons smiled at Audrey, guiding her out of the room. Audrey looked back at Phil. They met eyes. Then the door closed.

"...That could have gone worse," Tony said in a light tone. "Speaking as a guy who's hurt the feelings of a few women before."

"A few?" Phil said spitefully, uncaring of how petty he sounded for a moment.

"I've lived a full life," Tony said without a hint of shame.

"Focus on our work," Phil's voice was heavy but determined. "What happened with your armor? I thought your suit was made to fight Daniels?"

"It was," Tony said with a grimace. "Based what SHIELD and HYDRA tests showed, and with Bruce and Fitz helping me with the Gamma/Quantum Power reserve, I was able to pour enough energy into my shots to shut him down. But Jack Frost surprised the hell out of me," Tony admitted, speaking about Donnie. "The Darkforce suit wasn't designed to take such fast temperature drops. Plus, I thought the kid's powers were based on touch? Since when could he shoot snowstorms at people?"

"Nothing on record said he could at least. Something HYDRA did to him?" Phil mused. "We'll look into it. As for those combined attacks they did-"

"I have scans in the armor. All I can say is that it kinda makes sense that the two powers that remove light and heat work so well together," Tony said. "I'll go over it with Geek Squad, see what we can do. As for Donnie, Rhodey and I fought a guy with a suit that used heat-based weapons a while back, called himself the 'Melter'."

"Why do the bad guys always pick such dumb names?" Phil mused, though his heart wasn't in it. Tony smiled quickly but continued as though he hadn't spoken.

"I've got some specs on the armor the guy used. If we work it out, I think we can upgrade our armor to counter Jack Frost the next time around. How far are the others?"

"They're en route over Wyoming. Should be here soon," Phil grabbed some files on his desk and went to walk out of the room, Tony following.

"And in the meantime, what about Audrey?" Tony asked.

"...the priority is tracking down and stopping Daniels," a part of Phil was screaming at him to go to Audrey, to explain, to yell back at her, to say or do _something._ "I'll talk to her when it's done. In the meantime, Natasha took the others to Audrey's apartment. HYDRA is watching the apartment, so they'll take care of that," Phil shook his head.

 _ **Natasha Romanov/Black Widow**_

Natasha giggled inanely as she walked down the street. "Jennifer, you aren't serious!"

Melinda May giggled just as inanely while they walked together. "Oh sweetie, I'm _always_ serious about sex!"

"Ah," Bobbi, with a scandalized look on her face, slapped May's shoulder. "Jennifer! You're so bad!"

The three spies were dressed in casual clothes, the sort older women often wore when out with their girlfriends. They were walking down a sidewalk in front of an apartment building, acting more like the stereotypical image of high school cheerleaders than anything.

They walked past a blue van parked at the entrance, still giggling. The man and woman in the front of the van eyed the three momentarily, then dismissed them. Natasha, May, and Bobbi strode into the building's doors.

Instantly, all three women stopped laughing.

"One van," Natasha mused. "They aren't putting a lot of resources into the perimeter."

"I _hate_ these clothes," May growled, looking down at herself. Bobbi and Natasha shared a smile at that.

"How do you think we should play this?" Bobbi asked the others.

"...Take out the van first?" Natasha suggested. When the others nodded, she turned back with them to go towards the doors. "Jarvis, nail their comms," The second the apartment doors opened, they were giggling once more.

The man and woman in the van glanced at them, confused as the group walked up.

"Excuse me?" Natasha asked, leaning in to speak with the female driver through the window. Bobbi walked around to the back of the van. "How long have you worked for HYDRA?"

The female driver and male passenger exploded into motion. The driver pulled out a knife and stabbed at Natasha's throat. Natasha leaned aside and grabbed the drivers arm as it passed, pulling her in before twisting her arm and stabbing the driver in the shoulder with her own knife, the woman barely letting out a scream before Natasha grabbed her hair and slammed the woman's head into the steering wheel with brutal force.

The passenger had hopped out of the car, trying to help his ally, only for May to kick the door, slamming it into him and sending him to the ground. The man rolled and faced May, punching at her. May blocked the first punch on her forearm, parried another punch, then kicked the man's knee, shattering the cap and sending him to his knees. The man shouted in pain and reached for his sidearm but May moved forward with a flying knee to the face, knocking him out.

The back doors of the van opened to eject two men carrying submachine guns. Bobbi was waiting. With a snap of her fingers, catoms flowed from under her shirt to enter her palms, forming solid batons. When the two men aimed at her, she smacked their guns aside, then kicked one in the gut, sending him back into the van. The other man raised his gun again. Before his finger could tighten on the trigger, Bobbi had swung a baton into his forehead with brutal force. As he went down, his ally rose up to aim at Bobbi, who threw her other baton at him, knocking him out as well.

"Four down," Natasha said calmly. "Let's go in and find some more."

Twirling her batons, Bobbi stepped towards the doors, Natasha and May following.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

When we arrived in Portland we landed the _Defiant_ near the Bus, at an airfield set aside for our operations there. Bucky joined Cap, Clint, and Frank Castle while Rhodey, Bruce, and I joined the others to get a debrief. That's where we heard about Donnie, from Coulson and Tony as Fitz and Simmons sat nearby.

I didn't know what to think of that. I hadn't encountered the super-villain known as Blizzard much in the comics. I think maybe he'd been partnered with a speedster or something? Or was that Aqueduct? Either way, Donnie hadn't been a kid or brainwashed.

"Can we do anything for him?" Rhodey asked when Coulson finished explaining things, looking at Tony and me.

"Hell yeah," I said confidently. "All we have to do is knock him out and put him into the Exorcism Machine."

"First, we aren't calling it that," Tony said. "It's dumb, and you're dumb for thinking of it," I mock-glared at him, getting a smirk in return. "But yeah, even if they did improve the process, we should be able to help him. It's just a matter of finding him. As for Daniels, he was stronger than expected, but the Darkforce Armor can still beat him."

"But that might not be how things play out," Coulson said. "Hill says Jarvis and X are about to find HYDRA's true base. The Avengers and BRIDGE will need to be there once it's found."

"What, we're leaving?" Fitz asked, surprised. Coulson looked over at him, the agent's arms crossed.

"Not all of us. Hill told me she's leaving Dial and Tony to help us. Both of them can run after the others once everything is done with," he said simply, his arms tightening slightly on themselves. "Everyone else is to head out to assault the base."

"We're all you need," I said, looking at Tony. "...We might need to go ahead with Project: Azmuth."

Tony, Bruce, Fitz, and Simmons stared at me.

"Are you sure?" Bruce asked. "You said-"

"I know," I said with a frown. "But it's worth a try. As long as we're careful, nothing should go wrong. No hammering or anything."

"Didn't you only want to do that in case of, you know," Fitz waved his hand, struggling to find the words.

"An apocalypse?" Simmons added, Fitz snapping his fingers and pointing at her as agreement.

"Wait, what?" Rhodey looked around. "What the hell are we talking about here?"

"It's not _that_ bad," I said with a sigh.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't apocalypses pretty damn bad?" Coulson asked me. I shifted uncomfortably under the attention. "Tony, what are they talking about?"

"Trying to access the alien to unlock aliens on purpose," Tony said, eyeing the Omnitrix.

"Is that possible?" Rhodey asked, moving forward to look at my watch as well.

"Yes and no," I said with a sigh. "The watch was made by a guy whose whole species make our greatest scientists look like toddlers, hell, toddlers of monkeys at the worst. And this guy was a genius _among_ those geniuses, with an intellect beyond that. Hacking the watch is practically impossible without being smart enough, so I always kept the idea of unlocking all the aliens on her on my own on the backburner. But I only want to unlock _two_ aliens. One to counter Donnie and/or Daniels, the other for the fight with HYDRA."

"In that case, why not aim for that superpowered one you told us about? Alien X? You were kinda vague about what he can do except 'badass of badass badasses," Tony said, quoting me exactly.

"...Alien X is not something I'd reach for. First, it takes time to master it, if it's possible at all for _me,_ " After all, who said Bellicus and Serena wouldn't just ignore me in a fit of anger? "Second, there are only a few things that would make me use it. HYDRA isn't anywhere on that list. If every bit of power HYDRA ever got together in one person, empowered beyond anything in existence, Alien X would still wipe it out."

Tony shrugged at that statement, apparently not super invested in the idea, while everyone else looked either wide-eyed or like they were wondering if I was exaggerating. Instead, Tony looked at Phil. "You're in charge, Phil. What do we do?"

"...What's the worst that can happen?" Phil asked me seriously.

I opened my mouth then closed it, choosing to say nothing. I figured it was safe to at least study the watch, figure out how to manipulate it, but the Omnitrix did have a self-destruct. A universe destroying one. I was pretty sure, based on my own experience and the show itself, the Omnitrix wouldn't _simply_ destroy the universe unless really pressed or damaged a great deal, but I didn't know for sure. Phil eyed me for a moment, reading my hesitance before speaking.

"Tony, work on your armor. Dial, I don't want you doing anything with that watch. If you can't even tell me the risk, that means you aren't sure," he said simply. I nodded slowly, sighing. "In the meantime, we'll work on tracking Daniels and Gill. Fitz-Simmons, Bruce, you both will work to find them. Understood?"

I nodded but was still thinking. I couldn't activate Project Azmuth on my own but I could at least try to mess with the watch on my own. Ben had accidentally discovered the Master Control program as a 10-year-old child. None of my work with the watch had done anything before but maybe, with a bit of work and time, I could find one of the powers of the watch on my own. Even a new random alien was beneficial in most cases.

"What are you going to do to your armor?" Bruce asked Tony.

"Well, there was this guy who went by 'The Melter' a few years back," Tony said with a grin.

"Oh yeah," Rhodey said, cocking his head. "I remember when I beat that guy."

Tony blinked. "Uh, excuse me? _I_ beat that guy."

"What, did you get a concussion? I won the bet!"

"Rhodey, don't be jealous that you couldn't handle the guy," Tony walked away, Rhodey following him as Bruce ran to join them.

"Who the hell is the Melter!?" Bruce called after the bickering duo, leaving the rest of us to watch the three friends leave.

 _ **Donald 'Donnie' Gill/Blizzard**_

In a Quinjet cloaked in the airfield at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, Donnie Gill watched with no emotions as Marcus Daniels yelled at a HYDRA commander dressed in black camo gear. Donnie stood to the side as they snarled at each other.

"We are _not_ leaving!" Marcus screamed.

The HYDRA commander snarled. "We have no choice! The Avengers are here, and BRIDGE is more advanced than we expected! We can't fight them."

Daniels threw his hands up and turned away, frustrated. "Strucker promised me Audrey! He promised me, if I worked for HYDRA, I could get her. Now I have the chance to kill the man who kept me from her, to get her back, and you want to run?"

"I wanted to do this quietly and professionally from the start, but you insisted on making a big show of it. Now?" The commander got in Daniels' face. "It. Is. Impossible."

Daniels turned to look at Donnie. "We have me and we have Blizzard. That is more than-"

"How inflated is your ego?" The HYDRA commander asked, stunned. "It's the _Avengers_. Worse, it's the Avengers with new members. Strucker only wants to fight them when we have a full force. Maybe if you were joined by the others, but right now we-"

He stopped, reaching for his ear. After a moment of listening, the HYDRA commander shook his head. "Our teams at Ms. Nathan's apartments were taken out. We have no eyes there anymore. We're pulling out. I'm not risking my people for your crazy obsession with this woman."

A blast of black energy slammed into the commander, sending him flying until he hit the wall behind him. The commander tried to rise, only for Marcus to grab his face.

"No... not crazy," Marcus said, watching as the commander's face paled, blackness flowing through his veins as his life force was sucked out. "I'm in love... although I suppose, everyone who's in love is a little crazy."

Daniels tossed aside the commander's lifeless body, looking over at Donnie. "How about you?"

Donnie finally moved, stepping forward. "I was told to follow your orders implicitly. My compliance will be rewarded."

Daniels smiled. "Yeah. Yeah, it will. And my orders are to kill every other HYDRA soldier here. If they won't help, I've got no use for them. I think it's about time we consider going independent."

Donnie turned to go towards the door, Daniels following.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

I twisted at the Omnitrix, working at the menu in the lounge on the Bus. I'd spent so much time with the thing, but I still had no idea how to use the more advanced functions. There was just so _much_. I'd tried to use voice commands, switched between aliens quickly, tapped and manipulated the menu of aliens, but nothing. If I could unlock aliens, well... then I'd be unstoppable.

I was aiming for Heatblast, NRG, or Big Chill. Aliens who could no-sell Blizzard. Swampfire could do it with some trouble but his plant nature made it possible to freeze those sections, break them off, and constantly regenerating would be taxing over time. He'd be my go-to in the fight if I had no choice, and he was a damn good choice anyway, but if I could unlock an alien that could more easily counter Donnie, it would be worth it.

"Hey," I looked up to see Steve enter the room, giving me a smile. "What are you doing?"

"Messing with my watch," I admitted, putting it away.

"Isn't that dangerous?" Steve asked with a frown.

"Nah, it's like messing with your universal remote until you figure it out, just the Omnitrix is a _lot_ more complicated," Plus, it was only really dangerous if I took a screwdriver to it or smashed it into stuff. Ben had been a good kid but damn if he wasn't an impulsive one. "How about you?"

"Getting ready to leave," Steve said. "You and Tony are going to be the only Avengers on this mission soon."

"We'll catch up later," I said simply.

Steve nodded, smiling. For a moment, there was an awkward silence.

"Was that it?" I asked nervously. When imagining myself standing in front of one of my heroes, I'd somehow never thought I'd find things awkward.

"No, it's just... Hard to believe. We're almost done. HYDRA is almost finished," Steve shook his head. "It's a weird feeling."

"Yeah... I think we're going to win too," I admitted. "I mean, we've become pretty strong, as a group."

"I think so too," Steve said. "But we can't relax. Even if HYDRA is beaten, we'll still be needed."

For a moment, just a moment, he looked... strange. Like a combination of tired and lost. As though he was... afraid. I had no idea what he was afraid of though. Afraid of HYDRA? Afraid of any threats after? What the hell could Captain America, the most badass patriot in history, be afraid of?

Before I could say anything he coughed, turning away. "See you after you're done, Mahmoud."

"Yeah, leave some HYDRA for me and Tony, okay?" Steve didn't answer, leaving me to think.

I knew he was capable of fear. He was human, in the end. But he was also brave. People made jokes about him getting his powers from steroids back on my world, but that wasn't fair. Steve was exceptional for his strength of character and strong beliefs even before he'd been injected. Anybody who had spoken to Bucky would know it, and I was willing to be Peggy would back him up on that. Red Skull, Loki, Winter Soldier, Galactus, Thanos, no matter who it was, I'd never believed for one moment that Steve would have given up against them, even without the serum enhancement. He would fight no matter what, whether as a ninety-pound weakling or a two hundred plus pound super soldier.

So, with all that bravery, what did he fear? I sat there by myself, confused.

 _ **Pepper Potts/Rescue**_

In the Avengers Tower, in her personal office, Pepper Potts was staring at a news report on a flat-screen TV situated on a wall near her desk in shock.

The woman on the screen with blonde hair and a fake smile Pepper recognized was on WHiH world news, talking about someone new in New York City. The issue was that Pepper Potts was _very_ familiar with the person they were discussing.

"With all the news on the Avengers and their new recruits, it seems the newly named BRIDGE has forgotten to introduce us to a new face on the scene," the woman said with that perky fake smile. Beside her, a graphic appeared showing a being in purple armor. "Seen alongside Dial and Iron Man as they go on patrol, the new armored 'hero'," one could practically hear the quote marks. "Has been making a name on the scene. Given the name 'Rescue' based on conversations overheard by those who have encountered her, she has gained a mixed reputation among those who have seen her."

Footage played of Pepper, Tony, and Mahmoud, the first two in their suits and the last in his Astrodactyl form, flying through the city they all called home.

"Jarvis," Pepper asked. "How many stations are running this story?"

" _Not many, ma'am. Due to the anonymous nature of your flights, more focus has been put into reports on BRIDGE and the Avengers in recent days. But people have noticed."_

"There has been speculation," the woman on the screen said. "That this woman is one of Tony Stark's recent... paramours. Someone he has chosen to bring with him on his patrols, though the reason for Mr. Stark bringing her on patrols can only be speculated on," Pepper narrowed her eyes at the _very_ obvious insinuation. "This speculation is due to Rescue's actions, or rather, her lack of actions. Despite joining Dial and Iron Man on patrols, she has never been seen engaging in any heroic activities."

An older man wearing a black shirt with red hair appeared. "Yeah, I've seen her a few times, but she only ever flies around, doesn't do much else. She might be new, just scared of fighting."

"I think she's spoiled or something," an Indian woman wearing a sundress said with a frown. "She just follows them around and doesn't do anything. I've seen other heroes fighting on Instagram and stuff, but no one ever mentions her."

"This is why women should not be superheroes!" A young man with shaved hair yelled angrily. "She just can't handle it! I mean, have you even seen Black Widow fight? No! She just lets the real heroes do her job for her while looking pretty!"

More people appeared with similar complaints, Pepper staring incomprehensibly at the screen, trying to understand what was happening.

Selfish? Cowardly? Granted, she was going to dismiss the last with ease as baseless (Seriously, there were dozens of hours of footage of Natasha fighting nowadays...), but all this hatred was so odd to her, even accounting for this possibly being biased reporting. She just liked flying. She felt closer to Tony while doing it and... it was so _wonderful_. Flying through the air, diving through the streets, floating among clouds. She wouldn't trade that experience for anything. Did people really believe that having a flying suit of armor automatically made her obligated to start risking her _life?_ That was like saying anyone who bought a helicopter should join search and rescue or something!

Pepper leaned back in her seat to listen, frowning. The new report switched back to the blonde woman. "With speculation on who this armored figure is, one can only wonder what she is thinking behind that faceless mask. One thing for sure, Tony Stark likely has something to explain Virginia 'Pepper' Potts, his current girlfriend, about the new woman in his life," The smile on the blonde woman's face became genuine, though that didn't make it nice. "I'm Christine Everhart and as always, thanks for watching News Front."

The TV was shut off. Pepper, holding the remote, stared at the screen. People were calling her a coward. And Christine Everhart, a woman she hadn't seen in _years_ , was more willing to believe the Tony was cheating on her, rather that she was the woman in armor.

Pepper rested a hand to her cheek, thinking silently to herself. She wasn't a fighter, not like Tony. She still had nightmares of when she'd killed Killian (Tony was insistent on the pun when talking about that). She'd rarely even fired her armors repulsors, mostly doing it as a test. She just wasn't the type of person to get into that sort of thing.

...By all accounts, she shouldn't have cared about what _Christine Everhart_ of all people was saying about her, let alone what others were saying.

Except that similar thoughts had filled her at times. Watching Mahmoud and Tony take out muggers, thieves, mobsters, even a would-be rapist once, she'd felt a certain disquiet as she floated in the background watching. Watching them save people, help men, women, and children of New York first hand. She'd never understood what it meant to be a superhero, no really, until she saw them saving people firsthand. She loved Tony, and on some level, she understood why he did what he did. But most superhero fights she'd seen before that had seemed more like a bigger and louder version of schoolyard fights than anything. Every person to personally come after Tony had an issue with Tony in particular. She'd never really seen Tony simply go out and save people for the sake of saving them, not on a consistent basis anyway. It was eyeopening, seeing him in action like that.

And now, Pepper didn't know what to think. She just... she wasn't someone to beat up people, no matter how bad they were. Should she even be thinking about this? Why was she so affected by it?

Memories came to her, of Tony battling monsters while she watched from the sidelines. The thought consumed her even as she went back to work.

 _ **Skye**_

"You want to upgrade my armor?" Skye asked, confused. She, Fitz, and Simmons were standing together in a lab around a suit of Iron Man armor. Or Iron Woman, in this case.

"Yes!" Fitz said excitedly.

The Avengers and most of the BRIDGE personnel had said their goodbyes already, taking off to prepare for their next operation, leaving Coulson's team, a small group of BRIDGE Elites to defend Audrey, Tony, and Mahmoud.

"We think we can add the Melter tech to your armor," Fitz said with a grin. "When Horgan made his armor, the power source was able to create heat rays of incredible power thanks to his improvements. If we modify it further, we can develop a way for armor and weapons to withstand immense cold like what," Fitz faltered for a moment. "Like, um, like what Donnie can do."

Skye looked at him. Simmons stepped forward and put a hand to his arm. "Fitz, Donnie isn't your fault."

"Yeah, I know, I just," Fitz took a deep shuddering breath. "Just tired of my friends being in HYDRA. Willing or otherwise."

Skye didn't say anything to that. She was able to acknowledge that she wasn't on the same page as Fitz when it came to one of their friends being in HYDRA. "So, uh, the armor? How long would it take to do that?"

Fitz looked up at Skye and swallowed. "It, uh, a couple of hours, maybe? Tony is doing the same with his armor. We just wanted to do the same to yours in case you ended up being needed."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Skye agreed. She thought, for a moment, about Mahmoud, and his constant insistence on her being safe. She shook her head, dismissing him from her mind with some difficulty. "Well, go ahead and do it if you want."

" **Yes!** " Fitz cheered loudly, startling both women. "Oh, sorry, sorry, it's just, Jury Rigg's technology is so fascinating. I'll get started," With a vibrant energy to him, Fitz ran out of the room. "Tony! She said yes!"

"Awesome!" Tony's voice said from the distance.

Simmons and Skye shared a look before the two of them started giggling at that. "It is exciting though, isn't it?" Simmons said, still giggling. "All the new technology and people we're dealing with? Working with the Avengers!"

"Yeah, if anyone had told me I'd be doing this before I met Coulson..." Skye trailed off with a smile. "Things have been pretty crazy around here though."

"Excuse me?" the two of them turned to see a new face enter. Well, two faces. One was Audrey. She was looking at them nervously as she walked into the Bus' lab. Behind her was someone Skye and Simmons had only seen during the briefing, one of the BRIDGE Elites. Frank, something? He'd been assigned to watch over Audrey for the duration of the mission, as apparently, Steve liked the man. To his credit, Frank followed the order with incredible enthusiasm once Steve had given him the order.

Skye had to hold back a smile for a second. Steve. She was on a first name basis with superheroes and even Dial was- She cut that thought off.

"I was wondering if Phil was around?" Audrey asked. She frowned for a moment. "We have to talk."

"Well, he might be with Tony on the _Defiant_?" Simmons supplied with a gentle smile.

"'Defiant?'" Audrey asked, confused.

"It's an experimental Quinjet," Skye said. Granted, the Defiant was more like a fully functioning starfighter but that was a complicated thing to explain. She looked at the guy behind Audrey. "Uh, do you-"

"Yeah, I've got it," the guy met eyes with her. Skye winced. Damn. This guy was... intense. She thought Ward was good at eyeing people, but this guy was something else. It was like his eyes only had one setting for everything, maximum glare. Maybe he smiled with his friends or something but Skye found that hard to believe. She looked away very quickly. The guy turned back to Audrey.,"Ms. Nathan?"

"Thank you, Frank," Audrey said with a smile that the guy returned. The two left, leaving Skye and Simmons alone again.

"I guess all we can do now is wait, right?" Skye asked Simmons.

"Yes, I suppose so," Simmons said with a sigh. "It's a bit nerve-wracking, to be honest. I'd rather they simply attacked and got it over with."

 _ **SHRAKA-KOOM!**_

An explosion in the distance startled both women, who looked at each other.

"Okay, you asked for that," Skye said numbly.

"I should have remembered Murphy's Law," Simmons agreed, sounding disappointed in herself. Like Hermoine failing a test, as opposed to someone who had tempted fate.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

I was still messing with my watch when that explosion sound came from the distance. Thankfully my instincts had been getting a workout, so I was already up and moving before I realized. I ran to the cargo bay and ran down the stairs, looking at the Omnitrix briefly before tapping my chest instead. My armor 'grew' over my form, wrapping me in its comforting weight.

At the bottom of the stairs, Skye and Simmons were running out of the lab to head out as well. Skye gave me a worried glance. "Where did that come from?!"

"Jarvis, X?" I asked.

" _Northern airfield,"_ Jarvis answered. _"A cargo plane similar in design to the Bus was destroyed."_

Wait, only similar?

I ran out to see the _Defiant_ nearby, Tony getting into his Darkforce Armor with Fitz, Audrey, and Frank standing next to him. Frank's own armor snapped into place around him as I ran to join them. Phil came out of the Defiant.

"It's him," Phil said simply. "But there are no HYDRA in the area. BRIDGE intelligence apparently just found out about three destroyed Quinjets that were discovered with a whole lot of frozen and lifeless bodies around them near the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, Donnie and Daniels signatures. We don't know if they're HYDRA yet, but it's a good bet."

"That place with Howard Hughes plane?" I asked as Skye and Simmons joined us as well. "Why would Daniels and Donnie kill the people helping them?"

"Because they were going to stop," Frank Castle said thoughtfully. We all stopped to listen to him. "HYDRA knows the Avengers are here and they've been focused on using guerrilla tactics to keep us from hammering them. They'd retreat. Hell, I'd retreat to. If Daniels is obsessed as we thought," he glanced at Audrey, who was looking around at us, scared. "He must have had a problem with that. Killed them and ran here half-cocked. Explains why that cargo plane was destroyed. The idiot didn't know anything about his target and attacked the first thing that _might_ be it. This is basically a self-driven rampage."

The irony of Frank Castle commenting on self-driven rampages...

"We can use that. Saves us the trouble of tracking him and Donnie down at least," Phil said firmly as May came over. "May, take Audrey and the rest to the Helicarrier on the Bus. Dial, Tony, you two will engage them. Punisher, choose a team."

"I'm staying," Skye said. I opened my mouth, then closed it, choosing not to say anything.

"Okay," Phil said calmly. "Tony, did you manage to-"

"The Melter upgrade is in," Tony said, his faceplate snapping down. "Let's do this."

I looked down at the Omnitrix. I hadn't been able to unlock anything new, so I'd probably stick with Swampfire to counter Donnie and Feedback for Daniels, though granted, I had no idea if Feedback's power would work on _negative_ energy. How the hell could energy even _be_ negative!? "Okay. Let's go."

Tony stepped towards me. "Clench up, kid," he said while grabbing me under my arms. He took off into the sky while carrying me, heading for the explosion. Flying over a hanger, I activated my thermal vision. I immediately saw the cargo plane that was burning in the distance. Walking towards us across the land that separated one runway from another, causing the green grass to wither away and die or freeze solid, were two figures that seemed to absorb the world around them. They weren't even a cold blue, they were more like... dark spots in my vision shaped like people.

"Down there," I said, letting the comms send my words to him directly rather than trying to yell over the wind.

"Dropping you down there," Tony confirmed. He shot over the tarmac and let me go. I dropped down and activated my jumpjets, landing on the ground in front of the two. Tony slammed into the tarmac next to me in a classic three-point landing position. We stood side by side moments later.

Daniels and Donnie eyed us and stopped about twenty feet away.

"Any chance we can convince you guys to give up? Rather not scratch up the suit" Tony asked, his voice hard despite the joke.

Blackout smirked, the tall man shaking his head. "You're keeping her from me. Nothing you say will change my mind. I _will_ save Audrey."

"'Save' the woman you're stalking," I mused. "Yeah, you're way off the reservation."

A black beam slammed into my chest, sending me flying. I grunted at the impact, eyes wide at the feeling of spinning through the air. "SHI-OOF!"

I landed on the ground and rolled for several feet before coming to a stop.

"I'm in love with her!" Daniels yelled in the distance. "Not stalking her!"

"The two aren't mutually exclusive, you asshole," I said under my breath. I rolled to rise only to blink when I felt a strange sensation from my arm. When I looked at the Omnitrix, it was flashing green. Later, I'd wonder how. Did Daniels somehow activate it? Was it me messing with it? Did Darkforce blasts have some sort of interaction with the Omnitrix that I couldn't have predicted? Or had I simply bumped into it in the right way during my roll?

Whatever the reason was, I began to transform in a flash of green light.

I rose up in height by at least three feet. My skin changed texture, becoming more rough, like brown cloth. It also began to split at points as my muscles and bone faded, leaving nothing but the cloth-like material. A green glow came from between the gaps. My head grew a large helmet-like structure like that an ancient Pharoah would have worn, while a kilt-like garment similar to an Egyptian 'shendyt' came across my waist. I stood tall and stared out with glowing green eyes.

" **Snare-Oh!"**

Transformed, I looked down at myself and grunted, my voice sounding almost like like I'd been filtered by a ghost voice app. _"Snare-Oh, instead of Big Chill or Heatblast. Against an ice villain. Well, guess this had to happen at least once."_

Daniels and Donnie stared at me in shock. Well, Daniels did. Donnie blasted at me with ice. I dodged around it by turning into scraps of bandages and floating through the air to dive around the cold attack, moving forward to reform in front of him. I extended my arms forward and turned them into dozens of reaching tendrils, wrapping Donnie in my bandages, only for him to freeze my appendages near instantly and break out from the now super brittle cloth. Another ice attack froze my chest from neck to navel. I 'released' my chest and let it fall to the ground as I grew another one.

" _I've got Donnie!"_ I yelled at Iron Man. _"You get lover boy!"_

"On it!" Tony yelled, speeding forward in his black and gold armor to shoot at Daniels with bright white light.

"I'll kill you!" Daniels snarled, a black burst of power leaving his hands to fly at Tony, who spun away from the attack to blast Daniels. Daniels, apparently having learned to respect Tony's attack earlier, ducked down and began to run, Tony and Daniels trading shots at high speed as pure _shadow_ seemed to seep out of the latter.

" _I'll try not to hurt you,"_ I told Donnie, shifting forms to duck under another beam of cold. He stomped on the ground, releasing a blast wave of cold around him. I blocked it by shapeshifting my right arm into a shield. The arm froze and shattered. I grunted. _"Well, not too much at least. Can't have you hurting me either."_

I ran towards him, turning into scraps of cloth-like flesh to fly in the air. With experience from Goop and Upgrade, I was able to adjust quickly to Snare-Oh's brand of shapeshifting. It was different in a lot of ways, being a giant bandage monster. I felt so... strange. Like I wasn't alive anymore. Which kind of made sense but it was as though my body was filled with some undercurrent of energy. Something I'd only felt once when I'd become Frankenstrike. Combined with the whole 'bandage' thing, I was feeling some weird combination of powerful and inhuman as I flowed through the air as simple bandages and reformed as a giant mummy with glowing green eyes.

I punched at Donnie, but he surprised me. He raised his hands and the air in front of him was suddenly made of ice, the frozen shield protecting him from my punch. When I pulled back my knuckles, they were chipped and frosted. I ignored that in favor of punching again, shattering the shields and my knuckles and sending Donnie backward. He rolled clumsily to his feet and hit me with more cold frost, getting my legs. I got rid of those and floated to reform next to him, coming down with a double hammer blow that was blocked by another bunch of ice as he rolled away.

" _Kid, just let me help you!"_ I yelled in my ghost voice. _"Jus-mmmfff!"_ A blast of ice to my head shut me up. Then he formed a sword made of ice and chopped my arms off.

Seriously! Donnie was not that powerful in his files! Curse inaccurate paperwork!

I reformed in an instant and glowered at him. Looked like the fight was more even than I was expecting. Fine. Let's get serious.


	42. Chapter 42

I slid across the ground as dozens of strips of mummy wraps, moving towards Donnie like he was Indiana Jones and I was a bunch of snakes. Unlike the good Doctor Jones, Donnie was unfazed and started blasting wide waves of frost at me. I slithered around them, leaving portions of me to fall and shatter on the ground before going in between his legs and rising up into an uppercut as I returned to my bipedal form. Before my large bandage fist could hit his chin, Donnie created a hasty chunk of ice, which, though it shattered under my strength, kept me from making a knockout blow. I twisted out of the way of another blast by turning into scraps on the wind, wrapping a tendril around Donnie's arm and twisting to throw him. The tendril froze in an instant, shattering into white shards, but I still managed to toss him across the tarmac.

Donnie, in a move of athleticism I didn't expect, managed to twist in the air and shot ice to form into a slide connected to the ground large enough to support him. He went onto it at an angle, sliding across the ice to turn a throw into a safer stumble, before turning and blasting at me again.

" _This is getting annoying,"_ I said in my odd ghostly voice, ignoring my arm getting frozen and shattered again. Well, not ignored. While I still had plenty of energy, I could feel that the constant shapeshifting and regeneration would take its toll eventually. Not to mention if he managed to freeze my entire body I would be effectively taken out of the fight. Donnie couldn't kill me, but he was also good enough that I was starting to get worried. _"Tony, any chance you can help?"_

" _Not really,"_ Far away, I could hear the whine of repulsor beams and the strange muted sound of Darkforce attacks. _"This guy isn't getting through my defenses but I can't seem to overload him! What was HYDRA doing to this guy!?"_

" _Then we need to find some other way to stop them,"_ I said, creating a large shield of bandages out of my left arm to block another ice attack. The shield froze over, but my strength let me hold it up to keep blocking the attacks. _"Your armor is upgraded with Melter tech, right?"_

" _Probably?"_ Tony said hesitantly. _"We didn't get to test it. Jarvis?"_

" _Logic dictates testing before attempting a live fire exercise,"_ Jarvis sounded very beleaguered. _"But I don't see any issues arising."_

" _Then I say we trade dance partners,"_ I said over the comms, dropping the shield and moving to attack Donnie again. The ice user snapped his hands out and made a pair of icy blades. He grabbed onto the hilts and walked forward with that damned emotionless look on his face. It was terrifying on some level. Creel hadn't been so far gone that he had no emotions at all. What had HYDRA done? _"You come towards me and I'll go for you?"_

" _Sure thing, Fanboy."_

With that, I split myself in half to avoid a slice from Donnie. As the sword passed in between me, I floated away before flying away. Donnie, single-minded as ever, chased after me, running with the endurance of a skilled athlete. He tossed aside his swords in favor of shooting at me. His ice attacks came in the form of clouded mist, focused blue glowing beams, or white hot lightning-like attacks. None of which he was supposed to be capable of. In fact, did the effect seem to be getting stronger the closer he got to Daniels?

I discarded that thought as the black and gold for of Iron Man flew towards me, Marcus Daniels chasing after him. As I passed Tony, I formed a hand to slap at his.

" _Tag out,"_ I said, rushing towards Marcus.

Seemingly realizing what was happening, Daniels fired a shadowy cloud at me. I ducked around it.

Behind me, Donnie attacked Tony with an ice cold attack. Tony held his arms out to take the attack on his chest. For a moment, frost formed across Tony's armor. Then it shattered away in a blast wave of heat.

" _How about that?"_ Tony said, sounding amused.

Donnie raised his hands and sent out waves of ice. Tony raised his own hands and unleashed heat rays that smashed into the cold, sending out steam in all directions.

As they began to battle, I was floating towards Daniels. The steam sent off from Tony and Donnie threw me off my trajectory, however, sending me in a different direction. Daniels managed to blast me in the air, tearing through my bandages. I regenerated them and flew towards him again. He grinned at that and, to my surprise, didn't move at all as I came in close and reformed to attack him with a fist. Once I was in my full form, however, Daniels stepped forward and grabbed my arm. For just a moment, we stared at each other, Daniels smiling.

" _...Are you trying to absorb my energy?"_

He paled, apparently realizing something Donnie was too out of it to figure out. That I was an eight-foot-tall mummy who could regenerate from damage and no sell his best one hit kill move. I punched him in the face as a reward.

" _Rude,"_ had I been saying that a lot lately? I ignored the thought in favor over of wrapping Daniels in my tendrils as he staggered back with a broken nose. Behind me, Tony and Donnie were still battling it out. I ignored them, focusing on Daniels as I wrapped him up in more and more tendrils.

He exploded with dark energy, tearing at the bandages surrounding him as he screamed.

"You won't keep me from he-mmff!" I pulled a Spider-Man and wrapped a bandage around his mouth.

" _If I wanted to listen to creepy assholes, I'd make a Tinder with Natasha as my profile pic,"_ I quipped.

"Good one!" Tony yelled overhead.

" _Thank you,"_ I ducked around a Darkforce attack as a ball of cloth. In that form, I rolled around the tarmac at high speed, dodging blasts. _"Good thing I've played so many video games,_ " I mused, bouncing off the floor to slam into Daniels' chest, sending him flying with a shout. _"Samus and Sonic, eat your heart out."_

"Fanboy!" Tony yelled at me.

" _Playboy!"_ I yelled back, rising to my mummy form.

"Stop acting like I'm a joke," Daniels spat out, rising up. I focused on him, surprised at the view of his eyes. They had gone black. "I... I'm going to kill you."

Shadows lengthened. He stepped forward. "I'll kill you all."

He fired a shadow the size of a truck at me. I turned into strips of cloth laying on the floor, watching as they passed over me.

"You're all going to die!" Daniels skin started to flake away, black... something, showing up underneath.

Okay, going to have to end this. Darkforce... Okay, I got an idea. It was risky. I didn't know how much time I had but whatever was happening to Daniels, we had to finish it.

" _Tony, come over here!"_

I tapped the Omnitrix. Snare-Oh was awesome but it was time to go next level.

Tony flew towards me as I flashed green.

" **Upgrade!"**

I was only in my normal Upgrade for a moment when Tony flew into me. I joined to his armor instantly, sinking into it. As I joined with his armor, portions of me went deeper, in the implants with Tony that let him remotely control his armor. We flew spun in the air to face our opponents, the arc reactor in our chest glowing with immense green power.

" _ **WE ARE VENOM,"**_ I said jokingly, in as deep a voice as I could say it in.

Joining with Tony was different from joining with Rhodey. Rhodey's armor, advanced as it was, wasn't as worked over with as Tony's was. Rhodey went for tech that _worked_. Not the experimental. It was like the difference between a person who painted houses and a person who painted art. Similar, but with different focuses.

Not much time to do this. I flowed into the weapons Tony had made within the armor to combat Daniels. Donnie was running towards us but he was still far enough away for us to finish this.

Daniels aimed his hands at us, roaring as he launched Darkforce at us. We responded to the incoming waves of energy by lifting our hands up.

Ports on our shoulders opened, large cannons flowing out to aim, our arms became giant cannons, and the arc reactor on our chest changed its lights color from green to white. We fired five bright lasers of white light, two from the shoulders, two from the arm cannons, and one from the chest, at the Darkforce cloud. The two massive forces, light and darkness, met in the middle with incredible force.

"I'm increasing our power as high as I can," I told Tony, Upgrade's voice being a bit more natural sounding than Snare-Oh's.

"Go further!" Tony shouted, his muscles straining. "Donnie's almost here, we need to take out Daniels before that!"

"I'm on it!" I flowed into the power conduits and improved them further. For the first time, I was straining as Upgrade. I could read the scans on Tony's HUD, and Daniels was somehow getting to a level of power we hadn't anticipated before. I'd never been familiar with the character of Blackout before but if he'd been that powerful he would have probably shown up more often.

The concrete beneath Daniels's feet began to crack, shadows pouring up to meld to him. His eyes crackled with black energy. The air before him was gone, replaced with his Darkforce power.

In retaliation, Tony roared. "Peace out, Boogeyman!" I completed the power conduits as Tony leaned into his assault. The five beams of light intensified in power, slicing through the Darkforce. Daniels roared, the last of his skin flaking away before the waves of power hit him.

For just a moment, he seemed to flicker. I poked my head out of Tony to fire my own blast of white light. With that final blow, Daniels exploded.

The Omnitrix timed right then.

I separated from Tony in my fully armored form and fell to the ground, exhausted. I looked towards Tony, who floated above me, breathing heavily.

A beam of ice hit Tony, blasting him out of the air.

I spun around and raised my arm, catoms flowing into a shield. Donnie hit me them. I screamed as cold flowed through the shield and armor, my HUD screaming at me as the sheer blast of ice seemed to suck the air from my lungs. "Holy shit, Donnie!"

"You killed him!" Donnie apparently lost whatever emotionless demeanor he'd had, replacing it with a lost sort of scream.

"You're welcome!" I shouted back. For all my brevity, I was in trouble. Donnie had been powerful before but now he was something else. The world around me had become a snowstorm, my HUD sending me alarms as the environmental control systems struggled to compensate from the sudden drop in temperature and my skin started to stick to my armor. "Tony!"

"I've got you!" Tony slammed into the ground next to me in a burst of fire. I screamed at the intense pain of cold giving way to heat, stumbling. Tony came close to me. "This is insane!" He yelled over the rushing wind. Snowflakes fell from the sky as the tarmac frosted over. "He's created a blizzard!"

"We need to stop him!" I yelled. Another crack made me scream in pain as a wing of a plane slammed into me. I landed on the ground.

"I...!" Tony seemed to falter as he flew over to help him. "...I'll do it."

"Tony!"

"We have no choice!" Tony yelled. "I'll try to knock him out, but he's becoming too powerful!"

Sudden streaks of black were floating in the snow, disappearing and reappearing. Tony flew into the icy winds, leaving me to stagger after him. The world was a white haze. I felt hail begin to fall from the sky, shattering against my armor with bonecrushing force. The catoms within my suit fought to protect me. I slipped on a patch of ice and barely kept from falling. Fuck, I never remembered Blizzard being this powerful in the comics. This was on the level of Ice Man or Storm!

"Donnie! Stop!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. "We can help you! We can cure you!"

Ice shattered across my arm as more warnings flashed red on my HUD. I felt desperate at this point. I may have been joking around, but Donnie was a victim, someone we wanted to save. Someone I didn't want to see die, for Fitz and Simmons at least. We had to help him. "Donnie, please! Fitz misses you!"

Then I was in the eye of the storm. Tony and Donnie stood there, Tony in front of me and Donnie across from us. The kid was yelling wordlessly with his hands forward, launching waves of blue-white frost at us. Tony poured on bright orange waves of fire. "He's not listening!" Tony said desperately.

"Donnie!" I yelled over the sound of waves of steam and the blizzard around us. "Come on, man! We can help!"

Then a pillar of ice shot up nearby. I stared at it, only for another to shoot up underneath me. I flew into the air and activated my jumpjets before I landed, slipping slightly on the ice. More and more pillars began to rise, but I was focused on Donnie.

He looked at me and pointed a hand at me. In slow motion, I saw Tony look at me as well. The Iron Man seemed to hesitate. He knew, like me, that Donnie was about to shoot at me. With this new level of power, what would the kid do? More streaks of shadow flickered across Donnie's skin as Tony came to a decision. He activated his chest repulsor and opened up with more power.

The heat-based beams finally overcame their counterparts, slicing through to hit Donnie. As I watched in horror, Donnie screamed. The blizzard shook under some unseen wave of pressure. Then it all exploded.

When my eyes opened later, I was on my back. The night sky was still snowing, but the clouds had started to fade. With some effort, I struggled to my feet and looked around. Shards of ice rested all over the tarmac. A couple of planes nearby had been destroyed my shards of hail the size of cars. Tony was standing in the center of the conflict, looking down at the floor with his fists clenched, his black and gold armor glowing red from the heat it was giving off. He looked over his shoulder at me.

"...Nothing could have survived that."

"...Yeah."

I walked up to him, a deep sadness filling me. Tony had saved my life, maybe even saved the entire West Coast from the storm Donnie had been making according to the readings later. But it didn't feel good, knowing an innocent and broken young man was dead now. Two of the most powerful beings on Earth and still...

I turned around, focusing on the next step with a heavy feeling inside me. "X, bring the _Defiant_ over. Have they gotten to HYDRA yet?"

" _No sir,"_ X said as my Quinjet rose up in the distance.

"Good. How's Phil and everyone else?"

" _They've begun to rendezvous with the others. I will inform them of what happened."_

The Defiant flew over to us as I looked back at Tony. He let out a sound I couldn't really understand, then walked over to me. We got into the ship and left.

A chunk of ice shifted quietly on the ground.

 _January 20th, 2014_

In the _Defiant_ , Tony and I listened to the comms as we flew through the air. He'd removed his suit and was sitting in the copilots seat next to me as I piloted us through the air to rendezvous with the others. Maria was speaking firmly over the radio.

" _We go in hard and fast. Dial, you'll be confronting Wanda Maximoff and Melissa Gold. Bruce, Tony, and Dial will take on Abomination and any other gamma mutates the Omnitrix can't cure. Tony, did you complete-"_

"It's done," Tony confirmed.

" _Good. Then you'll help Hulk. Cap, you and the rest of the Avengers will join our forces on the grounds and inside the castle. Centipede soldiers and Chitauri armor users have likely infested the place alongside normal soldiers. Remember, in the event of Strucker escaping, we go for contingency plan B. Understood, Dial?"_

"Yes, ma'am," I answered. "By the way, we've caught up."

Ahead of us was an Insight Helicarrier, one of the normal ones. It was flying south with Quinjets around it like bees around a hive. The _Defiant_ joined the convoy. I could see the Bus parked on the helicarrier as we flew with the group.

" _Good. Then launch the assault, now,"_ Maria said simply.

A contingent of the first Quinjets peeled off, followed by regular jets taking off from the helicarrier. I twisted around and joined them, pushing the _Defiant_ as hard as I could before turning to Tony.

"You okay?" I asked hesitantly.

"No," Tony said curtly. "But when am I ever?"

He got up and walked into the back of the Quinjet.

We flew on in silence across the forested landscaped for several miles. When we got close, Jarvis spoke.

" _Several enemy Quinjets are moving to intercept us. Anti-aircraft emplacements are preparing to fire."_

"Then the party is getting started early," Tony replied, already wearing everything except his helmet, which he carried under his arm. "I can take out the Quinjets. Bruce can get the emplacements."

"You sure?" I asked from the pilot's seat.

"HYDRA forced me to fight and kill a kid," the door of the Quinjet opened up, Tony put on his helmet and I could hear it sealing and linking up with rest of armor. "I'm going to make them pay for that. Jarvis, send me the package."

" _On it's way, Mr. Stark,"_ Tony nodded at the response, then he blasted out of the back of the Quinjet in a roar of noise.

I turned back to the _Defiant's_ controls, thinking for a moment. HYDRA, HYDRA, HYDRA, HYDRA, causing us nothing but trouble. Donnie, Jennifer, Trip, Sharon, all their victims in the Graveyard... I hesitated a moment longer before reaching for the control panel. I turned on the weapons systems and looked over the radar.

Twelve Quinjets flying towards us, too far away to be seen by human sensors. But the _Defiant_ wasn't a human ship, not completely anymore. I moved the joystick and aimed my weapons at the head Quinjet, ignoring Iron Man flying towards it to focus. With a pull of the trigger, the head Quinjet was hit by a pair of lasers to the wings. Thankfully, lasers are both too fast to dodge and extremely accurate, being, you know, _light_. The Quinjet plummeted out of the sky. I aimed my weapons at the next as one of the Quinjets next to mine dropped a massive green being to the forest below. I fired my lasers once more, taking out another Quinjet. Then Tony was shooting his repulsors and the two groups of ships met in the air. I twisted the controls around and grit my teeth, trying to take out another Quinjet but instead slicing the top off a tree when the laser missed. The Hulk's baritone roar could be heard, followed by an explosion amongst the forest below.

"Come on!" I yelled, twisting the _Defiant_ around to confront another Quinjet. The HYDRA pilot fired bullets that bounced off my ships shields, depleting them slightly. I shot the other plane in it's under-hanging miniguns, destroying the weapon. Before I could finish it off, a BRIDGE Quinjet slid around and fired into it, destroying the Quinjet. A quick zoom and enhance cliché later and I could see Clint inside the Quinjet, waving at me. I waved back, then focused on the fight as more HYDRA Quinjets headed for us. I checked a timer in the corner of my screen. Right on schedule, a bright pink light showed up in the distance.

"X, you got my back, buddy?" I asked with a grin, letting go of the controls.

The steering and weapons joystick moved on their own. _"Always, sir."_

I got up and ran to the back of the Quinjet, leaping out as the ship flew sped up to insane speeds, shooting over the castle as gun emplacements fired on the _Defiant_. I fell towards the castle at a fast clip in my armor, aiming for the eastern side of it. When two Chitauri armored soldiers flew up to meet me, I twisted until my feet were facing the incoming ground and pulled out my rifle, aiming at a soldier and firing a warning hail of bullets that the pair dodging, letting me zoom past them.

Before I got to the ground I ignited my jump jets, landing on the ground with a solid, but not bone-breaking, bouncing slightly. Safe, I looked up at the people waiting for me. Dozens of Centipede and Chitauri soldiers, all eyeing me.

"Okay," I grabbed the Omnitrix dial and twisted the face. "Let's go!"

Orange fur grew across my face and body, striped with black. I grinned as fangs slid out of my mouth.

" **Rath!"**

"Let me tell you something, HYDRA Morons! Rath has had a depressing day and has been waiting for today for weeks! So now I'm gonna turn you all into my punchi-" A Chitauri soldier shot me in the face. I stopped, turning to look at the guy. "...You! Rath beats you down first!"

With that, I leaped towards the soldier as all the others began to fire on me. Seconds later, the poor guy was screaming as I used him like a bludgeon.

Ah, Rath. The perfect form to get out some anger in a truly cathartic way.

 _Author's Note:_ This chapter was hard, for a few reasons, but it was still fun. Anyways, now we're digging into the War of the Castle. Dial and the others all have their jobs.

As for Daniels and Donnie, yep, they're dead. Absolutely dead. It's not like I left things ambiguous in any way (A chunk of ice rolls by).

Oh, and Snare-Oh. Don't think for one second that he's weak. He just didn't have the sheer power to take on Daniels and Donnie, who were both somewhat... enhanced. Even then, Snare-Oh wins most MCU fights nine times out of ten.

Oh right, couple of other things. Since the last chapter, this story now has a discord at discord dot gg slash yhz338q and a tvtropes page made by storysmith112358[/USER] who is awesome. I've also started streaming video games to try and make some money on Twitch and talk to you guys at a faster rate. It's at twitch dot tv slash mahmoudschahed.

None of it is necessary to enjoy the story, but I wanted to open up some options for you guys


	43. Chapter 43

_**Bruce Ba-HULK!/Hulk**_

Hulk roared as he rushed through the trees, snapping branches off his body with no regard for them. Ahead of him was a large anti-aircraft gun emplacement pointed up at his friends, shooting at them. Hulk narrowed his eyes, ignoring all the puny HYDRA shooting at him to focus in on the giant gun. There was a moment, with Hulk's green foot digging deep into the earth as he was moments from hitting the thing, where the whole forest stilled. Then the Hulk was smashing into the gun, steel bending and shattering everywhere into pieces of shrapnel, the HYDRA soldier piloting the gun flying into the distance.

" _Huh,"_ Bruce said in his mind. _"That was impressive. And you didn't kill anyone."_

Hulk shook his head, only barely listening. The big green monster felt his rage rise.

" _Okay, next one,"_ Bruce said calmly. _"Come on, big guy, we need to take these things out so everyone else can be safe."_

Hulk struggled to think as he turned around and ran towards the next emplacement, tossing aside a HYDRA soldier as he ran past, then tearing through a tree which exploded into chunks of wood all over the forest floor. Bullets bounced off Hulk, who furrowed his brow in thought.

" _ **Abomination..."**_

Bruce sent a wave of acknowledgment. _"We'll take him when he shows up, Hulk."_

A tank rolled over a nearby hill, firing waves of energy at the Hulk. They barely slowed him down despite their unusual weaponry. Hulk roared, twisting around and leaping towards the tank to lift it onto his shoulders before jumping again to land next to the next emplacement, spinning around to smash the tank into it.

" _ **BLONSKY!"**_ Hulk roared in challenge.

In the distance, another roar responded. Hulk spun around, nostrils flaring with rage.

" _Wait, Hulk!"_ Bruce said quickly. _"I know, you want to fight him! But Blonsky's not important! Jennifer! Jennifer is the one we want to save remember?"_

Metaphorical ice-water poured over the Hulk. For a moment, he stared longingly towards where the roar had come from. Then he turned and ran for the next emplacement. And if he hit it with even more anger than before, it was because he was picturing a green face on the metal.

 _ **Steve Rogers/Captain America**_

"Whoa, look at him go," Clint said from the cockpit as he watched Hulk tear another emplacement to pieces.

"Focus," Steve said leaning over to gaze upon the castle beyond. While he was carrying his shield, the rest of his clothes was more casual, except for several pouches across his legs and a small backpack. "We've got a job to do."

Clint nodded, spinning the Quinjet to fire upon a HYDRA aircraft, only for a fighter jet to zoom past with a missile. Steve turned and walked into the back.

"Jarvis and X are still going through the files," Steve said to those gathered in the back, BRIDGE Elites, Natasha, and Bobbi, his comms sending his words to the other soldiers in other Quinjets. "But they've been able to tell us that HYDRA has enough Chitauri armored and Centipede soldiers for a small army. They've also made Gamma-enhanced soldiers, at least two of which are stable. Now, our people on the inside are going to be engaging us in combat. That's necessary for the ruse to work. So those are Avengers only targets. Everyone else is fair game," Steve closed his eyes thinking for a moment. "We don't expect everything to go perfectly. But you all have one order above all others. Come back home alive. Understood?"

With that statement, the door in the back opened. Steve moved towards it, tapping his chest. "Captain America."

With that, catoms flowed across his body from the pouches on his legs and the pack on his back, moving over his body. They formed into metallic plates across his frame, forming into gauntlets and greaves, covering him in hundreds of pounds of metal and other materials. The armor was similar in design to Steve's old costume, with a star that glowed with white flames of power. His helmet's face was all in one smooth piece, like that of a knight. Steve moved over to Natasha and Bobbi, who were in their armor already, Natasha in a black version of Bobbi's costume, only with red highlights.

"Still not sure about this armor," Steve admitted, looking down at himself. "I mean, I can move really easily in it. But I'm still-"

"Bulletproof?" Natasha quipped.

Steve looked over at Bobbi, who shrugged. Steve sighed, then leaped out of the Quinjet.

"...Did he have a parachute?" A BRIDGE Elite asked, shocked.

Clint, laughing like a madman, jumped out, Bobbi and Natasha following with whoops of joy.

"What the hell did we sign up for?" The same Elite asked.

"Killing wanna-be Nazi's?" Another responded.

"...Yeah, that's fair."

Steve's jets activated moments from impact, allowing his superhuman legs to take the landing on the grassy field in front of the castle. As he did, Iron Man and War Machine flew overhead, shooting their weapons at the tanks taking to the field, Sam following later to dive into the dogfight between the Quinjets. Clint, Natasha, and Bobbi glided into the castle itself by crashing into the upper windows. Hartley, the woman codenamed Warrior landed next to Steve from another Quinjet, followed by Bucky and Creel. Together, the four of them rushed across the open field towards the castle. For most, the run would have been suicide. Not so much for the quartet.

Chitauri armored soldiers flew overhead and aimed at the group, shooting purple energy blobs at them. Steve raised his shield and blocked them as catoms flowed to Bucky and Hartley's arms to let them do the same with their own shields. Creel shapeshifted into his vibranium form and simply kept running, ignoring the shots landing on him.

Centipede soldiers took to the field as well, rushing out of the castle to attack the group while tanks were torn apart by Tony and Rhodey in a medley of destruction. Steve, the fastest of the group, met the soldiers first but Bucky was already shooting, taking out one of them in a hail of bullets.

Creel, in the meantime, leaped into the air with his superhuman strength. As soon as his feet left the ground, he changed colors from the dark gray of refined vibranium to a color closer to a see-through blue. Aerogel, one of the lightest and strongest materials on Earth, had a weight of 0.16 milligrams. Propelled by Creel's incredible strength, the superhuman rocketed into a Chitauri soldier with a roar, pulling the surprised HYDRA soldier into his grasp. In a flash, Creel turned into his immensely heavy osmium form and slammed into the ground with the soldier beneath him. Creel rolled on the ground and came alongside Hartley, switching back into his vibranium form and punching a Centipede soldier. Hartley stabbed her sword into the man, circling Creel to attack another soldier. For a moment, Hartley and Creel were fighting as one, moving between each other in synergy. Hartley sliced off the arm of a Centipede soldier, then ducked to let Creel punch the man in the face. Creel blocked a series of Chitauri energy beams before Hartley jumped off his back to slash into those men. They fought as though they'd known each other their entire lives.

Steve and Bucky, on the other hand, put them to shame. The pair of WW2 veterans ran up some steps leading to the castle. Four Centipede soldiers rushed them. Steve and Bucky raised their shields.

The doors to the castle exploded inwards moments later when a hail of fists, elbows, feet, and shields sent the four Centipede soldiers flying. Steve and Bucky followed after, rushing across the ground at high speed. Hartley and Creel ran in next. Steve blocked a hail of bullets on his shield, then threw his famously mighty shield, ignoring the Centipede soldier rushing at his weak left side. The soldier reached for a knife and stabbed at Steve.

Bucky caught the blade in his robotic hand, snapping the blade before shooting the soldier in the chest with his BCW. As he did, a sniper aimed a shot at the former Winter Soldier's back and fired.

The round bounced off the returning shield of Captain America. Steve spun with his shield to uppercut into the chin of a HYDRA operative, Bucky killing the sniper with a well-placed round.

"Holy shit," Creel mumbled, watching the pair fight with grace and efficiency he'd never seen before.

"Damn," Hartley said, biting her lip under her helmet. "I want that."

Steve almost stumbled on hearing that, Bucky grinning at his friend. Some things never changed.

They got back to work.

Above the super-soldiers, three assassins ran through the top floors of the castle, the sound of gunshots filling the air.

 _ **Prince T'Challa/The Black Panther**_

The Kingdom of Wakanda was thought of as the Third World. Primitive, full of nothing but farmers, tribes, and cows.

If only people knew better, though for centuries it was agreed by those who _did_ know that it was best to keep the secret of Wakanda.

Of course, that was the exact argument that was being held in the throne room of Wakanda. To step into the light, or to continue as they had. Days ago, such a conversation would have been out of the realms of possibility for any of the rulers of Wakanda's tribes. Today, all the tribe leaders had come. King T'Chaka sat at the center, dressed in simple black robes on his throne, the beautiful Golden City behind them. The prince sat beside him on the left, in a carbon copy of his father's outfit. Queen Ramonda sat on his right, wearing a beautiful purple dress. From there, the tribal leaders sat in a circle on a platform of brown stone, each with their own chair.

With the bright sunlight behind him, T'Chaka listened to the group argue, the River Tribe leader, an older man with a crisp purple business suit and a large purple 'lip plate' in his bottom lip, was speaking now. "The River Tribe has been pushing for Wakanda to provide more support to the world for several years. To give refuge, medical supplies, and rescue those in need. This may be the first step to Wakanda aiding the world."

"Or to destroying our way of life," W'Kabi, the leader of the Border Tribe, and T'Challa's best friend spoke with a serious look on his face. "You bring in the refugees, let the people of other countries know what we have, and their problems... become our problems."

"That's not the issue we'd be dealing with," Oyoke, the leader of the Dora Milaje, said calmly. "Don't forget what this man, Dial, has said. Tony Stark, for all of his genius, has none of the advantages our scientists have. His technology is great, but vibranium and our better-educated scientists, as well as Shuri recently," T'Challa felt a burst of pride for his bratty fourteen-year-old sister. "Have always let us overcome that. But Dial is giving them _alien_ technology beyond anything we've seen before. They are now years ahead of us in many fields. If this continues then BRIDGE will discover us, whatever we decide."

"...Only for as long as Dial lives," the leader of the Mining Tribe, an older woman with an ornate red dress, mentioned softly.

T'Chaka raised a hand, stopping any outburst that may follow that. "That is not something I believe possible. I have seen the power of the Omnitrix, and the skill with which Schahed wields it with. He is constantly watched by an AI, whether he realizes it or not. He is surrounded by the Avengers and BRIDGE's soldiers. More importantly, the aliens he can transform into gives him versatility and power alike to match most armies. _Our_ armies might overcome them. We have more advanced weaponry and soldiers than they do. But the amount of damage we would have to do to defeat and kill Dial would expose us no matter what. And, in truth..." T'Chaka smiled. "I think this may be to Wakanda's advantage. Dial has promised a trade."

"Can he truly make such promises?" The River Tribe leader asked, his lip plate wobbling with each word. "He is only a soldier."

"He is more than that," T'Challa said. "All the Avengers are. In many ways, they are similar to the Black Panther's role in Wakanda. Spiritual leaders, not just warriors. He is, with the help of his watch, a skilled scientist capable of accelerating BRIDGE's technological development. He holds more influence in BRIDGE than I believe even he realizes. And there is something... honest, in him," T'Challa looked at his father. "My King. Can we tell them?"

"Yes," T'Chaka pulled out a cat-like object from his robes. "Dial, in an attempt to prove his willingness to help us, has provided this. The Panther's Trail, he called it. I had our scientists study it. They have confirmed it is what he says it is."

T'Chaka tapped the top of the device. A hologram appeared, crystal clear and almost solid in appearance. An image of a familiar enemy to Wakanda appeared. He was laughing, sitting in a room.

" _Klaue,_ " W'Kabi said, his eyes hard. "Is this-"

"It is up-to-date, my love," Oyoke said softly. Klaue turned to one of the men around him, speaking to the man. "This gives us all we need to find him. He can never escape from us again."

"Can it be trusted?" The leader of the Merchant tribe, who had not spoken yet, finally raised her voice. She wore large gold earrings about the size of a fist in each ear and was watching the hologram with keen interest.

"It has been confirmed," T'Chaka said in his baritone voice. "I propose that we hold off on the discussion of what to do about Dial's proposal until we deal with this. T'Challa will lead an assault on Klaue. Oyoke, W'Kabi," the two of them looked up. "Klaue is in an isolated location, near Johannesburg. Take some of your best troops. Do any hear object to this being a capture mission?" when no one responded, T'Chaka nodded. "Very well. Go there. Bring Klaue so that justice might finally be enacted. Then, I suggest we invite this discussion to continue at another time."

T'Challa stayed silent, but the young man was thinking at a furious rate. This... this would change everything. T'Challa had never considered that such a conversation would ever happen. Dial had done this. That unassuming young man with a ponytail and beard. Since meeting him, T'Challa's dreams had been... strange. Almost as though Bast had been sending him messages.

T'Challa was troubled and he needed to discover why.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

"Let me tell you something, Random HYDRA goons!" I sliced a Chitauri energy weapon in half and roared. "You need to learn one thing! Rath doesn't lose!"

Technically true. Even Creel had only beaten me because the Omnitrix timed out. Thus far, Rath had a flawless win record.

And I wasn't going to end it now. Around thirty men surrounded me in the courtyard, all their eyes on me, and I was willing to absorb all the attention. I had no idea where my hosts were, but I was willing to wait.

"Let's go!" I roared, rushing towards a HYDRA soldier and punching him hard enough that he flew into another man, the two crashing into a stone bench. I jumped up into the air. **"MILKY WAY SHOCKWAVE!"** I slammed my claw into cobblestone, a wave of power erupting outward to send the men and women around me flying. As one landed on the ground, I grabbed him by the ankle, leaping into the air where I started spinning as fast as I could.

"Aaaaaaahhhhh!" the guy I was spinning screamed as I spun around and around in mid-air. Then I let go to let him smash through a window of the castle at high speed.

" **DRAGONTHROW!"** I shouted, landing on the ground and rushing towards the next soldier, laughing. "Yes! RATH LOVES THIS!"

Bullets started hitting me, but I ignored them to kick a Centipede soldier away. Then the plasma weapons started hitting me. My fur got a little scorched by those, but not enough for me to really notice. I instead grabbed a soldier and spun her around, rearing my foot back before kicking the girl in the ass. **"SIRIUS BUTTKICKING!"**

Then I spun to slam my claw into the floor again, sending out a smaller shockwave. I reached out and grabbed a stone bench, ripping it out of the ground and throwing it at a group of soldiers, sending the combined group of Centipede and regular HYDRA soldiers to the ground.

Then a soldier punched me in the face, turning my head to the left. I stood still as more plasma bolts singed my fur and starting to sting a little from the constant barrage. I took the small pain and let it fuel me, pushing my aggression higher as I smiled. In a way, the pain was a pleasure, was a good way to stoke my anger. Then I looked at the guy who had punched me.

"So you want to play with Rath?"

The Centipede soldiers tended to show no emotion. This guy managed something close to fear. Then I grabbed him by the arm and twisted it behind his back before rushing forward at full speed towards his friends, the guy screaming in my grip. **"ANTARIAN ARMBAR!"**

We bashed into a group of soldiers, sending them flying. I roared in pride, raising my hands up. "RATH IS HERE! WHO WANTS A PIECE OF RATH!? WHO HAS THE STONES!?"

A wall of the castle shattered outward to reveal a hall behind it. Out of it stepped... Kristen Nun? Granted, she wasn't a huge celebrity or anything, but she did have a reputation as a bodybuilder. This version of her was bigger, wearing a tank-top, backward baseball cap, and sweats on a woman who actually towered over Rath. She gave me a smile that was somehow shy. "I'll fight you."

I grinned at that before turning around and grabbing a piece out of the stone wall behind me, turning to toss it at her. She watched as the stone section of wall flew towards her before lashing out and punching it, sending gravel everywhere. "Leave!" she yelled to the soldiers around her. "Now! Support the defense in the castle!"

The normal HYDRA, Chitauri armored soldiers, and Centipede soldiers ran for it, leaving me and her alone.

"I'm Miriam, by the way," the giant of a woman said. "Miriam Pouncy."

"Rath is Rath," I said with a grin. "Ready!?"

"Yep!" The two of us rushed each other, meeting in the center of the courtyard in an explosion of sound. We wrapped hands around each other. Miriam grinned in my face, whatever shyness in her eyes fading in an instant. I flashed my fangs. "LET'S GO!" I wrapped my arms around her head and twisted, tossing her into a stone table, shattering it with her form. Miriam rolled backward with the impact when I ran towards her, coming up into an uppercut that sent me flying up into the sky, slamming me into one of the towers of the castle. The large tower cracked on the impact of my body. Miriam landed on me as I rested against the castle tower. She punched me in the face harder than even the Hulk had, sending a tooth flying. I roared and twisted to grab her arm, spinning her into the tower and shattering it with her body. We both yelled aloud as we ripped into the castle, dropping through the roof and dropping past Captain America and Nomad battling two green monstrosities, landing on a lower floor.

Miriam grabbed me by the arm and spun to toss me through another wall. I ended up inside a large dining hall, complete with a throne at the head of the room. My large form shattered the wooden table, sending shards everywhere. I rolled to my feet and faced Miriam before punching her back, my claw scraping across her chest to tear at her tank top. She yelled at the blow, staggering back.

My fur was still singed from the earlier plasma bolts, but the real damage I'd gotten was from Miriam.

"You hit hard!" I said with a bloody grin, rolling my shoulders. "Rath likes fighting you Grapplers!"

"Lucky there are two of us," a cute voice said behind me.

I blinked. Then a wall of sound hit me like a truck, sending me catapulting through the castle, spinning through the rooms. I roared, shattering stone on my body until something grabbed me in mid-air. When I looked at myself, a red energy surrounded my chest. Then it pulled me in another direction, sending me through a sofa, a wall, and finally a chandelier, spinning me all the while. "Raaaaaagh! Rath is going to throw up!"

My body hit the ground in a shower of chandelier crystals. I rolled to my feet and faced my opponents as the three came into the large foyer we'd entered. Miriam Pouncy landed in a boom of sound. Behind her, Elizabeth Olsen's look-alike flew in on waves of red power projected from her hands, wearing a red longcoat and corset, her long brown hair fluttering. The final woman looked like Stephanie Wright, a tiny pixie of a weightlifter with very short bleached blonde hair, and she wore a skintight lifters outfit with a white bird image on the front. She floated above us on wings of pink.

Poundcakes, Scarlet Witch, and Songbird. They may not be known to the world as such yet but the three before me had a lot of power to yield.

As I rose, I came to a tough conclusion. I had to change forms.

I didn't want to. Rath was a prideful form. And in truth, he could handle most any battle that came his way. But for this fight, Songbird's sonic attacks would damage his sensitive ears far too much, not to mention Scarlet Witch's long-range telekinesis and Miriam pounding on me all the while. I needed durability _and_ long-range power.

Plus, there was the plan to consider.

With a heavy heart, I reached for the Omnitrix. "Rath could have won you know!?" I yelled out before touching the Omnitrix. "Next time!"

In a flash of green, orange fur gave way to green skin. Large Tesla Coils popped up across my body. Lightning crashed from the ceiling. I stood tall, looking at the woman across from me as electricity flowed.

" **Frankenstrike!"**

I faced the three and smiled. _"Let's do this!"_

I released a blast of lightning. Songbird flew up and took a breath. _**"▅▄▅▂▂▃▅▅▅▃▃▄▄▅!"**_

A pink set of waves flew from her lips as she floated above, clashing with my attack. Electricity and pink sound met in the center of the foyer, tearing apart the floorboards. Scarlet Witch unleashed her own attack... and 'missed'. Her attack hit the floor, tearing it apart further and sending me into the basement, the three women following.

As soon as I landed, I looked at them in time to catch a fist from Miriam. I staggered back across the stone floor before coming up with a lightning enhanced uppercut to send her back into a wall behind her, smashing the wall apart. Scarlet Witch unleashed a blast of red energy as she dropped in after me. I countered with lightning, the two energies exploding on contact. Scarlet Witch landed on the ground and blocked another lightning bolt with a shield of red power. My right hand lifted to attack Songbird as the pixie-like woman floated down, forcing her to block as well. Miriam rose up and rushed me. I roared.

" _Come on! We aren't done yet!"_ My eyes alive with power, I unleashed more lightning in a dome around me, keeping Miriam from me.

For a moment. Then the superhuman narrowed her eyes and dove into the dome. _"YAAAGH!"_ She screamed in pain as she was electrocuted. She ran in anyway, wrapping her hands around my waist and spinning to smash me into a wall, both of us crashing into another room.

 _Author's Note:_

So, the fight begins in earnest. The reason for Frankenstrike will come to fruition soon, but man, Rath could have won that fight! Or at least, his loss would have been fun. And the castle would have disappeared.

And yeah, Hulk actually ignored a fight to focus on an objective. Blonsky ain't happy.

Meantime, Steve and Bucky just watched a screaming cat and woman drop though two floors as they beat on each other. Fun.

As for Wakanda, T'Challa is having dreams. Bast is speaking.

But man, this chapter was hard to write. But it's done. A bit rougher than I wanted, but I'm satisfied. More soon. Remember, this story has a tropes page now! One that could use some love, especially for the character page :D Talk soon!


	44. Chapter 44

_**Steve Rogers/Captain America**_

Steve watched as Rath and Miriam went crashing down from the ceiling, the pair roaring as they clawed and punched at each other. Miriam had large bruises and torn clothing, while Rath's fur was singed, his mouth bleeding. They were also smiling.

"I miss fighting in normal battlefields," Bucky noted next to him.

Steve snorted. "When did _we_ ever get the luxury of a normal fight, Buck?" The pair started running again, moving through the stone castle at a high pace. "Dial and the Grapplers are doing their part. We've got the other job."

Bucky didn't respond verbally, instead following his friend.

The two traveled towards the 'back' of the castle, moving speedily side by side.

" _Cap,"_ One of the BRIDGE soldiers sent to them. _"We're below you, got movement. Something big rushing toward us."_

"Be careful," Steve said. "We have no idea what Strucker is unleashing to cover his escape."

" _Yes, sir- GAMMA LEVELS RISING!"_

" _Enemy contact, Code Green!"_

Steve held back a curse. Ideally, this scenario would have happened while Dial wasn't otherwise engaged. But then, plans always broke down in the field when you came down to specifics. He reached for his belt, activating his X-Ray vision on his HUD. Below, he could see a massive misshapen form running through the hallways towards a group of soldiers standing in front of it. With the incredible precision gifted to him, Steve tossed a disc at the floor directly over the figure's path. The disc attached and beeped rapidly three times before exploding downwards. Steve leaped in as the explosion happened. He caught a flash of a green chin and smashed his shield into it as he fell. The being he hit squealed in pain, staggering back. Steve rolled on the ground to disperse his landing and eyed the creature in front of him.

He was about seven feet tall, with a giant right arm, a cancerous growth on his stomach like a series of large tumors, and green skin. Portions of his skeletal structure were showing. Steve stared at the being before narrowing his eyes. The being glared at him and screamed, a horrific sound like an enraged child being tortured.

"Go!" Steve yelled to the squad of five BRIDGE soldiers behind him. "Stop Strucker from escaping in case Dial can't finish the plan!"

"Understood!" the squad leader said before barking to his men. "Move it!"

The gamma-enhanced watched the group of soldiers turn into a side hallway and ran to intercept them. When Steve stepped into the creature's way, it punched outward with its large misshapen right arm. Steve raised his shield, blocking the blow with a grunt, setting his feet and pushing the monster back.

"Urrgh?" confused the creature lashed out at Steve, who flipped over his attack before kicking the freak in the chest. As it reeled back, a repulsor blast hit the beast in the chest. Steve glanced up at the hole he'd dropped through.

Bucky was standing on the floor above. He looked down at his BCW, set to the repulsor setting. "I can see why Tony likes those," Bucky mused.

Then the gamma-enhanced monster screamed and grabbed a wall behind him, fingers crumbling the gray bricks. The stone wall crumpled under his grasp, then it twisted and tossed the entire thing at Bucky. The soldier dived down into the floor below as the portion of wall destroyed the section of the floor he'd been standing on. As Bucky landed, he was forced to roll under an attack from the monster, rising to fire another repulsor blast at his face. The gamma-enhanced took the attack to the eyes and screeched in pain.

"Jarvis, we got a profile!?" Steve yelled, wincing when the creature kicked Bucky in the chest. "Buck!"

The former Winter Soldier was sent through a brick wall like he'd been shot out of a cannon. Steve wanted to run after him, but the monster leaped forward and brought his fists down on Steve, forcing the superhuman to block it with his shield.

" _One moment, sir,"_ Jarvis sent.

"Raaagh!" Steve yelled, his knees shaking under the blow. The behemoth pushed down on him, Steve carefully taking the immense strength of the creature. When the horror pulled up slightly, Steve ducked and rolled in between its legs, leaving the monster to smash the ground behind him.

" _His name is Jean Anton, a HYDRA soldier since childhood. He volunteered for the gamma experiment, and has killed many innocent people for HYDRA."_

Steve ran through the halls, thinking with the incredible speed afforded to his enhanced mind. This man, Jean, was a killer, a soldier. Ideally, they would capture him. But with Dial otherwise occupied, Steve felt a grim decision fill his mind.

He took a corner and spun to raise his shield. When the gamma-enhanced ran around the corner in a spray of destroyed stone and dust, Steve was standing at the ready. The gamma-enhanced beast smashed into Steve's shield head on, sending him flying. Steve held in a scream at the feel of his shoulder nearly dislocating, but managed to twist in the air to land on a wall. The gamma-enhanced rushed him. Steve jumped forward off the wall, his jets blasting out as he raised his shield high. With a thunderous blow, Captain America's mighty shield hit a wall of misshapen muscle, some of the tumors on the creature's stomach exploding at the impact, pouring green blood across the castle's floor.

"Grugh!" The creature gurgled, falling onto his back. He swiped weakly at Steve, but the Avenger quickly rolled away, raising his shield.

"Yaagh!" Steve stabbed down with the shield's edge, bashing it into his opponent's forehead with every bit of muscle in him. The brute's head was slammed down into concrete.

"GRRAAAGH!" the monster leaped to his feet and punched Steve in the chest, the supersoldier gasping at the devastating impact as his HUD sent warnings. The creature lifted him up by the neck, only to get the edge of Cap's shield in his teeth. The creature stepped back. Then a repulsor blast made him let go of Steve.

Bucky stood on the other end of the hallway. His chest plate was cracked, but catoms were flowing to repair those sections of armor. Bucky and Steve shared a glance while Cap was still dropping to the floor. Steve landed lightly, circled to the reeling creature's back, and hit the back of its right kneecap with his shield, forcing it to take a knee. Then he wrapped his arms around its neck, pulling hard to force it into position.

Bucky unleashed hell, a constant powerful blast of repulsor energy hitting the creature's head. For a moment, only the monster, Steve, and Bucky's screams could be heard just under the sound of loud repulsor fire. Then the blast finally pierced through its head, hitting the wall behind it. Steve ducked around the dead man's body, panting in exhaustion. For a moment, the two super soldiers stared down at the headless body.

Then the reports began to pour in.

" _Gamma-enhan-"_

" _Requesting ai-"_

" _Taking out their own men!"_

" _Blonsky!"_

Steve and Bucky spun and ran.

 _ **HULK!/Hulk**_

Hulk ran towards the castle, tearing through a large sequoia tree at high speed.

" _It's time,"_ Bruce said gently. _"Blonksy is fighting a squad dead ahead. We need to help them."_

Hulk huffed loudly in agreement, breaking through the treeline to run across the grassy field surrounding the castle. Hulk's legs propelled him upwards as though he'd been shot out of a cannon, sending his bulk towards the castle.

" _At least we don't care about this building,"_ Bruce noted with some grim humor. Moments later, they crashed into the castle, entering a large greenhouse where a squad of BRIDGE soldiers were running as they retreated from HYDRA Chitauri armored personnel and soldiers in more normal assault gear. The greenhouse smelled earthy and was filled with flowers, fruit trees, and vegetables, all neatly arrayed beneath a large glass ceiling, a pond at the center. The fighting had destroyed much of the area, dirt spilled all over the floor, a small lemon tree turned to mulch with its fruit torn apart by the boots of those inside. Hulk looked around, his enraged eyes panning the room. BRIDGE soldiers dressed in normal black gear hadn't stopped fighting but did give Hulk room. The HYDRA soldiers immediately fired on Hulk. Hulk ignored them. Instead, he roared.

 _ **"▅▄▅▂▅▄▄▅▃▄▄▅▅▅▂▂▃!"**_

For a moment, the world was still. Then two loud crashes were followed by two beings landing in the greenhouse. HYDRA and BRIDGE soldiers seemed to share a glance. Soon, calls to retreat spread throughout the ranks.

Hulk eyed the two before him. _**"Blonsky... Girl Blonsky."**_

The woman next to Abomination scowled, her horrific features twisting. "It's Rana, you fucking moron. Or Aberration."

Hulk took in the insult, Bruce speaking within his mind.

" **He's more talkative than the last time we met,"** Blonsky said with a sickening smile. **"Nice outfit,"** was his comment on Hulk's purple armor. **"Miss me?"**

" _ **Where Jenny?"**_

" **Awww,"** Blonsky stepped forward, crushing the concrete beneath his clawed feet. **"How cute. Hulk misses his cousin. Well, don't worry. After I kill you, I'll use her as a punching bag, keep her around."**

" _...Kill him,"_ Bruce said softly.

A fist slammed into Blonsky's face with incredible speed. Abomination had enough time to be surprised before his jaw shattered.

" **RAAAGH!"** Blonsky stepped back, spitting out teeth. Hulk stepped forward, punching him once more. Blonsky pushed him back, allowing Rana to step in between them with a leaping uppercut that sent Hulk back. **"Huurgh!"** Abomination spat out more teeth, scowling as he healed. **"He's stronger then I remember."**

"Then give me the staff already," Rana responded.

" **Nah,"** Blonsky reached behind his back and grabbed a long object enveloped in a canvas bag. **"Let's share."**

He snapped the object within in half, then took off the wrap, revealing the two metal sticks within. The section where he'd snapped it was red hot and Nordic runes were written across it. Abomination passed Aberration one half, the two grasping the pieces.

Their eyes widened. The world seemed to still. Then they screamed together.

 **"▅▄▅▂▅▄▄▅▃▄▄▅▅▅▂▂▃ _"▅▄▅▂▅▄▄▅▃▄▄▅▅▅▂▂▃"_**

The staff's glowed with unearthly power. Abomination and Aberration's eyes went a bright yellow. Then they eyed Hulk.

" _We might be in trouble,"_ Bruce said with a wince.

" ** _I call it sport,"_ **Hulk responded with some effort.

" _Wait, was that a refere-"_

Hulk ignored his other half, cutting him off to jump into Abomination. The larger gamma-enhanced batted him away with the tiny metal stick in his hand, sending him flying out of the greenhouse. Hulk landed in the field with a giant bruise in his chest that was quickly healing. Rana jumped out of the greenhouse and hit Hulk feet first, cratering the grassy field.

" **YAAAAGH!"** Sounding more like her larger counterpart, Rana began to hit Hulk, pounding him into the ground with the stick in her hand and a large fist. Hulk snarled, struggling to rise, but she stomped a clawed foot into his face.

Hulk's vision went white.

" _Come on!"_ Bruce roared.

Moving as one, Hulk and Bruce spun around, putting Rana in an armbar before slamming her into the ground.

Then Abomination tackled the Hulk, the pair rolling. Hulk rose up into a rough boxing stance under Bruce's guidance, and the two began to duke it out. Fists smashed into flesh, Abomination using the metal staff in his hands like a baton. The earth quaked beneath their blows, the field tearing apart. HYDRA and BRIDGE soldiers avoided the area as Rana joined in. Hulk found himself using as much jujitsu and strength as he had to fight off the two. Their strength had skyrocketed, becoming even more powerful than Four Arms had been as they beat Hulk up, Rana leaping to punch him in the chin before Abomination folded him with a knee to the stomach. Bruce tried to figure out what the hell was going on.

The staff was clearly the answer. Bruce didn't know what it was, beyond a half-remembered comment from Coulson about an Asgardian relic his team had found, but it had somehow multiplied Abomination and Aberration's strength.

" **Feel that, Brucey?"** Abomination crowed as he grabbed Hulk's arm and flipped him onto his back. **"That's power. _Real_ power," **he punched Hulk in the face, sending teeth flying. **"I'll have to thank your friend Thor later. Maybe when I kill him."**

" _Hulk!"_ Bruce shouted, feeling the pain Hulk was going through.

Rana landed next to Blonsky. The two monsters began to pound their fists into Hulk, cratering the ground beneath him.

" _ **Raagh!"**_ Hulk lifted his feet and kicked upwards, each foot sending the two super-humans beating him flying. Hulk stood slowly, his right eye closed shut and portions of his armor struggling to reform as he faced his opponents.

Bruce, within the Hulk, was struggling. He thought this could work, tempering the Hulk's anger with logic, guiding him. But here and now, he felt almost useless. His basic knowledge of martial arts couldn't match two soldiers trained to kill, and he most certainly he didn't want to risk grabbing the staffs that were making the pair almost seem to glow.

 _"_ ** _...Holding back,"_ **Hulk whispered.

Somehow, Bruce knew that was a message to him. Bruce, within the mind of the Hulk, tried to think of what... oh. He was doing it again. He was trying to guide the Hulk, but he was doing it by holding him back. Keeping his strength limited. Just like Dial had said.

Bruce suddenly knew what he had to do. He let go. He stopped repressing, stopped keeping the pain away. It wasn't easy. He wasn't even sure he'd done it right if there was a right way to do such a thing.

But he felt it at the same time Hulk did. The memories flooded. A man, so giant in his past, beating on his mother. Bruce, crying, tried to stop him, only to get a fist to the cheek for his problems. Hiding with Jenny as the man yelled and cursed. Seeing Ross dismiss him as weak, not fit for Betty. Being bullied through high school for his intelligence, beaten just for enjoying something he was good at. Getting chased across continents for something beyond his control.

And then, as they jumped together, Hulk and Bruce thought of their hatred for one another. Anger at how they'd ruined each other's lives, chained together. Never able to have a normal life, never to be anything more than a weapon. A life the Avengers had freed them from but one that had left scars.

They weren't fixed. But if acknowledging a problem is the first step...

Hulk began to grow in size in the air, gaining inches in height and pounds of muscle that his armor grew around. A green glow surrounded his skin. Abomination arrogantly punched at him.

Hulk caught his fist and clenched down, **hard.**

" **AAAGH!"** Abomination screamed in pain. Hulk shut him up with an uppercut that forced his mouth to close hard, breaking teeth.

Rana, faster than Abomination, managed to dodge a right hook, her eyes wide as Hulk stopped growing but his eyes glowed. Gamma radiation filled the area as the three monsters stood there. Rana, her anger stoked by the magic pouring into her, barely kept control of herself as she prepared to battle the Hulk once more. Abomination rose, spinning the staff in his hands and Hulk cracked his knuckles in preparation.

 _ **Tony Stark/Iron Man**_

Flying over the forest around the castle, Tony blew out the back of a HYDRA Quinjet with a repulsor blast. As the door went spinning past him, Tony went into the Quinjet itself and came to a stop at the cockpit. "Hey fellas, I need to see your licenses!"

The pilot leaned over and fired at Tony with a pistol. The billionaire let the bullets bounce off the black finish of his armor.

"I think this counts as resisting arrest," Tony noted. With that, he blasted the pilot and copilot, then flew out of the windows, leaving the Quinjet to fall fruitlessly to the ground below.

Outside, the dogfighting was fierce. Quinjets on both sides were supplemented by jets on BRIDGE's side and Chitauri armored fighters side on HYDRA's side. In the forest below the dogfighting, BRIDGE Elite and regular soldiers were fighting Centipede and HYDRA alike. As Tony flew he saw one Elite, wearing a unique armor colored all black with a white skull, push a Centipede against a tree before stabbing him in the head, then spinning to fire an efficient series of shots at another man, the skull wearing BRIDGE Elite, moving like death across the battlefield.

Sam was diving through the trees as well. As the most agile flier in both armies, he was flying back and forth between the sky, trees, and ground. Anywhere in need of aid would suddenly have Sam there, diving through the trees to appear with a well-placed repulsor shot or series of machine gun bullets, before he was suddenly moving through the trees to appear in the skies and do battle with the Chitauri armored soldiers.

One of those soldiers attacked Tony then, careening through the air and firing purple energy bolts. Tony narrowed his eyes at the man, then twisted aside to dodge a bolt before blasting the man in the chest.

"Damn knockoffs," Tony scowled, going in for another one.

Rhodey was floating in the middle of BRIDGE's 'side' of the battle, shooting his many guns at high speed. Tony started thinking of several improvements he could make for the War Machine suit, but held back the ideas to focus on-

" _Tony! It's Phil!"_

Tony twisted around. "Agent? What-"

" _Strucker had the Berserker Staff! He gave it to Blonsky and Phillips!"_ Phil said hurriedly.

Jarvis, without prompting, brought up the profile on the item.

 _ **Profile: Berserker Staff**_

 _An Asgardian Weapon that enhances strength and durability fueled by the wielder's inner rage and hatred._

"Ah, shit," Tony said quietly. An Asgardian weapon, giving enhanced strength, fueled by rage and hatred, and into the hands of murderous gamma-enhanced, the poster children of anger management.

"Jarvis!" Tony shouted. "I need Veronica!"

" _Already sent!"_ Jarvis returned.

High in space, a satellite hung, empty, as a four-pronged weapon flew down towards the Earth.

When his armor let out a loud beep, Tony looked down at himself. The Darkforce Armor was in bad shape, Donnie and Daniels having done some serious damage. But it would have to do. But just in case, he sent a text to Skye. "Rhodey, I'm going to help Bruce, clear a path!"

" _On it!"_ In the distance, the black dot that was Rhodey unleashed a huge amount of missiles and bullets, sending HYDRA vehicles and men scattering or dying.

Tony dived into that hole in the line. As he did, a large object flew down from the heavens, flying along with him as it released an object to zoom ahead of him.

Hulk slammed Abomination into the ground with Hulk's right hand around the other monster's neck. Blonsky blocked Hulk's left hand by grabbing it around the wrist and raised the staff in his hand, stabbing it into Hulk's chest. Hulk roared but kept squeezing, Blonsky pulling out the staff to stab again.

Aberration flipped in the air to slam her feet into the Hulk's head, sending him stumbling away as the staff in his chest was ripped out by the impact. Hulk shook his head, eyes glowing slightly, stab wound already healing, and faced the monstrous duo. Before they could meet in combat once more, something dropped out of the sky, landing in front of Rana.

It was an oddly shaped metal object. For a moment, the three were confused. Then more dropped around her, unleashing electricity as they fell.

" **EEEYAAAA!"** Rana screamed as she was electrocuted, bucking back and forth. The spears dropped quickly, surrounding her. She tried to escape as lightning hit her, but the 'spears' enclosed with metallic clanks, leaving her trapped and screaming in a metallic tent, loud booming noises coming from within it as she punched at the walls around her.

A being dropped down next to the Hulk with a loud 'Kaboom!' When Abomination and Hulk looked over, Iron Man was sitting inside a massive mecha suit, enveloping Tony. A face-plate dropped over the Darkforce Armor, covering him with the shifting catoms until the full armor surrounded the Darkforce suit.

" _ **Hey, Hulk,"**_ Tony said within the Hulkbuster... 2.0. **_"Mind me helping out, buddy?"_**

Hulk grinned.

Author's Note: Uploaded from my phone, so it's in need of some fixes. Hopefully, it's meaty enough. Next chapter, Dial and Strucker.


	45. Chapter 45

I was still fighting Scarlet Witch, Songbird, and Poundcakes when the calls about the gamma-enhanced HYDRA soldiers began to come in.

I looked over at Songbird, who had wrapped me up in pink chains that were somehow, despite all the ways physics said it should not be possible, made of sound, Scarlet Witch, who was lifting a desk with her mind, and Poundcakes, who I'd sent into a wall. Then I released a massive burst of lightning while flinging my hands outwards, breaking the chains around me. Scarlet Witch tossed the desk, and I punched it in the air, shattering it apart before blasting Scarlet Witch lightly, electrocuting her with as much power as a weak taser.

She screamed in pain as Songbird blasted me back with a wall of sound, sending me through the wall of the castle and into a small study, emptied out of any books but still containing bookshelves. Marian rushed in and punched me in the face, sending me into a stone pillar. I snarled and punched her back before Scarlet Witch ran into the room and sent a burst of energy at me, tossing me back.

I rolled as I hit the floor and threw my power into a chandelier above. The electromagnetic energy hit the metal light fixture and I pulled it down, dropping it down towards Songbird as she floated above. Seeing what I was doing, she blocked it with a pink energy wall of keening sound. The chandelier broke apart in a clatter of crystals and metal. Still controlling the metal, I pulled it in to surround me, then fired off the shards in a low-powered shotgun blast aimed at the group. Scarlet Witch and Songbird unleashed their powers to block the attacks. Marian ignored the hail of small metal bits, rushing in and uppercutting me. I snarled at the impact, my 'damaged' vocal cords making the sound more horrific and focused the lightning in my body into the coils on my back. They came alight in a burst of green explosion of energy that hit Marian like a hammer, lifting her off the floor and tossing her back. I rushed after her, only for Melissa to step in my way. I expected a pink wall to block me.

Instead, Melissa stepped under my arms, grabbed ahold of my waist and slammed me into a wall with a twist and a heave.

Somehow, I'd forgotten that along with being a user of sonic powers and Green Lantern-esque energy constructs, Melissa Gold was also a badass wrestler with super-soldier like enhancements.

She followed up her surprise toss by blasting me point-blank in the chest. I was sent smashing through the wall and into the next room.

I hit the wall opposite and landed on my feet to unleash a quick blast of power that was blocked by another wall of pink energy.

I panned my eyes around. Okay, this was the room we'd been aiming for. With a shout, I unleashed my power in every direction, acting as though it had been unintentional. Scarlet Witch and Songbird did the same as we all unleashed hell.

Bursts of green, pink, and scarlet filled the room, power tearing apart the stone as we clashed until a loud crack filled the air. We stopped, looking down at where the sound had come from. That's when the floor exploded and fell out from beneath us, sending us into the basement.

I landed in a roll and looked around quickly. While Frankenstrike wasn't a genius, I still felt like my mind was somehow faster when I was him. A lot of my aliens felt like that. Rath made me dumb and aggressive, Astrodactyl made me prefer flying, Snare-Oh's left me feeling like limbs were more like fingernails.

Point was, Frankenstrike seemed to come to a realization faster than I did as Marian rose, Songbird and Scarlet Witch floating down to join us. The room was large, shaped like a big pit, the sort of place you could imagine someone getting tortured in, or a monster being created in.

In front of us, a projector was shooting an image onto the wall behind us. When I looked at the image in question, the face of Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker looked down calmly at us.

" _I believe that it is time that we end this farce,"_ he said.

 _ **Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker**_

The leader of HYDRA watched the screen in front of him, eyeing the monster before him.

Finally, a clear image of the 'hero' known as Dial. They'd worked to find one but it had been tough with BRIDGE's AI and the Hercules App constantly on watch. The beast Dial had currently taken the form of seemed to be some sort of parody of Frankenstein's Monster, tall and misshapen, but also built of corded muscle, green electricity flowing from his body.

"I believe you know who I am, Dial," Strucker said calmly. "And you've become quite a problem for me."

" _It's not like I'm the only one,"_ Dial said, his voice sounding peculiar.

"Don't," Strucker said when Marian attempted to speak. "I already know you have betrayed me. I planned in advance for it."

The group narrowed their eyes at him.

" _If that's the case, you know why I haven't just attacked you with everything I have,"_ Dial said. _"Where are they?"_

Strucker smiled slowly. "Do you mean Agent Triplett and Carter? Or Ms. Walters? Possibly the hostages John Garrett took in?"

The four people in the room glared at him, Marian walking over to him.

" _All of the above,"_ Dial said. _"Stop the monologue. Because if the next words out of your mouth aren't-"_

"Helen and Pietro," Strucker cut him off. "I believe you would want to worry about them first.

" _What?"_ Scarlet Witch stepped forward, horror and rage in her eyes. _"What have you done, you monster!?"_

Strucker held back a smile. That was all according to plan. If he played his cards right, then the quartet would not be a problem.

"As I understand it, the plan you had in mind was to pretend to fight until the right signal would send you to intercept the kidnap victims. And this, creature you've turned into, it has some intelligence or skill to interfere with the cryo units I'm transporting them in?" Strucker took their silence as a yes. "If my timetable is accurate, then I believe Pietro and Helen are currently helping Garrett. And if he has taken my subtle suggestions in his new mental state, he sees them as... useful."

 _ **Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver**_

Pietro sprinted through a world of frozen moments. He ran through a kitchen past a Chitauri armored soldier firing upon a man made of steel, the plasma bolts doing nothing. Pietro grabbed a knife off a countertop and stabbed the HYDRA soldier in the leg as he moved past, scowling as he did so.

Stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid! They'd known that HYDRA was SHIELD, but he'd never thought of what that might mean. All this time, all their rage at Stark and they never considered that they were working for the man who had been... Damn it!

The speedster shook his head and moved on. Right now, he had only one task. 'Work' with Garrett until either the AI found out where Cybertek was or Garrett just lead Pietro and Helen there anyways. 'Covering our bases,' Helen had called it.

He ran through the halls of the castle and grabbed a box off the floor in a room where a woman with a sword was fighting a Centipede soldier. He moved under the slow-moving, to him, blade that she was swinging, tripping the soldier with ease, then moved on with the box in his hands. This was all he could do for now. Soon, he could fight these bastards. But for now, he was left to do small pranks no one could track back to him.

In another second, Pietro had appeared in a forest untouched by all the attacks, where several Quinjets had been prepared. The area had been cleared out to allow the seven vehicles to land and dozens of men and women were putting equipment into the Quinjets. He tossed the box in his hands at a nearby man. "Here's whatever that was," Pietro said dismissively as the large box bounced off the man's chest, speeding towards a Quinjet in the center of the makeshift escape zone. Helen was carrying a large metal machine that had to weigh hundreds of pounds into the Quinjet as Deathlok and Garrett watched.

Pietro stopped in front of the pair of cyborgs. "That's everything. Can we leave now?"

Deathlok eyed Pietro suspiciously but Garrett laughed. "Leave it to a speedster to be impatient!" Pietro held back a shudder at the look Garrett gave him. The young man had seen looks similar to the sick smile Garrett had given him, on Sokovians who had been in war so long they seemed to just... crack. They became obsessed. It didn't matter what those men and women became obsessed with; war, religion, death, or worse. Garrett, smiling there, seemed to go beyond that somehow. He had a 'higher purpose', the kind that Pietro had learned to distrust long ago.

"Don't worry, kid," Garrett put a hand on Pietro's shoulder. When Pietro tried to pull away, Garrett held him painfully tight. Deathlok circled around the pair. "The future is coming and I can see the Words of Creation! Everything will be clear... after some growing pains."

Pietro had a moment to hear Helen shout out as the Quinjets back door shut closed behind her. Loud bangs came from inside moments later even as gas could be seen pouring from the gaps in the doors, something getting pumped into the Quinjet. Deathlok, having moved into Pietro's blindspot, shot something into the speedsters chest just as Pietro spun. A small object shaped like a circle stabbed into his chest and lit up red. Pietro managed to kick Deathlok back, then the device activated.

 **Pain.** His heart, usually beating so quickly, was suddenly filled with needles slicing through his body. Pietro fell to his knees, eyes wide. "W-What is this?"

"Stopped your heart," Deathlok said with sad tones. "Not for long. But enough for this," Deathlok stepped forward as Pietro looked up at him, holding a syringe. Pietro, seeing the syringe, tried to move, but only flopped down to the floor, gasping for breath, his chest tight with pain as he tried to scream in agony. Deathlok stabbed the syringe into the speedsters neck.

"Made to knock even a speedster out," Garrett said with a gleeful smile.

The Quinjet was rocking for a moment longer before it stopped. The door opened later, white smoke pouring from the Quinjet to reveal Helen leaning against a wall, the blonde powerhouse knocked out.

"Kinda sad to do this," Garrett admitted as the tranquilizer injected into Pietro began to knock him out. "I wanted to bring your sister along. But Strucker told me I was only allowed to take three of you," Garrett smiled. "But hey... you'll do."

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

" _Fuck!"_ I cursed, Frankenstrike's voice coming out in that strange combination of undead and electric that was going to take getting used to. _"So what? We stop Garrett and you get to escape?"_

" _It does seem to be the situation unless the good Captain and his people manage to reach me,"_ Strucker smiled. _"Do not worry. It will be worth your while. If you survive this next part."_

A loud series of beeps came from around the room then, red lights blinking. I only had a moment to leap for Songbird and Scarlet Witch, wrapping my arms around them. I was surprised to meet Marian's eyes when she did it at the same time, our giant forms wrapping around the petite women. Songbird sang, pink barriers surrounding us, and Scarlet Witch waved her arms to surround us with red energy.

The bombs exploded. And the entire castle around us blew apart, tons of stone falling down on us as fire, shockwaves, and shrapnel hit us.

" _AAAAAUUUGH!"_ I shouted, sending out lightning in a barrier, trying to push back any metal. Heat licked across my skin and burned at my hair.

"YAAA!" Marian, Songbird, and Scarlet Witch yelled in unison.

Dust filled the air. Boulders landed on the Songbirds shield, then shattered it as they kept dropping, landing on the shoulders of Marian and me, some bouncing off of my Tesla coils. We held each other with Songbird and Scarlet Witch between us, all four of us yelling at the top of our lungs as Songbird and Scarlet Witch kept creating shields even as they shattered.

When the explosions were over, we were buried. I coughed up some dust, holding up the weight above me with Marian's help. _"Everyone okay?"_

"Y-Yeah," Marian said with a cough.

"We need to save my brother!" Wanda yelled _in my freaking ear._ I ignored that for a moment, instead focusing on setting my feet under me.

"We'll get him," Melissa said, rising to put her shoulders up against the stones.

" _Guess we can stop pretending to be fighting,"_ wait, was I disappointed? Well, maybe a little. I'd really wanted to see how much I could do. _"Nice to meet you all. Let's go save the world."_

Marian, Melissa, and I pushed up on the stone above us, all three of us yelling loudly. Scarlet Witch, the only one without some sort of enhancements to her physical body, waved her hands and thrust them upwards.

The stones above us shifted. Then they exploded off us in a flash of red and green. A boulder falling to fill the space was shattered by a pink soundwave from Melissa. We were exposed to the open air.

Just in time too. The Omnitrix flashed red three times before turning me into my human form, wearing a simple shirt and jeans, my weapons on my back and hip. I blinked up at the trio of woman, who stared at me.

"Oh thank god," Melissa said. "You were kind of scary looking before."

"Yeah well, it's going to be a bit before I can transform. Dial!" My armor flowed over me at the sound of my codename. I pulled out my BCW, the weight of the rifle comforting me. "Jarvis, you have them?"

" _I'm tracking a group of Quinjet's taking off now,"_ Jarvis said, marking the location on my HUD. _"But you'll need to move quickly, sir!"_

I pointed towards the forest, at a location Jarvis had marked. "This way."

"Got it," Marian suddenly scooped me u[ into her giant arms.

"Whoa, what the-!" was my loud response. Then she jumped into the air, my scream filling the air a moment later while the witch and singer followed through the air.

 _ **Tony Stark/Hulkbuster**_

Tony stepped forward, a loud boom following the impact of a heavy metal foot onto the dirt. When he spoke his voice was booming thanks to the speakers in the Hulkbuster. "Okay, Blonsky. We're giving you one chance to give up."

Blonsky, standing next to the cage that Aberration was locked into, cocked his head, twirling the staff in his hand. A sick grin rose on his face **"What, when you've just made things fun? I've been waiting for a fight like this!"**

"Oh good, you're one of those," Tony mumbled to himself. "Hulk and/or Banner, you two want a piece?"

Hulk smiled slowly. _**"Yeah. We do."**_

Abomination smiled back, the two monsters apparently needed nothing more than that, sprinting across the grassy field to hit each other with the force of a bomb.

Hulk's uppercut hit his opponent in the chin, lifting him into the air, then grabbing him by the ankle to smash his back into the ground. Abomination kicked him back, the grass around them blown back by the shockwave of the impact. Abomination rolled to his feet and backhanded Hulk, blood spraying from the giant's mouth.

When he raised the staff to stab at Hulk, a massive metal hand wrapped around his forearm, pulling him back. Tony punched Abomination in the face, a sound like metal on stone filling the air.

" **Aaugh!"** Abomination growled out.

Tony didn't let up. He stepped in with another punch, his elbow erupting with the plume of a rocket to deliver an impact with the force of a small explosive. Abomination, in a quick move, stabbed his staff into Tony's arm, twisting it off. Tony ignored to damage to punch his opponent with his other hand, then blasting him away with a powerful repulsor blast, the staff ripping through his arm. Abomination snarled in pain at the powerful blast pushing him back, trying out walk through it, when Hulk appeared to dropkick him in the ribs, sending him into the forest. Hulk rolled into a landing, then ran to follow Abomination, the pair disappearing into the forest as trees began to fall.

Tony looked down at his arm, watching catoms flow to fill the damage made by Abomination's new toy. For a brief moment, he considered calling for a replacement arm ut dismissed the idea. Better to save that for lat-

 **SHRIEK!**

His thoughts were interrupted by the squeal of metal getting bent. Tony turned to see Aberration tearing her way out of the metal cage, using that magical staff to stab her way out.

"I really hate Asgardian toys, especially since I only seem to find new and dangerous ones" Tony grumbled as Aberration stared at him through the broken metal with glowing yellow eyes, reminding Tony of Jack Nicholson in _The Shining._

"Raagh!" Rana jumped out of the cage and landed on Tony, punching the Hulkbuster's big gold mask, her scaled fists denting the metal. "I'm going to tear you out of that thing!"

"Usually something I love to hear from a woman!" Tony yelled back, placing a palm against her stomach and blasting her into the air. "But I'm currently with someone," he quipped as Rana flipped in the air before landing on clawed feet, her scaled abdomen covered in black soot. Tony blasted at her again, but the gamma-enhanced ducked, running low to the ground. She slid around another blast and tackled Tony, spinning around to toss him in the direction Abomination and Hulk had gone.

"Damn it, lady, this is a new suit!" Tony shouted, twisting in the air firing his repulsors to float over the forest. Aberration leaped towards him, only to get a repulsor to the face that sent her spinning in a series of backward flips. He caught her by the right leg and spun to throw her into the forest. She hit a giant tree, the wood cracking on impact, then Tony sped forward and punched her through the tree. She roared before jumping at him, twirling the staff to stab it deep into the Hulkbuster's chest, scratching the Iron Man suit within.

"Thor, we need to have words about where your people leave their toys, buddy," Tony growled in the back of his throat as his HUD screamed at him.

Rana ignored the quip to elbow the Hulkbuster suit, screeching like a banshee, then tore a big chunk out of the chest, kicking him back.

Tony twisted in the air and unleashed a Unibeam from his arc reactor that did a wonderful job of chewing up the scenery, sending both Rana and a big chunk of forest flying deeper into the woods.

"Veronica," Tony said quickly. "Gonna need a new heart, this chick broke mine. A new hand too."

Luckily, Veronica was designed to understand jokes as orders. The floating machine flew over the forest and ejected a chestplate and arm. The two pieces pressed against Tony, catoms flowing to fill the spaces in Tony's armor until he was back at full capacity.

Good thing too, because Rana had met up with Hulk and Abomination. She was on Hulk's back, tearing at his armor, while Hulk was being punched in the face by Abomination. Tony rose into the air and flew after them.

"Yo!" Tony landed on the ground and kicked Abomination. The former soldier responded by grabbing his leg and leaping away. "Whoa, what the fu-"

Abomination landed on a hill, the granite shattering under them. **"Might as well take care of you first,"** Abomination smirked, putting a foot to the Hulkbusters chest and pushing it down to the ground. **"You made this to fight Hulk? Well, that's the thing. I'm a soldier, Stark, not some giant moronic child. You can't beat me!"** Blonsky leaned down and laughed. **"I'm smart, Stark. You can't beat me with something made to beat an idiot."**

"Yeah, about that," Tony raised his hand. A burst of gas hit Abomination in the face. The green monster coughed, stepping back. Tony rose up and kicked him away. "You're a soldier, sure." Tony punched him with a rocket-enhanced punch, then blasted him back with repulsors. "But Banner is a freaking genius, one of the best engineers in the world. Guess who helped make this armor!"

Abomination coughed. **"W-What did you do?"**

"Concentrated gas that Bruce made. It was our attempt to make something that can knock out Hulk. Guess it needs work."

Tony raised a fist and slammed down into the head of the kneeling Abomination, sending him to the floor, then kicked him into a boulder. "Gotta say, can't really see you as Hulk's rival."

Abomination rose up in a swift movement, catching Tony's next punch. He twisted and stabbed, the staff in his hands slicing through metal until it was inches from Tony's shoulder. Tony grimaced at the alerts his HUD was throwing up. That was way too close for comfort.

Then Abomination pressed further, flesh splitting with the motion.

"AAAAUUUGH!" Tony screamed in pain, warm blood pouring down his chest.

" **Oh? No more funny jokes?"** Abomination crowed, twisting the staff. **"Come on, Stark. Tell me something funny."**

Tony struggled, clenching armored fists. "S-Sure. Let me just do the set-up for the joke."

Tony ignited his boot thrusters, flying upwards. When Abomination, surprised, tried to let go of Tony, the billionaire wrapped his arms around the gamma monster. "Jarvis put everything in the boosters!"

" _Yes, sir!"_

The boots released white bursts of energy, sending the pair thousands of feet up.

" **Get ooooff!"** Blonsky screamed, clawing at Tony, sending chunks of metal to the ground below.

Tony grimaced at the pain and watched the altitude on his HUD, ignoring the warnings flashing as catoms kept flowing to fill the gaps in the armor, only to get torn out again. The staff was still impaled in Tony's shoulder, catoms moving into the wound to prevent blood from spilling.

As soon as they were at the height of the surrounding mountains, Tony let go. Abomination, not thinking, leaped away. He fell with Tony floating in the air above him, screaming in his booming voice as he twirled in mid-air. Tony fired off all rockets had in the suit, hitting him over and over. He then flipped in the air, diverted all power to repulsers and thrusters and slammed into the falling Abomination, Drilling into the monster's chest with palm repulsers while sending them both into a meteoric descent towards the ground.

"Here's the punchline!" Tony roared as he slammed Blonsky into the ground with an earthshaking explosion, destroying the hill they'd been fighting on. The impact tore apart the Hulkbuster suit, the granite hill, and much of the surrounding forest. From the way Tony felt, he had to guess he'd also bruised every inch of his body as well.

For a moment, things were still. Then Tony rose out of the crater, coughing. He grinned at the sight of the groaning Abomination. "Not Richard Pryor funny but I gave it a good shot."

The Hulkbuster's left leg fell to the floor. "Whoa!" Tony wheeled his arms around as more pieces fell away, leaving him standing on one leg with even the Darkforce armor within the Hulkbuster barely holding together. "Need to work on that."

Then, before Tony's disbelieving eyes, Abomination began to rise. He did it slowly, carefully, but he was getting up. "Oh come on!"

" **G-Gonna kill you,"** Abomination coughed up green liquid. **"Kill you!"** his grip tightened on the staff, it's runes burning with orange fire. **"Raagh!"**

Tony prepared to call for a new leg, but Blonsky was already rushing in, staff raised to stab his heart. Then, in between Tony and Blonsky, a rainbow of colors came down from the sky, alight with power. From that beam, a familiar flash of shiny metal flew out to hit Abomination in the face, exploding into a bolt of white lightning. Abomination fell back. He had time to blink once.

" **...Urgh,"** Blonsky said weakly. Then he fell face down, eyes closing.

"...The hell took you so long?" Tony asked weakly, grinning beneath his helmet as the rainbow beam stopped to reveal it's occupant.

Neither one noticing the dark red stream of vapor that flowed away from the symbol the rainbow had left behind on the ground...

 _ **Bruce Banner, Hulk**_

Hulk grabbed a tree and ripped it from the earth, spinning to swing it at the irritating woman attacking him. She backflipped over the tree, landed, and leaped in with a hook punch to his chin, sending him back.

" _ **Girl Blonsky!"**_ Hulk roared.

"It's Rana! You moron!" Rana yelled back.

Hulk ignored that, instead swinging the tree again. She parried it with her staff, then kicked him in the knee, forcing him to kneel. She tried to punch him in the ribs, but Hulk caught her fist, lifted her high, and looked her in the eyes.

" _ **Not moron,"**_ Hulk snarled. **_"Just learning."_**

He threw her up, then swung the tree into her like he was at bat, sending her into another tree. She screamed in pain, then gasped when a green foot hit her in the stomach. She raised her staff and stabbed it into the leg currently pressing its foot into her. Hulk yelled, dropped his tree and limped away, and Rana fell to her knees, coughing until she vomited.

"A-Asshole..."

" _ **Fighting,"**_ Hulk reminded her as his leg healed.

The two eyed each other, green eyes on yellow.

That's when the beam of rainbow power fell in the distance. They looked over at it in surprise, then looked back at each other. Rana looked down at the staff in her hands, struggling through the horrific memories the staff was pulling up. Memories of a man over her, panting and ignoring her pleas.

"Yaaagh!" the memories pushed through. She leaped towards Hulk, surprising him, stabbing his abdomen. She did it over and over, ignoring the green fists that beat on her, tears pouring, eyes glowing, staff slippery with green blood, and the memory forcing her to a frenzied rage, the taste of vomit in her mouth.

Hulk beat on her, hitting her over and over.

Their fight wasn't magnificent, tactical, or glorious. It was two monsters, filled with pain, hurting each other, covered in each others blood, dirt, and wooden shrapnel from the trees falling apart around them, pine needles falling from above.

Hulk finally picked up Rana and pushed her to the ground, holding her there as he punched her in the face. Once, twice, eight times. Rana stabbed him in the arm holding her down, the two screaming.

"▄▅▃▄▄▅▅▂▃▃▄▄ _ **!"**_

When they stopped screaming, Rana and Hulk simply looked at each other, both panting heavily. She was still crying, the staff glowing and embedded deep in Hulk's forearm. Hulk's fist was held high, but limp, his face twisting in confusion.

" _ **...Why... Sad?"**_

"..." Aberration, her face bloody and bruised, grinned through broken teeth. "Heh. Who cares? I still won, in the end."

She passed out, leaving Bruce and Hulk to stare down at her, both heroes at a loss to understand what had just happened.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

I managed to prevent myself from screaming, but being held in Marian's arms as she jumped was not a comfortable experience. I was getting bounced around in her grip, trying not to grunt at each impact on the ground.

"Sorry!" Marian yelled as we went. "This is faster!"

"I know, don't worry about-oof!" I grunted when we hit the ground and jumped again. "Don't worry about it!"

Scarlet Witch and Songbird were flying above us, Songbird on pink wings and Scarlet Witch by blasting red energy below her for propulsion. Wanda seemed a little unsteady, as though she hadn't practiced the maneuver much, but she was still better off than I was. The two followed Marian through above the trees, so I only saw them when Marian broke through the treeline.

"Are we close!?" Marian asked me.

I was going to nod when a green flash jumped through the woods, hitting me and Marian on our way down.

"Shit!" I shouted, tumbling down into the branches of a tree. I bounced from one to another, curling myself up to keep from bending anything the wrong way. My shields flared with each hit, protecting me somewhat until I eventually hit the ground on my back. When I looked up, Marian was roaring and locked in combat with a green monster, wrestling with the man in the dirt. Songbird dropped from the trees with a Chitauri armored soldier following, blocking his plasma bolts on a pink wall of energy, then blasting him with a pink wail of sound, only to be confronted with more flying HYDRA assholes. I rose to my feet and brought my gun up, firing an ICER into one of the men, then ducking behind a tree when more soldiers fired at me. Scarlet Witch dropped down next to me, her eyes filled with fear.

"This is crazy!" she shouted.

"This is Tuesday," I said, trying to seem confident while plasma bolts burned away at my cover. When she stared at me, I found myself surprised at the fear in her eyes. I mean, this was the Scarlet Witch. This woman, in many universes, had enough power to reshape reality. But she was terrified.

Before I could think on that, another roar came from in front of us. I looked up to see two gamma monsters rushing us, Centipede soldiers in tow. I stepped in front of her and raised my BCW, switching it to repulsor setting and firing quickly. "Wanda!"

"R-Right!" she spat out. Two red blasts of energy hit one of the gamma-enhanced, sending him flying, and I hit a Centipede soldier with a repulsor shot.

"X, we need backup!" I shouted.

" _Falcon, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Mockingbird are on their way!"_

"We have to run!" Wanda yelled in my ear, sounding scared. "We have to-"

I didn't hear the rest over the Omnitrix beeping. I hit another Centipede soldier as the gamma-enhanced Wanda had thrown away got back up, then reached for the watch and activated it, twirling it quickly. I needed Astrodactyl, so I could fly out and stop Garrett from escaping, so the second I saw wings I pressed down on the Omnitrix.

It took me a second to realize that in my haste while Centipede soldiers and two gamma-enhanced rushed us, I hadn't picked Astrodactyl at all.

The change was instantaneous. My skin went from brown to inky-black, blue accenting me like the patterns on an insect, and with white chunks the color of solid ice in the center. My chest became a segmented blue carapace, the Omnitrix glowing there. My eyes changed to green with some darker spots in the center. My long limbs ended with three pointed fingers and a thumb on my hands, and two toes and a claw-like heel on my feet. From my back spread two large blue moth wings that sprouted upward, two smaller ones pointing down, and a pair of antennae at my shoulders. I spread them wide, rising to my full height, white smoke pouring from my mouth.

" **Big Chill!"**

I looked down at myself, registering my new form. _"Oh, now you give me Big Chill,"_ I grumbled to the Omnitrix, my voice sounding ghostly.

The soldiers were still rushing us, Wanda staring up at me in surprise.

I sucked in a quick breath. Wind inside my chest swirled. I set my feet and flared my new wings.

When I breathed out, a cloud of white spread out from me. I pushed hard and pumped out a giant cloud that hit every soldier in front of me. The ground began to freeze over, the plants exploding as the water within them froze. The gamma-enhanced began to slow as ice crawled over their forms, snapping over and over. Wanda managed to be on the ball and started shooting, red blasts hitting the gamma-enhanced, slowing them down further. The Centipede soldiers stopped in place, covered in a thick shell of blue-white ice.

When the gamma-enhanced didn't stop, I narrowed my eyes and focused. The cloud became a 'beam'. I swept it over one, stopping him about five feet away, then at the other. She stopped mere inches from punching me in the chin.

" _Chill out,"_ I quipped. Then I turned to Wanda. _"One second."_

A pump of my wings and I lifted into the air. With a twirl, I was around the tree.

Songbird was floating in front of a group of Chitauri armored men and women, flitting about to dodge, blocking their plasma bolts with pink walls, sending them flying with wails and chaining them up. She was getting tired, her left arm already clearly wounded. Marian was currently beating on a green woman, another monster down and out behind her as Centipede soldiers were being launched about. I headed towards the group of fliers with pale smoke pouring from my mouth, my green eyes narrowing. To their credit, they reacted quickly to my appearance, turning to open fire on me.

So in response, I went intangible.

It was like nothing I'd ever felt. Being... there, and not there. Separate from the universe, feeling as though nothing was real anymore. Plasma bolts were fired at me. They went right through me like the mirage I almost was. I flew forward, a ghost in all the ways that mattered, aiming at one man in particular. He had time for his eyes to widen. Then I flew through him. He became covered in ice, his armor shattering as he fell from the sky.

I swept through the crowd, Songbird joining me. Scarlet Witch came around to join in, red and pink smashing soldiers out of the sky. Once they were done, I landed on the ground, my wings wrapping around me like a cloaked hood, my eyes on Marian and her opponent. I raised my hands and white streams from my palms hit the gamma-enhanced in the back. Songbird and Scarlet Witch joined in, the three of us staggering the girl. Marian uppercut the ten-foot tall monster back.

"EEAAUUOOKK!" The woman screeched, ice covering her chest as sound and... whatever Wanda was blasting (was it chaos magic in this reality?) sending her to her knees, Marian giving her a right cross and sending her to the floor.

Marian fell to her knees, panting, Songbird landing next to her to rub her friend's back.

" _You okay?"_ I asked, stepping forward. When Marian and Melissa gave me confused looks, I realized they had no idea who I was. _"It's me, Dial. I got a new form."_

"Oh," Marian said slowly, looking confused. "Does that... happen often?"

" _More these days than before,"_ I admitted, putting the question of why in the background. _"Can you fight?"_

Melissa and Marian shared a brief look before they rose to their feet. Marian smiled. "Yeah. For Helen, always."

Must have been a hell of a story behind the loyalty they held for each other. I unfurled my moth-like wings and lifted into the air. I was going to say something but the three women were already moving in the direction we'd been heading earlier.

I joined them, shooting through the air with a fluttering of my wings. Big Chill felt so different. Hot and cold all at once, as though I was on the cusp of existing and disappearing from the universe. But it felt comfortable. I don't know how feeling as though I was fading from the universe could feel good but it did.

I did hope I didn't start going on a metal eating spree all in the efforts of having alien bug babies, that would be super weird. Might need to look into diaper prices...

Moving over the forest, Songbird and Scarlet Witch flew beside me. In the distance, I could see several Quinjets taking off, surrounded by more Chitauri armored fliers.

" _How accurate are you!?"_ I asked Songbird and Scarlet Witch, Marian bounding up to join us before arc down into the woods again.

"I don't know!" Wanda admitted. "I've never tried to hit something so far away!"

"I can hit them!" Melissa said, her pink wings flapping. With a quick song, she released a blast of pink sonic power, hitting a Chitauri soldier. He sprawled but stabilized himself in the air. A couple Quinjets twirled to confront us, some fliers twisting around as well. The others, however, began to speed up. I pushed myself forward, going intangible and ignoring the bullets and plasma bolts flying through me. Instead, I aimed for the lead Quinjet, passing the others and flying into it, landing inside. The Quinjet was mostly empty but a couple of things stood out. First, the two men standing before me. One was tall, with dark black skin and armor on his chest and arms. He raised a hand lightning fast when I entered, aiming it at me as a mini-rocket launcher popped out of his arm. That would be Deathlok then.

The other guy was a surprise. I mean, I knew what he'd look like from his files but seeing Bill Paxton standing in front of me with a snide smile was weird.

On either side and behind of the men were three white tanks, holding a person inside each. One on the right was Helen, looking like Trish Stratus. The other was... the guy from Godzilla? Wait, didn't Elizabeth Olsen play the guys wife? And they were brother and sister here- I smashed away the illogical thought and focused the last one. A tall, green-skinned woman rested inside, sleeping peacefully. I stared at her for a moment before focusing on the two men.

" _John Garrett?"_ I asked.

"Yeah?" the man said, smiling. "And you're that alien kid, huh? You've caused a lot of trouble."

" _Like every SI before me,"_ I admitted freely, stepping forward.

Deathlok fired a rocket but I went intangible, the rocket bouncing off the wall behind me encased in ice. Turning tangible again, I kneeled and pressed my palms against the floor. Ice flowed across the floor, sinking into the Quinjet. I released a cloud from my mouth, and the two men shouted as ice began to fill the jet. The whole aircraft shook, compromised by the ice filling the inside of the Quinjet's machinery. Soon, it began to fall out of the sky, metal cracking under the stress.

Suddenly an arm came out of the smoke, reaching for my throat. I went intangible, the arm moving through me so fast I couldn't freeze it. John Garrett appeared, grinning madly, and slapped the button to open the back door.

Before I could wonder what he was doing, Deathlok tackled me just as I went tangible, both of us falling out of the Quinjet.

Tumbling through the air, I went intangible again, Deathlok letting go of me before he could freeze over. Jets of purple snapped to life on his feet, propelling him away from an ice beam I sent at him. He fired a rocket I let go through me. A strange port opened on his shoulder. My experience with being in War Machine and Iron Man's armor warned me to go intangible before plasma bolts started flying.

Apparently, he had gotten some serious damn upgrades.

I looked at the Quinjet, which was slowly dropping through the sky, then at Deathlok, thinking.

'Come on, guys,' I thought to myself. 'Save them.'

 _ **Ten Minutes Earlier**_

 _ **Skye**_

Over the New Mexican desert, Skye typed at a computer, activating the programs she'd created and throwing in some stuff Tony and Dial had supplied her with. Hit with the hacking expertise of three genius hackers, one of them alien, she soon had the access she needed. Smirking, Skye looked up at the people surrounding her.

Maria, Melinda, and Coulson stood before her with several BRIDGE Elites and US Marines, all in front of a door to a base with the Cybertek logo on it.

"Let go say hi," Skye tapped a button on her laptop, the door in front of her clicking open.

"Let's," Maria said, smiling as the BRIDGE Elites rushed in. "Skye, Melinda, you know what to do."

"Understood," Melinda said, smiling. She walked in. Skye went to follow, getting a supportive nod from Coulson.

As they ran through the halls of Cybertek, taking a right with several US Marines coming along. High above, Skye knew the Helicarrier would be dropping cloak and lowering over the base, guns firing on vehicles. Sure enough, explosions began to sound out around them, followed by alarms. Skye switched over to her phone and slipped her laptop into her bag, disconnecting operators on the base from the Centipede soldiers with some button taps. She also pulled out a gun, jostling a tiny plastic object aside. Soon they were at a door labeled _Incentives_. Melinda kicked the door in.

Two Centipede soldiers and a HYDRA operative looked up at them.

"Uh, hi guys," Skye said.

The HYDRA soldier moved forward, only to get an ICER between the eyes from Skye. The Centipedes rushed forward, and the US Marines following Skye and Melinda opened fire, unleashing a barrage of bullets onto the Centipedes. They ignored the first 10 bullets. The next ones tore them apart.

Skye ran in, opening the door the files indicated. Inside, a young boy with chubby cheeks looked up at her, his skin the same dark color as his father's.

"Hey, Ace!" Skye chirped.

"Skye!" the boy rushed forward, wrapping Skye up in a hug. She smiled, leaning down to hug him back. When they separated she reached into her bag and pulled something out. A Hulk toy. Handing it to a smiling Ace, she spoke softly. "Okay, Ace, I need you to give me a message."

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

I twirled through the air, going intangible to go through some bullets fired on me from some Quinjets. Deathlok followed, mercilessly chasing me. Songbird was in the air with me, fighting her own battles, but Scarlet Witch had gone to the forest with Marian. I could hear Marian roaring as flashes of red light came from the darkness below.

Deathlok was persistent, but my eyes were still on the Quinjet holding the three prisoners.

Just when Deathlok seemed like he was going in for another shot, he stopped. Then he fired.

I watched the rocket he'd fired tear a Chitauri armored soldier in half.

Far off, I could see a winged figure flying toward us. Sam. Some explosions came from the forest below, the twang of a bow proceeding each one.

At the same time, Deathlok started tearing into his allies, plasma bolts from his shoulder and rockets from his arm firing over and over. So Maria and Coulson had saved the prisoners at Cybertek.

Which left Garrett.

I flew towards his struggling Quinjet, free to do so now, and went back inside. He looked over at me.

" _Don't suppose you'll surrender,"_ I offered, my wings wrapping back around me.

He smiled. "Why? The future needs me. Needs me to translate the Words! To show a way to the End of it all. I can see it you know? I can even see your soul, torn through the universe, lost on the winds of faith. But there's a bett-"

I froze him over. He even looked surprised before he was encased in an ice prison of blue-white. The pilots looked over at me as I walked towards them.

"...Can _we_ still surrender?" The pilot asked. When I nodded, he sighed in relief. "I-I'll just land the Quinjet then."

As the jet lowered, I looked over the prisoners, focusing on the one in the center. _"Whoever is with the Hulk... tell him I have her."_

A Quinjet suddenly flew past, turning around to aim at us. He flew towards us, apparently about to kamikaze us.

"What's he doing!?" the pilot shouted.

"We're going to crash!" the co-pilot yelled as well, trying to twist away.

I flew forward, going intangible to move through the glass, erupting into the air.

Then a bolt of lightning fell from the sky, hitting the other Quinjet hard enough to bash it into the forest below.

More bolts struck the battlefield, hitting the Quinjets one by one. A final Quinjet flew past me, trying to escape. A silver flash came from the sky, piercing through. As the final Quinjet spun through the air, I looked up at the sky.

" _...He's back."_

Thor, the Asgardian Deity of Thunder, standing on the _Defiant_ for support, grinned down at all of us, blonde hair flowing in the wind.

 _ **Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker**_

Strucker stood in his personal Quinjet, sighing sadly. "We lost so much, simply to survive. Aberration. The Centipedes. Garrett. The Grapplers. All gone," he shook his head, still looking out of the window as they flew over the ocean, a fleet of Quinjets following as they escaped their chasers. Soon, a large section of those flying with them twisted in the air, headed elsewhere. Strucker watched them with a scowl. Malick, off to his ridiculous religious crusade to bring a god to life, with all the improvements Sterns had given him. Strucker shook his head and turned back to his goal, out across the ocean. The Sceptre was held in his gloved hand, glowing.

They flew for hours, simply trying to get away. As the sun began to drop into the horizon, the radio crackled to life.

" _Sir!"_ a HYDRA operative on the other end said. _"Sterns, h-he..."_

"He, what?" Strucker asked, unperturbed.

" _I-I don't know sir, he just disappeared! He was in the back of our jet, then he pressed something, and now he's gone!"_

The radio crackled again. _"Baron Von Strucker!"_ List shouted. _"We're getting the reports! Dozens of boxes of our resources have vanished!"_

Strucker turned and walked into the back of the Quinjet, unworried. As he did so, the screen there came to life. On it, Samuel Sterns stood in a dark location, smiling smugly as he watched Strucker approach.

"You've betrayed me, Sterns."

It wasn't a question.

When Sterns spoke, his voice was as clear over the stereos of the Quinjet as though he was right there. "Please, Wolfgang. I'm honestly not surprised you didn't manage to predict me, but you must have had some inkling? And please, call me 'The Leader'."

Strucker frowned. "A bit presumptuous, as names go."

"A man chooses the name he embodies," Sterns smirked. "I decided it was time to go our separate ways. I've taken some essentials, things that would be more useful in my hands, as payment for my services. I'm afraid that your primitive mind simply won't be able to use them to their full potential," Sterns chuckled. "I'll have to take Miss Walters, Blood Diamond, and the Agents as well, to use in my own experiments. It was a mistake, you know, to allow me so much leeway with the Phase Harmonic Teleporter and the portal Malick believes leads to his 'god'. Really Wolfgang, understand this isn't personal. I know you aren't as... enlightened, as I am. But you must see that."

"...You need more experience, Sterns," Strucker said. He smiled.

Sterns frowned. "I'm sorry?"

"You think I never anticipated this? That I never saw the glares, the covetous looks? I knew you would betray me, Sterns. It was just a matter of time. So I forced the issue."

He raised a hand, holding a detonator switch. "As though I would ever let you take my subjects. Ms. Walters has been returned to Mr. Banner, to keep him from feeling any need to chase us, with footage of your experiments on her. As for Blood Diamond," a girl with black hair and eyes of topaz stepped into view. "She and the agents are with me. So Sterns, if you've truly teleported something from the planes you believed to hold my current passengers."

Sterns' eyes widened. Strucker flipped the detonator switch. A series of loud explosions came from the other end, Sterns shouting before flame hit him, the screen going to static.

Strucker smiled, tossing aside the detonator and looking over at the two cryo-tubes sitting in the back of his Quinjet, Agents Triplett and Carter sleeping peacefully within. "Pilot, make way to Germany. I have something to pick up. A family heirloom."

"Yes, sir," the pilot said. With that, the Quinjet twisted in the air, the others following.

 _ ***(^!# $* &^#...!(*#& *&!a**_

As the battle settled, something flew over the ground. A red mist floating gently as it passed through the world. It flew towards a BRIDGE Elite with his back turned. The man was walking through the forest with his team, gun aimed high. The red mist touched his back, then sank into him. Or more specifically, his armor.

The man blinked in surprise when his HUD flashed. He slapped his head, watching the HUD flicker before solidifying.

"Hey," one of the other soldiers, a woman, asked. "You okay?"

"Yeah," the man said, shrugging. "You sure this stuff doesn't glitch?"

"Who knows?" she said with a chuckle.

He chuckled as well, moving on.

And the presence waited within.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

Later that night, there was a lot to do. Soldiers were brought in to clean up after us, arresting HYDRA operatives. I found myself curing a lot of Gamma soldiers, leaving them normal humans. All of them ungrateful asshole screaming about how I took their powers.

Scarlet Witch and the Grapplers were brought in for questioning since they were technically former enemies. But they were brought in gently, while Helen, Pietro, and Jennifer were put in medical. Deathlok, on the other hand, was arrested, put in cuffs made by Tony himself. He didn't seem to care.

Hulk and Tony brought in Aberration and Abomination in, after apparently tearing most of a battlefield apart to do it. When I informed Hulk that I'd managed to find 'Jenny', he gave me an oddly gentle hug, smiling as he changed back into Bruce.

Some people on our side had died. Gamma monsters, Chitauri armored soldiers, and Centipedes did some of it, but good old bullets did the same. I found myself staring at the body bags at one point, stacked side by side. I'd seen stuff like that in movies but...

It took a while to sort everything out. And even that was just set up for the next day. In the end, though Strucker escaped, he'd cut off a few limbs to do it. A majority of his soldiers were dead or arrested. Jarvis and X had gotten a lot of information about his other bases off computers, and armies across the world were assaulting them even now. Garrett's frozen ass had been put in a van and carted away, Deathlok glaring at him all the while.

Of course, it was hard to be melancholic. Because Tony immediately called for a party.

I'd need to speak to a certain Asgardian as well. The Omnitrix was already glowing yellow.

 _ **High over Earth**_

Across the world, Malick was moving into a skyscraper, putting together his plans. Strucker was striding through one of his families vaults in Germany, moving past the incredible valuables within to instead pick up a simple hard drive off a desk. A blood-soaked man with an enlarged head was dragging himself across a floor. And a dark red presence waited.

But in the end, any lasting power HYDRA had was gone.

And to Paradox, that was a good start.

 _Author's Note:_ Aaaauuuugh, it's over. HYDRA is gone. Screw 'em. Yeah, Strucker and Malick are around, but they aren't going to be a problem for a while, and nowhere close to the way they were before. The HYDRA Arc is done. Screw em.

Going on Twitch, check ya'll later.


	46. Chapter 46

In the courtyard of the now destroyed castle, all the fighters and personnel had gathered to do inventory while waiting for more transports to come. I watched sadly in my human form while the cryo tank holding Jennifer was getting prepared to be rolled off the Quinjet. She was sleeping within, taller than even Creel, with the smooth green skin, large muscles, and really long dark green hair I'd known from the comics. I would have been amused at the sight of her any other time. She looked like Lori Slayer, a fitness model in my world. Just with much more muscle and height. I could also see the similarity to Hulk though. It was in the set of her green eyes, an almost deep look that made her look somber.

From the pictures I'd seen, her former human self looked more like Alison Brie, with the pale skin and curly brown hair, and the slightly bookish features I was familiar with from the show _Community._ Made sense she would be the form of the bookishly shy Jennifer Walters.

It wasn't funny now though, seeing her roll past me like some sick parody of a modern-day Snow White.

"Hey," Natasha walked up to me as I stood there, giving me a smile. She was wearing her normal catsuit, rather than the armor we'd made her, though her handgun was at her side. "You okay?"

"Yeah," I said back, smiling. "Just thinking."

I looked back at Jennifer's cryo tube, then at Natasha. "Been a long day."

" _ **WHERE JENNY?!"**_

When Natasha and I turned, Hulk was aggressively striding through the courtyard, looking around quickly and causing more than a few of the agents and personnel to back away quickly on instinct from the titan of muscles moving among them.

"Hulk!" I called out to him. The angry green giant spun to look at me, then saw the cryo tube, and ran over more quickly than anything that big had any right to. I stepped in his way. Then I realized I had stepped in the _Hulk's_ way. Luckily the big guy seemed willing to listen, quickly coming to a stop and leaving grooves in the ground in the process. "It's okay, bud. She's healthy, and we're going to put her through every test we got to make sure any brainwashing has been shut down."

He breathed heavily, eyes on his cousin. _**"Jenny... like Hulk?"**_

"Yeah," I patted his arm, looking over at her. I could feel him shaking, confused. "Remember what I said though. She's strong. And we've got her back. She's riding with us."

"They don't seem to know that," Natasha noted, watching as the BRIDGE soldiers began to roll her off to the Quinjet that Pietro and Helen had been put in. "I'll go direct them to the _Defiant,"_ Natasha turned and smiled at the Hulk. "Good job, by the way, big guy. You did well."

Hulk, surprisingly, seemed almost bashful at that.

With that, Natasha turned and walked over to the group rolling Jennifer's tube, leaving me with Hulk.

" _ **Hulk go to Dial's spaceship,"**_ The big guy said, turning and walking towards it. However, he stopped for a moment before speaking up again without turning around. _"B_ _anner look at Jenny later?_ _"_ he asked more quietly than I had ever heard him speak before.

I blinked at the question for a second before replying, "Of course, I don't think anyone could stop him anymore they could you Hulk."

Hulk simply grunted at that and began walking off once more back to the Defiant.

That was a major surprise, Hulk had basically admitted there was something that only Bruce could do that he couldn't despite all his strength. I guess the two have learned to get along better than I originally thought in such a short time even it wasn't perfect yet. I kinda smiled at that, than turned and walked towards where the Marvel Trinity stood.

Well, two of them stood, while the third was being looked over by a medic as he sat on a makeshift stretcher. The massive form of the Hulkbuster stood nearby, drawing the gaze of others around the area. The Darkforce armor, on the other hand, had fallen apart from the abuse of the past few hours and lay in pieces on the ground.

"I'm telling you, I've got guys at the tower that can fix this," Tony grumbled, watching the medic bandage hole in his shoulder. Tony's face was grimy and sweaty, far from the impeccable look he usually preferred, with his blue shirt ruined by the hole and blood caused by Abomination.

"It's just to keep you from bleeding out, sir," the medic said.

"Let the man do his work," Steve said with a fond smile. He was wearing his full armor with the helmet down, his famous shield on his back and some sweat on his brow, standing there with his thumbs in his belt.

"You know, the Hulkbuster's catoms are designed to deal with this," Tony pointed out before looking up and grinning when he saw me walk over. "Hey, Fanboy. Heard you saved Jennifer. Nice job."

"Indeed!" the giant man standing there stepped forward and clapped my shoulder with surprising gentleness, smiling down at me. "My friends told me of your heroism, Mahmoud Schahed! You've done quite well!"

Goddamn it, stop blushing!

"T-Thanks," I said, grinning up at the big guy.

"Mahmoud, let me introduce you to Thor Odinson," Steve said politely.

"He knows who he is. Every somewhat sexual human on the planet does," Tony reminded him while grinning at me before wincing when the medic cleaned his wound a bit deeper. Some of the people who had been staring in awe at Thor must have overheard because they rushed to find something else to do.

"It's only polite," Steve mumbled.

Thor grasped my forearm and smiled, his luxurious hair flowing. Seriously, I could see a couple of women and men in the background panning their eyes from Steve to Thor as the pair stood there. I shook his hand and grinned.

"I'm a big fan, sir. Ever since I was younger and I read your stories," I admitted.

"Yeah, like the time he put on a dress to get his hammer back?" Tony noted.

Thor spun, confused. "Wait, what!?"

"Like I said!" I added quickly. "It's an honor!"

Thor frowned at Tony, who smirked back, before turning to me. "I would love to hear the stories of your adventures, young hero."

"Same to you, Thor," Thor nodded. I turned and grinned at Steve and Tony. "Wants to hear about _my_ adventures. How freaking awesome is that?!"

"Why are you so starstruck?" Tony asked. "You've already met _me,_ and aren't _I_ your _favorite_ Avenger."

"And then I got to know you," Tony pouted at that. "Besides, when you have a religion based on you-"

"Have you seen my fans? I'm telling you-"

"Steve has more _way_ fans than you Tony, practically all of _America_."

"Whoa, don't bring me into this," Steve said in amusement.

"Man, I'm a billionaire superhero, I should get way more respect," Tony grumbled.

At the same time, Thor was chuckling, shaking his head.

"So where've you been?" Tony asked curiously. "We could have used you before now, dramatic entrance aside."

Thor sobered. "I'm afraid that I was doing work across the realms. My father has been having me travel around and clean up the mess Malekith and the Dark Elves created during the Convergence. I returned when Heimdall contacted me about the return of the Specter, though he has been silent since."

"Sorry to say we don't have the Specter," Steve said sadly. "Strucker got away with it, but we do have another artifact."

"Ah, yes," Thor nodded slowly. "A Berserker Staff. I suppose I'll have to have it destroyed. Even as outdated as it is."

"Or you know, let us study it?" Tony asked. When Thor glared at him, Tony waved his uninjured arm. "Yeah, yeah, we'll give it up. By the way, Fanboy, why is the Omnitrix glowing yellow?"

I looked down at the Omnitrix, which had been glowing since Thor had shown up in the skies above me and only got brighter since it had touched him when we shook hands, then at the Marvel Trinity. Steve seemed curious, same as Thor, while Tony was blinking. Suddenly, Tony started and looked between the Omnitrix and Thor a couple of times before looking at me. When I nodded, he seemed about to say something.

Before we could continue, far above in the skies, the _Enterprise_ Helicarrier uncloaked and slowly lowered over the battlefield, more Quinjets flying from off the top of it. The Bus was coming down as well.

"That's our cue," Steve said, turning to look at Tony. "Can you walk?"

"I got stabbed in the shoulder, not the leg," came the quip.

Steve smiled quickly at that.

The four of us walked towards the Bus as it landed in a field next to the _Defiant._ The other Avengers came as well from what they had been doing until we were walking in a line.

Okay, get ready for a long list.

From left to right, there was Warrior, Mockingbird, Nomad, Alloy, Falcon, War Machine, me (AKA Dial), Iron Man (suitless), Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hulk, and Hawkeye. Walking next to all these superheroes, while also _being_ a superhero, still hadn't become old hat, and I hoped it would always feel this fucking awesome. This image alone would make for a badass poster to boot! Shame there was no one with a camera nearby.

The back doors opened once the Bus had settled down, revealing those inside.

Maria Hill, Director of BRIDGE, stood at the center, wearing a long-coat I could have sworn once belonged to Fury, who was standing inside the Bus on the upper level simply watching everything. Maria was walking in-between Phil Coulson and Victoria Hand, alongside a few guards coming out to surround the area. Thor stopped at the sight of Coulson, then started walking forward quickly, looking confused but elated at the same time. "Son of Coul!"

Coulson smiled at the sight of the God of Thunder. "Son of Odin."

Suddenly the tiny Phil was wrapped up in the arms of Thor, who lifted him up with an enormous belly laugh. "You're alive! By Odin, you're alive, my friend!"

"Not for long if you keep squeezing him," Tony noted as we joined the group, Phil looking some combination of embarrassed and pleased.

I looked behind the BRIDGE leaders and saw Fitz-Simmons in the lab with...

I separated from the group and walked into the plane, moving past the convertible Phil treasured and to the lab. When I entered, we met eyes. Skye gave me a quick upwards twitch of the lips.

"Sorry," I said immediately.

Fitz seemed confused, while Simmons seemed to understand what was going on immediately. She seemed ready to leave, but I waved for her to stay as Skye crossed her arms, moving to look up at me. "Sorry for what exactly?"

"Coddling you," I replied. "I'm... not great at this stuff. I wanted to keep you safe but I ended up acting like you were a baby with a knife in one hand and an electrical outlet nearby."

Why the hell was I so nervous damn it!? I shuffled my feet as she looked up at me. She softened after a moment.

"...Look, I may not be a superhero, but I can take care of myself..." Skye held up a hand to stop me from talking, her eyes on mine. "But I do appreciate you worrying. Just... tone it back, okay?"

"...Might need some practice," I admitted. "Give me some time?"

For some reason, a loud squeal came from Simmons. When we turned to look at her, she held her hands over her mouth, embarrassed. "Sorry!"

Fitz rubbed his forehead, chuckling slightly.

"And this is my team. Well, some of them," Phil said, drawing our attention. He walked in while Thor _strode_ in, smiling as he did so, apparently getting the tour from Phil.

Skye and Simmons both blushed bright red at the sight of the six-plus tall paragon of masculinity. I shared a look with Fitz, and for some reason, I felt like we shared an unspoken frustration.

"Thor, Dial," Maria walked in, Victoria following her. "We're meeting upstairs. There are some things to discuss.

Thor and I shared a glance (how freaking cool is that sentence!?), the giant man moving to follow Maria. I was going as well, but Skye stopped me with a hand on my arm.

"Hey, uh," she brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "We'll talk later?"

"Um... yeah, of course," I said hesitantly. I felt as though I'd made some progress but towards what, I'm not sure. I mean, I knew that it was possible to be a hero and have... other, interests, but I was really bad at that sort of thing.

Feeling confused, I decided to simply go upstairs. Thor followed me to the stairs, just behind Maria, Victoria, and Phil. Once we were in the hallways, Thor stopped me. The three turned to look at us.

"Something wrong, Thor?" Maria asked.

"No, Lady Hill," Thor returned. "I simply wish to speak privately with Mahmoud."

The three superspies looked between us, a measuring gaze in their eyes. After a moment, they continued on.

"So, uh, what is this about, sir?" I said nervously, looking up at the taller man. "I mean, is it sir? Prince? I can't really call you god, cause of religion, but I really want to be respectful, and I'm not sure-"

Thor let out a booming laugh, those ones that come from deep in the chest that only really big guys can do. "Mahmoud, we are fellow heroes! Call me Thor, as all my allies and friends do," he clasped my shoulder and smiled down at me. "I simply want to give you advice... I have been alive for 1500 years. Give or take. I've had my regrets. So let me give you advice a friend gave me, Mahmoud. Don't make the mistake of not going for what you want. Or, as my dear friend Darcy said, 'ask her out, you dummy'."

"...Ah," I said, scratching the back of my neck.

"Now, you seem to have something you've been wishing to tell me?"

Guess I'd underestimated Thor's intelligence. You don't become as legendary as he was by collecting bottle caps.

I raised up the Omnitrix, about to speak, before thinking. "Yeah, this might be better to say in the group right now. But I promise it is important!"

Thor seemed intrigued, eyeing the Omnitrix with interest. As he did, I looked at the weapon on his belt.

Mjølnir. Man, that hammer had so much _weight_ to it, pun intended, a presence that made Thor seem grander. Though, that could have been my inner nerd speaking. I really wanted to try and lift it.

"Come then," Thor led me along. "It seems I have much to catch up on."

The Founding Avengers plus Maria, Fury, Victoria, and Phil were inside the glass room in the center of the Bus that Coulson used as a briefing room, leaving the rest of us Reserve Avengers watching from the couches outside as they told Thor about the events of the past few weeks, the screen currently frozen on the image of the Triskelion with a mountain of blue-green crystals on top of the hanger bay.

"What did you do with that thing, by the way?" Bobbi asked, the Amazonian blonde looking at me. "I mean, that much crystal was probably tough to get rid of."

"I gave some of it to Tony," I admitted. "But the rest I just put away as Diamondhead."

"What did Tony want with your crystals?" Isabelle asked, once more reminding me of Lucy Lawless. Something about the almost aggressive attitude she always exuded, even in her civilian clothes.

"I'm pretty sure he wanted to make a suit out of it," I said, not revealing the truth. "We've had a crazy week though, huh?"

"I'll say," Sam, our fearless leader, sighed lazily in a big chair with too much plush. "The boys in my old squad wouldn't believe it. I keep getting texts about it."

"Kind of old hat for me," Bucky noted. "The aliens are weird. Uh, no offense."

I shrugged, not taking it personally.

"But most of this is just upgrades on what happened before."

Creel, standing nearby and looking out of the window at the forest around us, grunted.

Rhodey walked up from the back of the ship. "They've got Jennifer all set up, and the prisoners have been put into the _Enterprise._ We're ready to leave."

"Cool," I said, smiling at that.

A knock on the glass brought our attention to the briefing. Phil waved at me to enter. I waved back, then turned to my team. "See you guys in a bit."

"What do they want to talk to you about, anyway?" Bobbi asked.

I looked down at the Omnitrix. It wasn't glowing yellow anymore, though it had been doing that since Thor had appeared and had gotten even brighter after touching him. I kept expecting it to speak and tell me what was going on, but the watch had been silent so far. Still, I knew it must have done its work. "Something important."

Leaving it at that, I entered the glass room. Hulk had become Bruce again, who was still wearing his armor with a lab coat on top. Thank god, because we were crowding the small space as is without the bulk of the Hulk joining in.

"So," I said looking around. "What's up?"

"Thor said you wanted to say something to us?" Steve asked, clear blue eyes steady on me.

"Yeah... so," I lifted my watch. "Omnitrix. It can basically do it all. Even I don't know how many aliens are really in this thing."

"We've made a list of around forty that you can think of," Tony reminded me, having been the one asking the most questions about the watch. Though there had been a close race between him, Fitz-Simmons, Bruce, and of course BRIDGE.

"Right. But remember, the Omnitrix was made to be a tool of diplomacy, first and foremost," I responded.

"And I would remind you, that this 'Azmuth' instead ended up making something that can let an untrained civilian fight the Hulk," Fury said, still wearing a purple button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

Well, not just the Hulk. Wondering what Fury would think of Way Big, I sighed. "Yeah well, that's-"

"I must say, I don't recognize any of the aliens you can turn into," Thor said curiously. "I've fought many beings, but nothing like many of those creatures you mimic."

"He's from another universe, remember? Different aliens." Tony said to Thor, who did a little 'ah' at the reminder.

"There's more," I said. "The Omnitrix doesn't just contain alien DNA. It can also scan it and replicate it. So now..."

I lifted the watch and turned it on, a hologram of Four Arms floating over my wrist. I flipped through Jury Rigg, Rath, Upgrade, and Blitzwolfer before reaching the final one. The others in the room leaned in to look at it.

"It's you?" Bruce said, confused. "You can turn into yourself?"

"No," I said, staring at the image that looked something like me floating there. "This one is new, gained from a scan I got today."

"Asgardian," Phil said softly.

Thor blinked. "That is... me?"

"The Omnitrix's interpretation anyway," I admitted. "I have to say, I'm not sure what this means. I mean, will I have lightning powers like you? Or just be a form like a normal civilian Asgardian? I don't know."

"It is interesting," Maria noted, the Director said, her eyes narrowing. "And you say the Omnitrix does this every time? It scans new aliens and gives you a new form each time?"

"Like I said, it's a diplomatic tool at heart. Made to let you walk a mile in someone else's shoes," I looked over at Thor and chuckled nervously. "Sorry, by the way, if this offends you. I can't really control the Omnitrix."

"Not something I like hearing," Victoria mumbled in the background. Thor, on the other hand, simply laughed.

"Do not worry! It is odd, yes, but not something I find offensive," he crossed his arms with a proud grin. "After all, if you want a truly powerful form, an Asgardian is clearly it."

Huh. Who would in a fight between Atomix and Thor?

"You gonna try it out?" Tony asked.

"Not here," Maria said immediately. "We have a training facility in place. And Thor, I'd like you to be there, if possible?"

"Of course, Lady Hill," Thor said respectfully. He looked over at me, and for some reason, I got the feeling there was more he wanted to say but was holding back. It made me nervous. Was there something about being Asgardian I had to know? Something that might affect my form in a way I didn't expect, like Ghostfreak suddenly getting his own personality? I mean, considering that I now had to worry about... Oh right.

"One more thing," I said. I looked over at Tony, knowing what was coming, then pushed through. "There is, a... possibility, that... well, Big Chill, the new alien I unlocked before Thor got here, reproduces asexually. And that kind of works for me. So, at some point, I might-"

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Tony started laughing immediately, the damn genius near instantly figuring out what I was getting at. Natasha smirked, eyes glimmering, while Bruce winced in sympathy.

I groaned. "Yeah, fine, I might be pregnant down the road."

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Tony was crying at this point, not even able to joke, he was laughing so hard. Lucky me, the others had their own snark to throw.

"Man, you don't even get to do the fun parts?" Clint asked, grinning. "And does this mean we should throw you a baby shower?"

"And does it count as a baby shower when you're both the mother and the father?" Natasha added, a slow smirk rising when I gave her a betrayed look.

"HAHAHA-Ow!" Tony scowled, grabbing at his injured shoulder. "Damn it."

"Hope that hurt," I scowled.

Tony grinned despite the pain. "Not as much as childbirth!"

Steve sighed. "Okay, lay off him. We should-"

"Dial," Maria interrupted, her gaze hard. "How many children?"

I thought about that. "I don't know, a dozen? And they only give birth once every 80 years or so. I'm pretty sure it won't happen to be honest, but just in case."

Maria shook her head and rubbed her nose, sighing. "Well, there is something else on the table, Thor. Speaking on behalf of the United Nations, I have been given permission to request an alliance between the people of Earth and Asgard," she chuckled. "It's a bit informal but I've been told that it is within my capacity as BRIDGE Director to approach alien leaders to establish friendly diplomatic relations and offer treaties."

Thor frowned. "I... I do not believe I have the authority to make such a deal. I am only the Prince of Asgard. I will, however, approach my father about this. What," he looked a little out of his depth. "What would be in the treaty? Would it mean-"

"That can be left up to the people who make those decisions," Maria said. "I can approach you about it but actually writing up the deal should be left between your father and our people."

Thor seemed relieved.

"In the meantime, we should focus on this," Maria tapped at the screen. "At your request, I'll have the founding Avengers on the same vehicle with Jennifer Walter, though I've decided the Bus would be better since there is more room here than on the _Defiant_. Dial, you'll be piloting the _Defiant_ with Bobbi and Sam, while the rest of the Reserve Avengers will go with the Grapplers, Deathlok, and the Maximoff Twins to the _Enterprise,"_ The Director looked around. "You have your orders, everyone."

Would you believe the ride home was turning out to be really boring? Seriously, flying a super advanced spaceship made out of a Quinjet with a super assassin and flying soldier along for the ride as a Helicarrier flew on one side and the Bus flew on the other, I should have felt pretty damn awesome. Instead, I was just bored, flying towards the East Coast.

"Am I the only one who's bored?" I asked Sam and Bobbi.

The pair gave me that smile that more experienced people always give their juniors, the black man and blonde woman looking a bit smug.

"It's how these flights usually go," Bobbi said from the copilots seat in her civvies uniform of a shirt and jeans.

"Well, not mine," Sam added, standing behind us in his flight suit. "But flying aircraft is always like this."

"No, flying a long ass time is like this," I grumbled. "Think I could have flown there and back if I didn't have to slow down for the fleet. Hell, Astrodactyl could have done it. Fasttrack could have run there in this time."

"That's not the mission," Bobbi reminded me. "I have a question though. How many aliens do you have anyway?"

I thought about that, counting them up in my head. Swampfire, Blitzwolfer, Fasttrack... "I can access 15 so far out of... 1,000,000 and something?"

Sam turned to stare at me. "Jesus. Are there even that many aliens? How can you keep remember them all?"

"I can't," I admitted sadly. "I mean, I try, but I tend to end up favoring some aliens without meaning too. Diamondhead is probably my favorite, though Blitzwolfer used to be. But I haven't used Goop or Swampfire too often lately for example. I mean, it makes sense, but some of my aliens might end up being underutilized."

Bobbi frowned. "Well, as long as whatever you use is efficient for the task your going for, does it matter?"

I grunted. Speaking logically, no. Speaking as a fan of the Ben 10 shows, yes. Oh well.

"What I want to know is, how come so many of your aliens look like monsters from movies?" Sam asked. "Frankenstein, the Mummy, Wolfman, and the Mothman. Or how Astrodactyl looks like a dinosaur. Is that because that's how they look in your universe, or..."

"I also have a vampire alien down the road. And I like to think that the aliens in the watch were the inspiration for monsters in my universe," Ben's universe, technically. "I mean, how do you think we got legends about Thor? He visited, we told the stories, they evolved. To paraphrase a line from a British sci-fi show, a lot of monsters look like my aliens," I thought for a moment. "Also, Frankenstein was the scientist. The monster didn't have a name."

Sam rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah."

"So how were your fights anyway?" I asked the pair.

Bobbi grunted.

"...That bad?"

"More rough than bad," she admitted. "I didn't have to fight any gamma monsters, but Centipedes are tough enough I had to resort to killing them most of the time. Even with Clint and Natasha helping, it wasn't easy. Their skin is tough to cut through."

"I probably had an easier time of it then," Sam said. "The Chitauri fliers aren't as experienced as Rhodey and I were, so I ended up taking them out pretty easily. You were lucky though, just faking your way through a fight."

I scoffed. "Tell that to the Grapplers. Marian hits like a freaking truck, Melissa's powers are broken, and Wanda is basically magic. I barely held them off as Frankenstrike. Next time someone asks me to fight three badasses like that while holding back, I'm letting you guys do it."

Bobbi laughed at that, while Sam chuckled.

 _Author's Note:_ More of a transition chapter than anything, but it does press on some important things. A lot of the current work will be just furthering the world I've built, things like BRIDGE's new facilities, the various tech that will be made, characters interacting with each other, and full chapters dedicated to everyone except Dial, who has gotten a hell of a lot of screen-time recently. Still, it was a fun write.


	47. Chapter 47

**_Bruce Banner/Hulk_**

 _January 21st,2014_

In the early morning in the labs of the Avengers Tower, Bruce watched as Mahmoud in his Upgrade form flowed across the surface of Jennifer's cryotube. The tube had been put in his lab, with the deprogramming machines BRIDGE had created to remove the various forms of brainwashing and conditioning HYDRA had employed on their victims and operatives alike erected around the tube. Maria had listened to his appeal to let him do the work himself alongside BRIDGE's best scientists in the field (and coincidently the one's Bruce trusted most) to assess the health of a new gamma-enhanced human. As of now, that was Bruce himself, the leading expert on gamma radiation in the world, Jemma Simmons, a skilled doctor despite her young age and who had experience dealing with enhanced biology, Tony Stark and Leopold Fitz, some of the most skilled engineers in the world, and Mahmoud Schahed, who had access to aliens that could build things beyond the current scope of human technology and had a device with the most advanced genetic scanner ever built in. With all that combined brainpower in one room, they would be able to find out-

"She is perfectly healthy," Simmons said as she circled the cryotube with a scanner in hand.

"Yep," Dial said as he flowed away from the cryotube returning to his bipedal form, his circular green eye brightening and dimming with each word before he changed back to human again in a bright green flash. "She's put on about four times the amount of muscle mass she had before, increased a couple of feet in size, burned away quite a lot of body fat, is about as radioactive as the Hulk so no alarms there, and is apparently extremely hungry, but other than that, she's healthy."

"W-What, there are no trackers in her?" Bruce asked, stepping forward and snatching the scanner out of Simmons' hands to circle Jennifer. "No cybernetic parts, no surgical wounds, nothing wrong?"

"No, she's fine," Simmons said, frowning at the frantic Dr. Banner. "In truth, it makes sense that she is so stable. Blonsky had the flawed super-soldier serum to protect him and your blood to give him the genes, while Rana Philips simply had her genetic template altered for the same effect, but Ms. Walters is a pure carrier of the Gamma Gene just like you," when he only seemed more agitated, Simmons spoke without thinking."Sir, she's a Hulk, she won't-"

 **"Don't-!"** Dial and Simmons recoiled in surprise at the loud shout from him, Tony and Fitz looking over from the computer the two had been working on. For a moment, the room was still, Simmons biting her lip nervously. Fitz looked at him, then at Tony, who crossed his arms. He took a deep breath. "I just... she can't..."

"She-Hulk," Dial said softly. Bruce felt his fists clench. "That's not the name I gave her, it's what people are calling her right now. Bruce, she's going to get compared to you, and there's nothing wrong with that. Look, just... let us wake her, and you'll see."

"I-" He bit his lip, looking over at Jennifer. "...I didn't want this. It's why I left Betty, left everyone. I didn't want them hurt by anything related to the Hulk," Bruce winced internally at how offended the Hulk got within him, sending a silent apology to the 'Other Guy'.

"It's what assholes do, Banner," Tony said, finally speaking. "They attack nice guys. It's up to us to keep knocking them down. Now, look, your cousin needs you. All the brainwashing has been, well, washed out, so she'll be herself now. You going to talk to her? Help her?"

"...Dial. Turn into something that can fight her," Bruce said sadly.

"No," Dial responded.

His neck snapped to let him stare at Dial in shock. "Mahmoud-"

"Bruce. Ask the Hulk what he thinks would happen if the first thing he saw when waking up was Rath or Four Arms ready to fight."

The gamma-enhanced man's eyes flashed green. He scowled, then nodded. "Okay."

Simmons looked around, then nodded at Fitz, who ran forward to begin the unlocking procedures.

As he worked, Carl Creel walked into the room. Tony blinked at the sight of the tall bald man stepping in. "What's up, Knockoff?"

"Don't call me that," Creel said with the ease of practice.

"Stop stealing my 'Man of Metal' schtick," Tony quipped.

Creel snorted, then hesitated. "I just... I've been brainwashed, so I thought... I don't know what I thought."

Bruce blinked at the sight of the tall and usually confident man looking uncomfortable. Dial stepped forward and punched his fellow Reserve Avenger in the shoulder. "Yeah yeah, you big softy," Dial said with a mischievous look in his eyes. "You can stay."

Creel scoffed, crossing his arms across his barrel chest.

Together, the small group watched as Jen woke up within the tube as the steel and glass door was slowly opened.

"I gotta admit, I didn't expect her to be so..." Tony trailed off, horror filling his eyes as he realized what he'd been about to say.

Bruce stared pointedly at him, then at Creel, Dial, and Fitz. The three men coughed and focused on other things to avoid his gaze.

Deep inside Bruce, an ancient instinct belonging to all overprotective family members awoke as the Hulk felt the urge to grab a shotgun for some reason.

 ** _Jennifer Walters/?_**

Jennifer woke up and felt as though she had been given... something. Something intense. Like she went out and painted the town red to supernatural levels or something, though she hadn't done something like that since college with her more rambunctious sorority sisters. She blinked awake and more energy than she could ever remember coursed through her body. What happened? She had been in her kitchen, tired from a long day, and that... a big headed guy had shown up? What happened after that? She reached at one of the walls of the tube surrounding her, pulling at it. Why did she feel so powerfu-?

A loud wrenching sound filled the air as something flimsy tore apart in her hand. She looked at the wall she'd grabbed at and had a weird moment as she stared at the steel bent under her green fingers.

Bent steel. Green fingers.

"Uhhhhh-"

"Jenny?"

At the sound of someone speaking to her, she looked up. Bruce was standing under her. No, wait. He was... he was shorter than her? By like, two feet?

"Bruce?" Jennifer coughed. Why did her voice sound so different? "What happened? Where am I?"

"Hi there!" Jennifer turned to her left to see a very short, cute redhead with freckles and a British accent.

Looking around, Jennifer saw a young man with frizzy brown hair and a smooth face standing next to the redhead, a brown-skinned man with a beard and ponytail wearing an odd green watch, a tall bald man, and Tony Stark.

"Hi?" Jennifer surprised herself when she immediately stepped out of the tube she'd been laying in. For some reason, she didn't feel nervous. Dressed in the tiny patient robe she'd just realized she was wearing in front of so many people, normally she was sure she would have panicked. But she didn't. If anything, she felt a smirk rise to her lips, and almost preened under the gazes. "Bruce? What happened? Why am I green?"

Her cousin sighed. "Well..."

Jennifer watched as Simmons took her pulse, Bruce finishing the story. "So... I was kidnapped by a former friend of yours who was working for HYDRA, and then you came in with an army to rescue me, but not before they brainwashed me and made me... well, this?" Jennifer waved the arm not currently occupied at herself. Her once mousy form was now six foot seven inches with six hundred and fifty pounds of green muscle. She clenched a fist and grinned at the size of it, the look and feel of her forearm muscles moving beneath green skin. Funny, she'd never been neither very confident in her appearance nor obsessed with fitness before. Now she just wanted to see what she could do. In fact, she was starting to feel a little antsy.

Also, she really liked how long her hair had gotten, she should have grown it out years ago!

"And that's about the gist of it," the dark-skinned man, who'd introduced himself as Mahmoud said.

"I gotta say, I don't feel like I was brainwashed," Jennifer admitted. She considered the idea that she was even now under someone's control before her new self-confidence brushed the thought aside.

"Enjoy that," the tall bald man, Creel, said. "I was under HYDRA's control for a while. You're lucky we got you out of there when we did, you were mostly on ice the whole time... Sorry for the pun."

"Huh," Jennifer thought about that. "I guess you guys got me out just in time," for some reason she didn't feel the near-panic that should have felt at the close save. In a way, it was almost as though she 'knew' that she would make it somehow.

"I gotta say, you're dealing with this pretty well," Bruce said, adjusting his glasses and frowning at how relaxed Jennifer seemed.

"I mean, why wouldn't I?" Jennifer grinned. "I feel _good_ ," the final word came out in a purr that came from deep in her throat. She smirked at the way Mahmoud and Creel blinked, then coughed and looked away, Tony smirking back lazily at her. "I kinda want to stretch my legs, Bruce, see what I can really do."

"A-Are you sure?" Bruce asked, looking confused. "We should do more tests-"

Jennifer laughed, rising to her feet and reveling in the feel of the cold air on her skin. "Sweetie, just look at me!" she stretched to her full height, arms over her head. "I feel like someone just lit my fire! I want to go out, I want to hit something!"

"Yeah, that pans out with what I expected," Mahmoud mumbled.

"Come on, Brucey," Jennifer smiled at her cousin. "What do you say? You and me, see what I can do? We should have some fun, make up for all the years apart!"

"That's not something we should-" Bruce began to say.

"Let's not be hasty, Banner," Tony said, stepping forward with a grin. "We've got the weight room. Let's see what she can do."

"As long as we go easy," Simmons said cautiously. "We still don't know why your transformation appears to be permanent. Are you sure you're feeling alright? No major feelings of anger or other extreme emotions?"

"I feel Perfect," Jennifer said with a sigh of happiness.

"Then your transformation may be triggered by something we don't know," Simmons said.

"Yes," Bruce agreed as he adjusted glasses while looking up at Jennifer. "What if you turn human when angry, in a reversal of what I do? We don't want you bench-pressing three hundred pounds, getting angry, then returning to normal."

Jennifer smirked at the clear challenge. "Then maybe you should spot me?"

Bruce blinked up at her. Then his face stiffened in determination. "Sure."

The change was instantaneous. One second, she towered over her cousin. Then he was standing over a foot taller than her, his massive bulk a green wall before her, wrapped in purple armor as the tatters of his clothes fell to the floor. Jennifer's confidence didn't disappear, but it was muted. "Whoa."

The Hulk smiled at the sight of his cousin. **_"Hi, Jenny! I'm Hulk!"_**

Apparently, he'd realized they never technically met, and so decided to introduce himself.

Jennifer practically crumbled at the sight of Hulk's happy smile. "Aw! You're just a big puppy, aren't you?"

"Not how I'd put it," Fitz whispered, eyes wide at the sight of Hulk in a reverse of Jennifer's reaction.

"I always forget how big he is," Creel mumbled in the background, Fitz and he stepping back from the massive beings now taking up the lab.

As Hulk smiled bashfully and Simmons giggled, Tony rubbed his eyes. "Could have waited till we got there to change," Tony grumbled. "Now I gotta figure out how to get two Hulk's into the weight room without breaking the elevator. You two will overload it as is..."

"I'm sorry, did you just make a crack about my weight," Jennifer said with mock anger and her hands on her hips.

"Aww shit, I was once better than this. Nerds! Explain what I meant by that." Tony said, deciding a strategic withdrawal was in order.

"Well, in that case," Simmons said, moving forward enthusiastically. "The interesting thing about your transformation is that like the Hulk you gained a significant amount of muscle mass though not quite to the same degree.."

Fitz apparently caught onto what Jemma was saying and continued. "Yes, you see while your cousin is a big densely pack powerhouse your own growth seems more lean and athletic, your muscle density and thus muscle weight is increased by the same factor as the Hulk however, explaining the increase in weight."

"They bounce off of each other real quick," Mahmoud whispered to Creel.

"Not quick enough," Creel rumbled, looking at the closeness of the two, rolling his eyes when Fitz blushed as his hand brushed Simmons.

Later, after going down some stairs that creaked under the weight of the Hulk and Jen, the group stood in a weight room together, watching as She-Hulk worked out. The room was extremely fancy, with a pool on one side, a boxing ring in the center, punching bags on the other side (curiously a couple lay on the floor in the back and sand poured out of fist-sized holes in the center of the bags), dozens of machines, and equipment meant specifically for the superhuman inclined to use them were dotted around the place. Including weights in excess of what normal people could lift.

Jennifer had replaced her medical robe with some clothes borrowed from Creel, the only one among them with clothes big enough for her. The hoodie and sweatpants were a little baggy even on his massive frame. On Jennifer's new bulk, they were barely able to fit, stretching on her and leaving her midriff exposed. She took pride in that.

"Woo!" Jennifer called out happily as she bicep-curled a bar with massive plates on each side. "How much weight is this again?" she asked, curious as to why she felt nothing at all in terms of strain.

"About seven hundred pounds," Fitz said, staring at the long bar that Jennifer was easily lifting, her arms pumping seemingly without effort. "Fifty pounds more than you weigh."

"Calling me fat?" she asked him with a wink, the young Englishman sputtering nervously in response. She laughed. "This feels great! Hey big guy, wanna arm wrestle later?"

Hulk grinned down at her. **_"Yes. But when safe. Banner_** ** _say_** ** _should wait,"_** Hulk scowled. **_"Banner always say wait. But nicer now. No more yelling."_**

Jennifer blinked at the thought of that, doing five more reps. "So wait, you can hear him? I don't hear any smaller version of me in my head, don't think she would take me being nearly nude all that well either."

"That's one of the questions we want to answer!" Simmons said, watching Jennifer lift nearly a ton with just her arms. "Why is your transformation so different? Why can't you change back?"

"Why would I want to!?" Jennifer laughed, tossing the weights down with a crack of sound, and curling her arms up. "Look at me! I feel awesome."

Hulk frowned, apparently thinking on that. Mahmoud seemed nervous for some reason.

Creel, who had been looking at the boxing ring with longing eyes, stepped forward and leaned down to grab the tossed aside bar. "I know you're new, but you need to respect the gym and its equipment."

"Whoa," Jennifer's eyes widened in worry as Creel began to pull. "Wait don't! You'll hurt your-" she stopped as Creel's skin changed to the same dark metallic color as the bar. Jennifer's jaw dropped as Creel lifted the bar and plates with ease and walked away. "Oh, wow..."

"Well, thankfully," Fitz said as though the sight of metal men was old hat. "You seem to be able to use your strength safely so far. Let's go to the treadmill."

The rest of the day was spent testing. Each test made Jennifer feel better. She was unstoppable! She could lift anything, run forever at top speed, leaping hundreds of feet, punch through concrete, even take rubber bullets without a hint of harm.

She wanted more. She wanted a real fight, a real test.

She just had to wait until tomorrow.

 ** _Thor Odinson/God of Thunder_**

Thor was sitting on the roof of the Avengers Tower, thinking on all he had heard recently. In all honesty, he hadn't expected much to change. Despite everything, he had hoped that Earth would have calmed down after the Convergence. Instead, it was as though the world had exploded. Though to be fair, in many ways, things were the same as always across Earth.

But then there were all the changes Thor had discovered. HYDRA, apparently a villainous group from Steve Roger's time, had risen from within SHIELD, the deceivers somehow hiding within them and corrupting the noble group from within, like poison within the body. Thankfully, Steve had not only called in his fellow Avengers, but three more worthy heroes: War Machine, Dial, and Falcon, to aid him in battle.

Thor was saddened he couldn't have helped. The battle had sounded truly incredible, with warriors on both sides fighting their best and heroism rising to the forefront.

Actually, he was sort of jealous. And hearing about all the other fights didn't help. At heart, Thor was a warrior and finding out he'd missed so many impressive battles was a disappointment. Pushing down those thoughts, Thor focused on the work he had to do. He put Mjolnir down on the floor next to him and looked up into the sky, closing his eyes. "Heimdall. I need your advice."

All Thor heard was the wind running over the rooftop. He frowned. "Heimdall, my friend. You haven't answered me in some time... do you, uh, can you hear me? I mean, it has been a while. Should I call later?"

 _"I hear you,"_ the voice of the All-Hearing Asgardian responded. _"Apologies, Thor. Home has been... interesting."_

Thor's fingers twitched. "What happened?"

 _"Nothing of import. Strangeness, that is all. You said you needed advice?"_

"Uh, yes. My friend, things on Earth have changed in unexpected ways," Thor dived into his explanation, telling Heimdall everything that Maria Hill had told him, ending with the proposal for an alliance between their realms. "And so, I am to approach my father about allying with BRIDGE and the rest of Midgard. I have also heard that a nation by the name of Wakanda is looking into a similar proposal."

 _"I'm sure they are,"_ Heimdall said mysteriously. _"I will speak to him of this, if you like?"_

Thor held back a sigh of relief. He really didn't have the head for things like treaties, documents, and trade deals. He wasn't unintelligent, but his skills lay more in languages, tactics, and space travel, with a small skill in wormhole physics. "Thank you, Heimdall."

 _"Of course,"_ Heimdall sighed on the other end of the mental link between them. _"But I do not know if your father will agree to this."_

"Why not?" Thor asked surprised, his father always seemed one for diplomacy.

 _"He has been... strange, as of late. He recently had the builders begin work on a statue of your brother and a small theater for a play in his honor."_

"... _Father_ did that?" Thor asked incredulously.

 _"Yes. It may be that the grief of..."_ Heimdall trailed off.

Thor looked down at the gravel beneath his feet, sadness filling him. "Mother and Loki... Heimdall, please tell him about the proposal. If he refuses, let him know I will come myself to Asgard to discuss it either way. And there is something else. A mortal I wish my father to meet."

Heimdall let out a surprised noise. _"Thor? You think that wise?"_

"Yes. He is... well, he is not Asgardian. But he can become one now."

 _"This Mahmoud Schahed,"_ Heimdall agreed. _"You haven't told him? About the possibility of what he may face?"_

"I don't even know if it will happen," Thor admitted. "Is he a true god because he can simply change forms? Is there even a... place for him? Does he count? So much of what Earth has brought to my attention is impossible to predict. All I can do is try to protect them... I'm seeing Jane tomorrow," he finished with no small amount of trepidation.

 _"Best of luck,"_ Heimdall said simply.

Thor smiled sardonically. "I will need it."


	48. Chapter 48

_**Carl Creel/Alloy**_

Later that night after testing Jennifer, Carl snuck into the gym. He needed the chance to vent. Thinking of Jen getting brainwashed had brought up... well, it brought things up that Creel had poured a lot of time punching HYDRA soldiers into to try and avoid. But late at night, when he closed his eyes, the memories of innocent death and a dark-skinned man with a smirk on his face telling him things would be better if he complied filled his mind.

So he was in the gym doing something he'd once loved.

"Uff, uff, ha!" Creel grunted, doing the tried and true combo of two jabs and right cross on one of the punching bags in the gym of the Avengers Tower. A breath in as he pulled back, a breath out as he punched out, feet constantly moving, hands flying. Creel had always been a slugger, even before he could turn invulnerable, so his hits were more akin to rocks falling than lightning striking. Not as fast, but just as hard hitting. He tried to move his feet quick. It was tough, digging up the old skills. He'd had to change his fighting style to account for his powers, and it had been a long time since he'd just went to his roots.

Memories forced themselves up to the front of his mind. The bag bent beneath his blows, the loud sound of flesh on leather filling the gym. Sweat dripped down his nose, landing on the mat. Whitehall smiled in his memories. The next thing Carl knew, he had changed into steel and the bag he'd been punching was ripped in half.

Creel panted for a moment, closing his eyes. The sound of sand falling to the mat and Creel's panting was joined by footsteps moving towards him. Creel turned to see Mahmoud walk up to him.

The younger man was wearing a pair of shorts and a shirt. He frowned, looking from Creel to the destroyed bag.

"Hey... You okay?" he winced. "I mean, obviously not, just... I'm gonna grab the vacuum."

Creel closed his eyes again, trying to get his breathing under control while listening to Mahmoud's footsteps receding, then coming back. When he opened his eyes, Mahmoud was holding the vacuum out to Creel. The bearded man shrugged.

"Well, I didn't make the mess, did I?"

That surprised a laugh out of Creel. He took the vacuum, one of those handheld Starktech models. "Yeah, guess not," Creel leaned down and started vacuuming up the sand, speaking as he did. "What are you doing down here, anyway?"

"Can't sleep," Mahmoud responded, moving to lean back against a nearby locker. "I'm way too excited for the trip tomorrow. I keep fighting the urge to go out on patrol. So when I heard the sounds of a punching bag from my room..."

"Sorry bout that," Creel said as the whisper quiet vacuum sucked up grains. "Just... boxing calms me down. Even now. Granted, can't really get back into it now. I ended up ruining it for myself," Creel scoffed. "Don't know why they cared."

"Maybe because most people can't make their fists turn into steel?" Mahmoud suggested sarcastically. "I heard you broke a couple of jaws in the day."

"More than a couple," Creel said with a smile he didn't feel. "It's good character building. I can guarantee the guys I beat that way duck a hell of a lot faster now."

From the annoyed sigh Mahmoud let out in response, he didn't agree. Creel pretended like he didn't care, simply finishing his vacuuming and picking up the shredded pieces of bag.

"If you're not gonna leave," Creel rose up and looked at Mahmoud. "You could always train with me."

"If I do, I'm changing into an alien first," Mahmoud narrowed his eyes. "Ain't about to spar with you and risk getting my jaw rewired for the sake of 'character building'."

Creel winced. He'd been trying to be friendly, but apparently proceeding that by dismissing his cheating was a bad idea. "Yeah... Look, I'm not a great guy. All this hero stuff. I'm just not meant for it. But that doesn't mean I don't know right from wrong. I just... back then it all seemed to fall into place. Suddenly I didn't have to lose anymore. I could just live an easy life. No more crappy apartments or making deals with mobsters just to hear cheers. I got everything I wanted, and it was just..."

Mahmoud watched Creel hesitantly gather the pieces of the bag in his hands and roll them up. "I don't know. It got away from me. And then Whitehall got his hands on me and... I have a lot to make up for. Thanks to you, I have a chance to do it."

The younger man didn't seem to know what to say about that, so he just coughed. "So, uh, you said something about boxing? Cause, Steve's been teaching me a bit."

Creel, just as unnerved about how personal things had gotten, tossed the bag pieces away and grabbed another one. "Yeah, sure. You like boxing?"

"Ever since my first Rocky movie," Mahmoud replied as Creel put up the new bag. "Though Steve said it's really fake."

The bald man chuckled. "Yeah, lots of bobblehead dodges in that movie," At the confusion on his friend's face, Creel explained. "The way the boxers dodge in that movie is really choreographed, so they look like those little toys, you know? Always shifting their heads around a mile before anything happens."

"Ah," Mahmoud nodded. "Well, I always like those movies anyways, as well as a few anime and manga based on boxing. So I always wanted to learn. And since I have a chance, Steve was giving me a few pointers. I could use a hell of a lot more."

Creel nodded and picked up a pair of hand wraps and gloves, tossing them to Mahmoud, who blinked in surprise. Creel moved behind the bag, slapping at and gesturing at the Omnitrix user. "All right, take a couple of jabs, let's see what you learned."

The younger man blinked, then hurriedly rushed to wrap his hands. Creel winced. "Whoa, whoa, not like that. Here," Creel walked over and showed Mahmoud how to properly wrap his hands, then helped him put the gloves on. Once done, they went to the bag.

"Kay, let's see what you got," Creel tapped the bag again.

Mahmoud unleashed two punches.

"Again, but try to move your hips into it.

Two more.

"Don't push the bag. All the damage is in the initial impact, pushing it after does crap, kid. Again."

After ten minutes of that, Creel went for it. Back and forth, just focusing on the basics for the night.

Creel didn't dream when he went to sleep that night.

 _January 22nd, 2014_

 _ **Clint Barton/Hawkeye**_

Early in the morning, Clint yawned on his way to the kitchen, fully dressed in a shirt and khakis but still shaking off sleep. There were certain perks to being an Avenger. Free upgrades to weapons, top-of-the-line entertainment and tech in every part of the tower, a room with a bed so soft you could swim in it, and of course, the kitchen. A kitchen constantly maintained by Stark custodians, chefs, and personnel, not just keeping it clean, but filling the shelves with snacks and putting delicious homemade meals in the refrigerator and freezer, with room service provided just in case.

Clint was looking forward to a big breakfast when he walked into the kitchen.

Instead, he stopped, mouth open mid-yawn. "...What the hell?"

The entire kitchen had been devastated. The counters were open with all the bags of snack opened and emptied. The trash was full of wrappers from candy bars, bags that had once held chips, and broken glass that must have formerly been cups and bowls. Clint, feeling out of his depth, rushed over to the fridge, opening it with hope in his heart. That hope was stabbed in the throat and left to bleed out at his feet on the cold kitchen floor as he saw that the fridge had been emptied out of everything except condiments.

And yet, everything in the kitchen was clean. It was as though a tornado had eaten all of the food in the kitchen, then cleaned up after itself. Even the cereal boxes were gone.

Feeling befuddled and frustrated, striding through the halls, Clint walked into the next room, the lounge area set aside for everyone to watch movies, play video games, and do whatever they wanted to relax.

Once again he stopped, eyes wide.

In front of one of the screens currently being projected on, three people sat on the couch, all happily eating. The table before them was groaning under the massive amount of food placed upon it.

Thor, Hulk, and Jennifer. The Asgardian and two green giants sat side by side on a much-beleaguered couch. They were all also wearing bathrobes and fluffy slippers. Well, Thor was. Hulk's bathrobe had long since given up the fight and ripped apart to leave him in tatters of soft downy towel pieces, only his armor providing any sort of decency. Jennifer's robe technically fit, reaching only to mid-thigh, and leaving a hell of a lot of skin to be revealed.

All three superhumans looked up at Clint as he entered. Thor grinned, swallowing a mouthful of turkey from the leg he was holding. Nevermind that it was in the middle of the morning.

"Barton!" Thor waved at him. "Welcome my friend! Come, join us!"

"Uh, sure," Clint stepped into the room feeling as though he'd walked into the twilight zone. "What is all this?" Clint asked in confusion.

"Well," Jennifer, looked over at her cousin and Thor with a grin. "The big guy told me he never really got the chance to eat until Dial fed him, and Thor's never watched cartoons before," she chuckled. "Man, Thor. How crazy is it to know a god? He's definitely built like one." Jennifer flipped her hair over her shoulder and sent a flirtatious look Thor's way, which was returned with a hesitant smile.

"Yeah, yeah, you're all incredibly good-looking," Clint said casually. "So you decided to do what exactly?"

At that moment, the screen left commercial to go to a cartoon Clint, a father of two, was extremely familiar with.

" _Hahaha! Your question makes my shoulders bounce! Fireball!"_

As the four of them watched, a pixelated figure in a cartoon world unleashed a fireball from his hands as a boy wearing a hat with a blue pine tree symbol on it watched. _Gravity Falls._

"I like him," Thor explained calmly. "While I'm sure he won't become a permanent figure in the show, he has proven to be quite fun, with an attitude that I can relate to."

Once again, Thor was full of surprises.

"How about you?" Clint asked Hulk.

" _ **Hulk like Mabel!"**_ with that declaration, Hulk shoved a bunch of sugary cereal into his mouth with a serving spoon and crunched loudly.

"So you decided to do a morning marathon with sugary food?" Clint asked Jennifer.

The massive woman smirked. "Yeah. I mean, Jemma told me I can't gain weight anymore, so I decided to abuse it," with that, she grabbed a package of Double Stuf Oreo's and ripped it open to shove into her mouth, moaning happily.

Clint looked over the group. Three adults with superpowers acting like little kids... finally he was on familiar territory.

The father of two moved to sit next to Jennifer. "Move over, I love this episode."

Jennifer shifted over as Hulk took the package of Oreos from her, the long-haired woman leaning back in her and Thor laughing at the events on screen. Clint grabbed a slightly burnt breakfast burrito and sat down for the show.

 _ **Ava Starr/Ghost**_

Bill had been given a lab to himself in the Avengers Tower, with enough room for Ava's 'room', the glass chamber that supplied her with quantum energy to keep her alive, several computers, and a new machine shaped like a spiky ball as tall as a small child. Ava stood inside her room, watching through the distorted glass as Bill and Fitz worked at the new machine. The British man turned from it and walked up to Ava, waving at her with a smile.

"Okay!" Fitz yelled. Ava sighed. Despite her constantly saying otherwise, people refused to understand that she could still hear them perfectly fine through the glass, even if she hadn't been trained in lip reading. "The machine is going to use the quantum batteries we made to gather energy directly from the quantum realm and send it to you!"

"I already know all that," Ava said, crossing her arms and glowering. "Also, I can hear you fine."

"Oh. Good!" Fitz turned and went back to the machine, looking as though he was at a loss as to what to say to Ava afterward.

"Be nice to Dr. Fitz, Ava," Bill said to his adopted daughter. "He's been extremely helpful on this project."

As long as it worked. Ava clenched her teeth as she briefly tore apart, portions of her back stripping away in long lines of flesh erased from existence before slamming back into place. Her heart tore out of her chest, then returned. None of it was visible. But she could feel it.

"I have to say," Fitz told Bill. "I still think we should wait to do research on Big Chill before we-"

"I don't think that's necessary," Bill said, eyes twinkling. "Hit the switch."

Fitz hesitated. With a look of trepidation, he pressed a few buttons on the machine and finally hit the switch in question. Together the two scientists turned to look at the glass cage. Ava found herself feeling a bit nervous as the walls began to glow before hitting her with waves of energy. She felt nothing at first then a relieving sense of coolness began to fill her. She stood in the glass room for a moment, unable to understand what was happening. Then the pain, the sensation of skin and flesh ripped across dimensions over and over again, began to recede. She gasped at the _relief_ that filled her. Falling to her knees, Ava nearly cried in joy, staring as her hands began to stop shifting dimensions and solidify. For a moment, all was peaceful. That was before some _one_ slammed into her. From within the waves of energy, hitting her in her soul.

"YAAAAAAGH!"

"Ava!" Bill yelled in shock when Ava screamed in horror. Her eyes were wide in fear and agony as another mind slammed into her own. She tried to understand, to fight back, to do something. But this mind was _powerful_. This mind was a survivor.

And it was also kind. When it realized what was happening, it receded. Not before Ava saw her. In her thoughts, on the waves of quantum energy pouring into her.

Then the machine was turned off. Ava panted, tears of pain pouring down her cheeks. Bill opened the door and rushed into the glass cage, leaning down to hug her. "Ava! What happened?"

"I-" Ava swallowed reflexively. "S-She was... Who was that?"

"Who?" Bill looked over at Fitz, who put his hands on his head, looking befuddled. "Ava, no one else was in the cage."

"I-I felt her!" Ava shook in her adopted father's arms. "Someone, I don't, she was...She was so strong... she's still in there... Who is Janet?"

Bill froze, eyes widening in realization. Thinking furiously, he looked over at Fitz. "Dr. Fitz, please call Director Hill immediately," Bill said, forcing himself to stay calm through his fear for Ava. "I think things have gotten complicated. I... God damn it."

As Fitz took out his phone and dialed Coulson to connect to the Director, Bill rubbed a hand on his face. "We need a consultant."

 _ **Frank Castle/Punisher**_

Inside the _Enterprise's_ barracks, Frank Castle was packing up a bag when Captain America walked up to him. "Hey, Frank," Steve said, wearing his casual gear, though his famous shield rested on his back. "Thanks for all the work you've been doing. We all really appreciate it."

Frank did a slow smile at that. "Well uh, it's an honor to hear that from you, sir. You headed home?"

Steve chuckled. "No, uh, home is the tower, really. I usually just take a room there. It's easier that way."

For just a moment, Frank had no idea how to respond to that. Captain America living in a tower just waiting for next mission. On some level, Frank felt like the idea of that called to him, but on the other hand."

"No offense, sir, but that sounds depressing as hell," Frank finally said.

Steve looked surprised, then barked out a laugh. He shook his head, chuckling. "Well, it kinda was for a while," he admitted. "But now the tower is kind of full of people, so I usually end up having someone to talk to. I'll look into getting my own place down the road, but this is good. How about you, Frank? Where's home?"

For a moment, a memory came up. His wife, asking the same question. Frank pushed away the memory. "I, uh, live right down there," Frank pointed at the floor, indicating New York City below the helicarrier. "I was born there, actually. Hell's Kitchen."

"No kidding?" Steve said, moving to sit on a nearby bunk. "Me too. Well, Brooklyn. Born and raised there."

As though Frank didn't know, hadn't read everything about Steve's life the second he got the chance to work for the man. Captain America's house was preserved by the city, including his room with the drawing he'd made before heading to the war. Here he was, a living legend, and he didn't seem to know it.

"Bit tough to get a place there now," Steve said with a wince. "Prices kind of skyrocketed there."

"What, can't just ask for it?" Frank asked, only half-joking.

Steve chuckled. "Nah, I don't want BRIDGE giving me a place. Rather get one of my own."

That was something Frank could respect. He finished packing his bag and stopped at the sight of a photograph. Maria, Frank Jr., and Lisa. His family. Frank turned and handed the photo to Steve. "There. That's home," Frank said, trying to feel as certain as he sounded.

On taking the photo, Steve smiled. "Your family."

"Yeah," Frank shrugged his bag onto his shoulder and pointed at the three one by one. "Maria, my wife. Frank Jr., and Lisa," Frank couldn't hide the pride he felt at the sight of his children.

"Gotta say, Frank, your kids look a lot cuter than you," Steve teased, handing Frank the photo back.

Frank chuckled. "Fuck you, Steve," Frank took the photo and stared at it. "You know, uh..." the soldier hesitated.

"Frank?" Cap asked curiously.

"Nothing, nothing, it's just... Sometimes I feel like I, uh, like I don't deserve them," Frank put the photo in his pocket. "I mean, the things I did, in Afghanistan, they weren't what I wanted. I was supposed to be a soldier, and, uh," Frank rubbed at his nose. "Shit, no idea why I'm saying this."

"No, I get it," Steve said, his voice filled with sympathy, though not in a pitying way. "You can't understand unless you've been there. During the war, we had to do things, make compromises for the greater good."

Frank huffed a laugh with no humor to it. "Greater good. Cap, the shit I did wasn't for the greater good. I just followed orders. And I'm starting to feel like I shouldn't have."

He turned and left, moving quickly. Steve called out to him, confused. Frank ignored him and left.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

The day after letting Jennifer get out to see the world, I was rushed into a Quinjet with a large group, sent out to the middle of nowhere with dozens of machines set up across the pavement of the defunct army base we were at. It was tropical, with palm trees, sun, and the smell of fish coming from the distance, but I had no idea where exactly we were. Probably Florida though, since California beaches were crap.

Besides myself, there were dozens of BRIDGE personnel around the base setting things up for the tests. I was sitting on the roof of a hanger by myself watching as everyone came in.

A big APC came in as I watched it roll past the lines of heavy machine guns and stop at a designated parking spot. The big metallic black vehicle was immediately surrounded by guys with big guns, a pair of gray tanks rolling to point at it.

 **Boom!**

I jumped when the hangers roof shook at the impact of something big hitting it behind me. I turned to see She-Hulk walking towards me, leaving a giant dent from her landing. "Still working on those landings?" I asked, my legs swinging over the edge.

"Yeah, but I'm having fun anyways," the towering gamma-enhanced woman flashed her white teeth and stepped over across the rooftop on bare green-skinned feet until she was looming over me. Tony had quickly designed a costume for her in the shape of a one-piece swimsuit-like thing in dark purple colors and it seemed to fit her pretty well. She flopped down next to me, swinging her legs in cadence with mine. "So, what's up?"

"The 'prisoners'," I used my fingers for quote marks. "Have arrived. Now we just wait for the puppies and the volunteers and we're in business."

"Can't wait," She-Hulk grinned down at the area below. "So my cousin told me you can change into aliens? What's that like?"

"Like moving your second brain with the muscles you've had your whole life," she blinked at my response before snorting. I grinned at her. "It's using a body no human has ever experienced as though you had it your whole life. Seriously, it's like... actually, sometimes it's like being you," I explained. "One second I'm in my normal body, the next I'm supercharged," I thought of Frankenstrike and Feedback. "Sometimes literally. Then there are the weird powers, like being able to make indestructible crystals grow at will. Like, I can _feel_ how I'm making it happen, but it's not in any way I can really explain."

The green musclebound woman flipped her hair back, the long locks falling across her back. "That sounds sort of crazy. But then, my whole life has gotten pretty crazy since waking up yesterday."

"You don't get used to it," I said, talking to freaking **She-Hulk** while wearing an Omnitrix and watching a spy organization I'd helped rebuild prepare to test superhumans. "Seriously, the whole point of BRIDGE is to connect people with the weird world around them. Granted, your case is a bit more literal than we would have wanted."

She laughed, then looked at me curiously. "I gotta say, you don't seem as weirded out around me as everyone else. I mean, you still look at my rack, sure."

Cue my sputtering reaction. Damn it, I was trying my best here, she was just so... _there_. I'm only human... most of the time at least.

"But you also don't act all freaked out like everyone else, either," she finished. She'd noticed my sputtering, but only smirked at me in response to it. "So what's up? You see a lot of women like me?"

"A few," I answered without thinking. Superheroes almost always seem to fit in some level of super-attractive. Well, except for me. Which kinda sucked. "But it's mostly because I kind of expected it."

"What does that mean?" she asked, confused.

Before I could explain, Thor landed on the pavement from out of nowhere, Hulk hitting the area next to him right afterward with one of his 'softer' landings. Following that, another APC came in.

"That's our cue," I told Jennifer. "Do you mind helping me down?"

"Can't you just change into an alien and get down that way?" she asked.

"Kind of a waste of time and charge for a jump of... what is this, twenty feet up? Anyway, could you please...?"

"Sure," she got up along with me and grabbed me under my shoulders before jumping off the hanger with me in tow. Her feet hit the floor with a slight boom that startled a few soldiers to point rifles at us before they calmed, and she gently put me down.

"Thanks, Glamazon," I said, a smile coming to my face when she mouthed 'Glamazon?' in confusion. Oh, just wait, Walters. I got a whole list of nicknames made from decades of comics just waiting in the background.

We walked up to Thor and Hulk.

"Ah, Mahmoud, Jennifer!" Thor called, waving at us. "You got here early!"

"Yeah, I didn't have too much else going on today," I said.

" _ **When fight?"**_ Hulk growled.

"Soon," I told him, vibrations moving through my legs when he grumbled in response.

"Don't worry," Thor told Hulk. "If the reports are true, this will be fun. A true bout!"

"Here's hoping," Jennifer said behind me.

An SUV rolled past the gates then. The large car with a BRIDGE logo on the side came up to us and stopped. The driver got out followed by a few bodyguards, waiting for them to surround the car. Once the bodyguards were done, the driver opened the back door and Victoria Hand stepped out. She eyed us with confidence and walked over.

"Thor. Hulk. Dial... have you been given a codename yet, Mrs. Walters?" Victoria asked.

"Uh," Jennifer shrugged. "No. Is that required?"

"It's good for marketing purposes. And for selling action figures," I quipped.

" _ **She-Hulk,"**_ Hulk said, the ground rumbling with his declaration.

"Not the most creative name," Jennifer said. Which... yeah, that was fair. "Eh, it works."

Victoria scowled. Apparently, the fact Jennifer clearly didn't care about codenames annoyed her. Then again, Victoria, of all BRIDGE people I'd met in this world, was the closest to her counterpart in being a stiff no-nonsense sort of woman. In other words, the opposite of Jennifer.

"Very well... _She-Hulk._ Please, prepare to intervene with the others. While I know you aren't a combatant by nature, the possibility of one of the prisoners escaping is low enough that we can risk having you on guard. Dial, please prepare one of your more powerful transformations. I'd suggest... _Four Arms,_ " she said the name with the sort of tone you'd hear the word 'vomit'. Apparently, she wasn't a fan of Ben's nicknames for his aliens. Just wait until she saw Upchuck.

I decided to ignore her clear distaste and just brought up the menu on my Omnitrix.

"Okay," Victoria looked at the four of us before looking at the BRIDGE personnel in front of the APC's. "Let out the first group."

Thor twirled his hammer and grinned, ready for whatever may come.

"Is this really necessary?" I asked. "I mean, they made a deal, you know?"

"Three of them made a deal," Victoria said. "One was captured by you and made a deal afterward. Make no mistake, I don't trust that they'll remain loyal to SHI-BRIDGE," she stumbled slightly on the last word. "If any of them try to escape custody, take them down," she frowned. "Um. Please."

"Wow, surprised you didn't choke on that 'please'," Jennifer said sarcastically. When Victoria glared at her, Jennifer only smiled back.

Huh. The two would make a good sitcom duo. Victoria as the no-nonsense one and Jennifer as the fun party girl, with the two constantly annoying the crap out of each other. Hell, I'd watch it.

As I thought up the newest hit on ABC, the first APC was opened, releasing a huge group of men armed and armored up for battle. They surrounded the area, pointing at the APC.

Following them came four people, all of them wearing black prison uniforms. First was Marian Pouncy, the concrete crunching beneath her feet as she hopped out. Melissa Gold came out first, the tiny woman almost hiding in the shadow of her giant friend. Helen Feliciano followed, the only Grappler I'd yet to meet. And fight. She looked around cockily before seeing Hulk and giving the big guy a grin.

The last person stepped out, saw me, and made a beeline in my direction. After an initial feeling of panic, I started walking towards her as well.

"Dial!" Victoria shouted in surprise.

I ignored her as the men with guns pointed at me in favor of meeting the woman across from me in the middle. She stared up at me, searching my face as I did the same.

"Hey, Davida," I finally said.

The woman known as Titania smiled. "Huh. You haven't changed much."

"Neither have you," I looked over at Marian, Melissa, and Helen, who walked up to join us, then back at her, trying to channel Rath's toughness. "They're worried that you might try to run. Am I gonna have to worry about that too? Cause if so, I'll put mine up against yours."

Thor laughed a deep belly laugh as he joined us. "Indeed! I'd take that bet," his smile became challenging. Helen eyed him while Marian just looked nervous.

Hulk and She-Hulk came up to join us, and the eight of us shared glances as Victoria Hand and BRIDGE personnel watched nervously. Davida only chuckled after an awkward silence. "Yeah, we'll play nice. You guys saved my girl after all," Davida nodded towards Helen, who suddenly looked embarrassed.

"Cool," I looked over at Thor, who nodded at me.

"Does that mean we don't get to fight?" Jennifer seemed disappointed.

"On the contrary," Victoria said, walking up to join us, looking a bit peeved. "After our initial test, you will engage each other in a series of spars."

"Um," Marian lifted a hand up, looking very shy. "Is it okay if I go last, then? I just, I don't deal with crowds very well," she looked around at the large group around us with more uneasiness than a woman of her size and power should have. It was adorable.

" _ **It okay,"**_ Hulk growled, trying to sound comforting. **_"Hulk same way."_**

"Just..." Victoria rubbed a hand on her face. "Just go over there," she said, waving at a hanger.

"Hmm," Thor mused as we followed her directions. "She isn't the most... relaxed person, is she?"

Looking back at Victoria as we went towards the hanger, I decided to just focus on the tests.

Time to punch big things!

 _Author's Note:_ This chapter was originally going to have the fight scenes, but it ended up being pretty big, so I decided to leave it here. Hopefully, it's meaty enough for you guys as is.

I'm trying to be careful to make the characteristics of the Grapplers stand out, so the next chapter will be focused on the different Grapplers interacting with the four shown in this story. So not so much on the interludes next chapter, just focus on this testing until the fights are done.


	49. Chapter 49

When we walked into the hanger, four large machines had been set up in the center of the empty space within. I recognized them easily since I'd designed them. Well, Jury Rigg, Tony, and Fitz had designed them. If you could call throwing scrap at Jury Rigg and seeing what he made 'designing'. Victoria came in and looked us over. "Dial, you know how these machines work better than anyone besides Stark and Fitz. What do you suggest?"

I thought about that for a moment. "Take it in pairs. One person holds the machine, the other hits it," I flashed back to boxing with Creel. "And of course, the people would have to be within the same realm of strength. So..." I looked over the group before just outsourcing it. "Davida, you know you girls best. Who should match with who?"

"Well, I already know we make a good match," Davida said suggestively. I sighed in annoyance as She-Hulk gave me an intrigued look while Helen and Melissa chuckled, Marian giggling. "But... I should pair with Thor. Marian with Hulk. Helen with... the green... lady?" Davida looked at Jennifer in befuddlement before shrugging it off. "And Melissa with you."

Made sense. Of the group, Melissa and I were the closest to natural humans. She was only about at physically powerful as a Centipede soldier, which, though it was a lot more badass than I was, was closer to the realm of human than the others were. Besides, I wasn't planning to be human.

"Okay, go ahead," Victoria nodded towards the machines.

"What exactly are we doing?" Helen asked, the tall blonde looking at Thor.

"We're punching big things," I said simply, moving to a machine in the center. Melissa followed me, the others joining.

I tapped the front of the machine, which was just a massive plate of flat gray metal. The center of the machine was attached with giant screws to the ground, the whole thing a big pillar of metal with a blue light glowing within. The back of the machine was built with grooves for a body of varying sizes, from Four Arms to Songbird in size. "Tony designed most of it. It's called the 'Hit Calculator'. One person punches this end. The other holds the machine from the back. The machine should be able to take forces up to a little over one million tons thanks to all the stuff we put in to make it work and will give calculations even if it does end up destroyed. I based it off something from Dragonball Z."

"Dragon-what?" Helen asked.

Apparently, everyone else was just as lost to the reference. Philistines, the lot of them.

"Anyway, hit the plate, hold the back, and so on," I turned and walked towards the one on the end, leaving the other pairs to pick their own hit calculator. Thor and Davida took the one further left, then Hulk and Marian, She-Hulk and Helen, Melissa and I.

"So, uh, who goes first?" Melissa asked me.

"You," I said, flipping through the Omnitrix menu. "Since you and I aren't superhuman, technically anyway, we don't really have to spot each other, so I'll just merge with the machine and let you take shots at me," with that, I pressed down on the watch.

"Upgrade!"

"Merge?" Melissa blinked up at me before smiling. "Oh, I like this one! He's cuter than the Frankenstein one."

My central eye blinked at her, my robotic voice coming out a moment later. "Uh... thanks? Anyway..."

I flowed into the hit calculator and filled the gaps within it, focusing on precision. Once done, a tendril holding my head rose up to look at her. "Okay! Give me your best shot!"

She stared at me, her smile fading. "Oh. Yeah, it's not as cute anymore."

"What? What did I do wrong?"

"I mean, seeing you go all goopy like that was kind of gross," Melissa said, her nose scrunching in disgust. "Uh, no offense."

"All the offense," I said, not knowing why exactly I was so hurt. "Look, just hit me already."

"Fine, fine," Melissa pulled a fist back and unleashed a devastating blow to the center of the plate.

1845 pounds of force. Daaaaayum.

"Was that your best?" I asked curiously, kind of in awe in how much raw power her tiny form had.

She frowned at me, apparently misinterpreting things. "What, you challenging me!?"

"What? No, I just-"

"You got it! Ya!"

 **Boom! Boom! Boom!**

Melissa was apparently the sort of person to get fired up really quickly, because she started unleashing a hail of punches. If this were an anime, I'd have a sweatdrop on my robotic forehead at the sight of her hitting 'my' pressure plate as fast and hard as she could. Well, she was certainly eager.

 _ **Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk**_

"She's really going for it," She-Hulk noted. She was standing next to Helen, watching as the petite peroxide blonde on the machine next to theirs continued to punch and yell with an almost melodious tone in time with each hit. "She's kind of... singing?"

"Yeah, Melissa has always been like that," Helen looked up at the taller woman. "It's why we named her 'Songbird'," her voice became fond and soft for a moment. "Always singing in the middle of a fight without meaning to," Helen clapped her hands as though scaring off errant thoughts. "So, who goes first?"

She-Hulk smirked. "How about you go ahead and start hitting it? You'll want me tired when I go."

The blonde narrowed her eyes, a dangerous smile on her lips. "Is that so? I would want to hurt you."

"Sweetie, I'm a Hulk," She-Hulk smirked. "That comes with a couple of perks... beyond the obvious ones," Jennifer said, thrusting her chest out with a smug smile.

"Oh I know," Helen turned and walked over to the machine. "Come on. Let's see what it takes to deflate that ego of yours, honey."

She-Hulk took a spot behind the machine, her hands wrapping to support it. The blonde and green haired superhumans shared challenging looks before Helen hit the machine.

And Jennifer blinked in surprise at the incredible impact she felt on her shoulders, feet digging slightly into concrete. Helen smirked. "Too much?"

She-Hulk rallied, a bright and cheery look on her face even as her eyes narrowed. "As long as you start actually hitting me, rather than fitting into the dumb blonde stereotype."

Helen hit it again, She-Hulk gritting her teeth.

"What, you straining?" Helen said, hitting the machine again.

"Babe, you really need to stop worrying about breaking your nails."

For about one minute, Helen kept hitting the machine as She-Hulk supported it. By the end, both women were beginning to sweat. Then they switched places, the ground quaking within the warehouse as She-Hulk's massively powerful blows joined those of the others in the room.

And all throughout, the two women continued to needle each other, very similar looks of challenge on their faces.

 _ **Marian Pouncy/Poundcake**_

 _ **"**_ _ **You hit good,"**_ Hulk complement Marian as the shorter but still massive superhuman 'boxed' with the machine they were both working on.

"Thank you," Marian said politely, blushing.

The two giants had yet to switch. Hulk had been holding the machine for Marian to hit for a little while, supporting it as she left dents in the machine. Which was impressive, considering the material the machine was made of was specifically built to withstand the Hulk. Granted, it hadn't been tested against him yet, but it said something about Marian's power.

Marian did another blow, a scientist behind her stumbling when the ground shook, before looking at the Hulk.

"I didn't know you could... you know, talk."

 _ **"**_ _ **Hulk learned. Banner let Hulk out and Hulk learn. Speaking is hard,"**_ Hulk admitted. _ **"Hulk always angry. Can't think sometimes. Always want to hit and fight everything. But Hulk learn."**_

Marian frowned, confused. "What does that mean, Banner 'let you out'? I thought you were Bruce Banner, and Hulk was your code...name..." Marian stopped hitting the machine in favor of staring at Hulk as his grip on the machine began to leave grooves in the metal.

Hulk stared at her, his eyes filled with glimmering shades of green anger. His mouth was twisted into an ugly grimace. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, clearly trying to calm.

 _ **"**_ _ **Hulk and Banner different. Banner scientist. Hulk fighter. Work together, but same,"**_ Hulk still seemed angry, but he was clearly trying to keep from lashing out.

Marian swallowed. "W-Well, that's fine. I was just confused."

 _ **"**_ _ **Bruce say same, in Hulk head,"**_ Hulk tried to soften his voice. _**"Hulk... I'm sorry. I just get so mad. People say Hulk and Bruce same, but..."**_

"It's okay," Marian seemed at a loss as to what to say. "Do you uh, do you want a turn to hit this thing, let off some steam?"

 _ **"**_ _ **Hulk try,"**_ Hulk let go of the machine and moved around, Marian moving to grab it. He got into a rough fighting stance with instruction from Bruce. He unleashed a blow, and his fist left an imprint on the machine. Marian winced while her feet cracked the concrete, but she and the machine held. If anything, Marian seemed to find a bit of joy at the sudden realization that she was having trouble with the weight of Hulk's blows. After more powerful hits began to strain her muscles, Marian spoke.

"You know, you should tell people that," Marian said hesitantly. "I mean, I have a lot of trouble talking to people, but Davida helped me keep doing it when I was in high school so I could help teach the younger kids to learn how to wrestle and so I could make friends. If you tell people, maybe they'll know how to treat you?"

Hulk hit the machine again, frowning in thought. After a moment though, he shrugged it off. Instead, he pulled back his fist, focusing before throwing another powerful hit, the machine buckling slightly with the blow and Marian struggling to hold it down. Hulk threw another blow and another.

 _ **Thor Odinson/God of Thunder**_

"Fuck," Davida mumbled at the sight of Hulk's power, stopping her own punches. She shook her head. "Maybe I should have done that instead of letting Marian take over..."

"I don't believe your friend would like that," Thor noted. He looked at Davida, who had shifted into her larger form, standing about the size of Marian now. "If I may ask, how is that you and your friends became so close?"

Davida looked at the Asgardian with a frown. "Is this really the time for my life story?"

"I find that it is always a good time for the right story," Thor responded. "But if you don't want to tell me, I won't be offended," he said with a charismatic smile.

"...Okay, just hold the machine for me first."

Thor politely dropped Mjolnir behind the machine, then placed his shoulder to it. Davida unleashed an experimental blow, which Thor took with ease. Satisfied, she began to drum the machine with blows as she spoke.

"We all went to the same school back in the day," Davida explained. "Joined the wrestling team together, and got pretty close. But one day, on our way to a wrestling meet, a car smashed into the bus. Drunk guy with a Humvee and no sense. The four of us got lucky, got sent to the right experimental facility. The rest of our team died that night, but we went into a coma," Davida looked over at Helen, who was currently arguing good-naturedly with Jennifer. Davida smiled. "Helen was the first of us to wake up. According to her, the second she realized she had superpowers, she went into mercenary work to fund our surgeries. When I woke up, I helped her. We saved money for a place, since our families were either dead or worthless, and made sure that when Mimi and Marian woke up, they'd have a home to go to. When they woke up, well," Davida kicked the machine, Thor easily supporting it against the impact. "We stuck together. I mean, we aren't exactly good people. But we have each others backs, always."

Thor gave her a look Davida didn't know how to respond to. "That is quite a story. And as a mercenary, you fought in many battles?"

"A few," Davida spun to smash her elbow into the pressure plate. "We tried to keep under the radar, make sure our powers were kept secret, but we ended up clashing with other supers over the years on one mission or another. There was this guy in China I had to fight with before some blind guy teleported him out."

"I'd love to hear about that sometime," Thor told her, smiling.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

Melissa stopped punching the machine and rested her hand on her knees, bending to grin at me as I separated from the object she'd been beating on. "There! How did that feel?"

"Impressive," I admitted, not willing to anger the tiny songstress. I tapped the Omnitrix on my chest and changed to my human form to save power. "You're absolutely stronger than I am as a human."

She grinned in response, looking me up and down before frowning. "Oh. You're not that strong, are you?"

"Not compared to all the super-soldiers running around these days," I looked over at the machine. "But even then, you're above most of the worlds strongest recorded weightlifters, that's for sure. I guess we should trade partners around now, though."

"Why's that?" Melissa asked, crossing her arms and looking up at me.

"Well, I'm planning to switch over to Rath to get his strength rating, so-"

"Rath!" Melissa gave me a smile I didn't like. "Got it, one second!"

She turned and rushed off, ignoring the guards in the hangar watching her in favor of running past everyone to get to Davida and Thor, calling to the Grappler's leader. Melissa spoke with her for a while, then Davida looked up at me and smiled, Thor looking intrigued.

The three walked up to join me as I groaned in annoyance. Yeah, should have expected this.

"So I hear you're changing into my fiancee," Davida said as soon as she got close. In her larger form she towered over everyone except Hulk and Jennifer, and since the only person shorter than me in our group was Melissa, the effect was especially pronounced as she leaned over to look down at me.

"I'm changing into the guy who beat you like a rented drum after you mind-controlled him, yes," I said, having planned out my response as Davida had walked over.

She winced, then shrugged. "Yeah, okay. That's fair. I guess I'll spot you."

"Please do," I said tersely. No, I was not still made about being mind controlled and proposing, whatever do you mean?

With a twirl of the Omnitrix, I pushed down on the dial and grew a fresh coat of orange and black hair.

 **"** **Rath!"**

I cracked my knuckles and looked over at Davida. "Let me tell you something Titania of the Grapplers! You better be ready, because Rath is going to hit this machine so hard that other machines will cheer! AND THEN WE SHOULD GET MARRIED!" I paused. "Wait, Rath doesn't want to get married! Why did Rath say that?!"

"Are you broken?" Melissa asked, sounding as though she had no idea what to think. Davida, standing behind the hit calculator, blinked at me, her eyes very clearly not red.

"Rath doesn't know! Rath might have unspoken romantic issues," honestly befuddled, I decided to discard the complications and just-

 **Bam!**

Oh hey, I hit the machine before I finished thinking.

I hit it again and again, my claws and fists contacting metal with loud clanging noises. Davida took the blows on her shoulder, gritting her teeth as I put my hips into it.

Thor, in the meantime, looked over at Melissa. "I don't understand. Mind control? Davida can control people?" Thor seemed disturbed by that. No wonder, if he'd ended up in conflict with Enchantress in this universe he would have a good idea of what we were talking about.

"It's more like she makes people fall in love with her?" Melissa explained hesitantly. At the darkening expression on Thor's face, Melissa rubbed the back of her head. "If it helps, she doesn't use the power anymore?"

"I should hope not," Thor said. "It's not a very honorable way to fight."

"Rath agrees!" I shouted, grinning at the embarrassed look on Davida's face. "A fight should be with fists and muscles, and sometimes kicking! One on one, until one person is beaten down in the dirt and eats it like they like it! THAT'S THE ONLY WAY A FIGHT SHOULD GO!" I finished my statement with my fist claw extended and stabbing into the Hit Calculator like a hot knife through butter before ripping a decent chunk out.

Yeah, self-control was hard as Rath. Honestly, I don't think Appoplexians had a word for self-control.

"Well said!" Thor cheered, punching my shoulder with a loud boom as we laughed boisterously together. "I love this form!"

"Rath likes you too, Thor Odinson, God-of-Thunder-with-blonde-hair!"

"Now there's two of them," Davida mumbled. "Great."

After that, we were going to switch around once Rath's score had been raised, but we were interrupted when Victoria called Thor and I aside, bringing us to a room deeper in the hanger we'd been working in. It was just a spartan room with nothing but a crappy wooden desk, though the way Victoria was leaning against it, the thing might as well have been a throne.

"We're ready," Victoria said as soon as I walked in. "While the others will be testing with the Graveyard survivors, we've set up an area in the desert to test your Asgardian form. Will you need time to recharge?"

I nodded my head. "Yeah, so you should give me around ten minutes before we start. So what will this entail?"

Victoria pointed outside a window. "We have some satellites and cameras set up to record everything that will happen around you for a mile radius, as well as check on weather patterns and energy reading. We've taken all the precautions we could, and emptied out the desert for miles around."

"That may be for the best," Thor said. "I have no idea what I'm doing."

"Same," I agreed.

Victoria looked between us, opening and closing her mouth. After a bit of that, she sighed, closed her eyes, and rubbed her forehead muttering to herself. "God help me, Coulson is so much better at this... Please go and start the test."

"Sure thing," I said, hiding my amusement at Victoria's annoyance.

A while later, Thor and I alone stood in the middle of the wasteland, waiting for the flares firing off that would signal the test starting. So we passed the time doing something I'd always wanted to try.

"Ugh!" I tugged, hard. Nothing. I did it again, but it was as though the thing weighed a million pounds! It didn't even budge. I laughed, stepping away from Mjolnir. "Yeah, I figured."

Thor gave me a cocky look and stepped forward to easily lift the hammer off of the desert floor. "Don't feel bad. Even the greatest warriors can't lift it. Though I am curious to see if changing forms will change your worthiness."

"Probably not. My mind is still the same. Or my soul, or pride, or whatever Mjolnir reads," I thought for a moment. Well, maybe the more robotic forms like Upgrade or Clockwork could do it? Did inanimate objects or robotic creatures count? But Vision and Ultron had never been able to lift the hammer in the comics. Wait, had they? In some comic I hadn't read yet? Damn it, I wish I had the Marvel Wikia on hand...

"Mahmoud," Thor said hesitantly, getting my attention. "I need to tell you that I am not sure how this may go. Asgardians... The meaning of our existence is strange to describe. My father might have some idea of how this will go but I don't."

I blinked. "Okay. So you're saying..."

"Be ready for anything," Thor said simply. He hesitated. "Mahmoud. What do you believe most represents you? When you think of yourself, your actions, who are you, at your core?"

That threw me even more. "Wait, are you saying that you think I'll change based on my personality?"

"As I said, I'm not sure," Thor shook his head. "We are, unfortunately, in uncharted waters."

Damn it, I hadn't even changed and the Asgardian form had already made me bewildered to all hell.

The flares went off then. We shared a look before I lifted up the Omnitrix and hesitantly flipped through the menu. On reaching the Asgardian form, I stopped to think about the possibilities before me. Then I pressed down on the dial.

And the change began. In that timeless instant, I felt the changes come. It was by far the weirdest transformation so far.

I felt my height rise until I had an inch on Thor, my muscles filling until I was only slightly less bulky then he was. Then my muscles felt as though they began to get filled with lead, becoming heavier and heavier as the dried out wasteland earth beneath me shifted at the increase in my density. I felt something within me shift. I couldn't explain it. It was like a new organ grew in my chest, one somehow connected to the world around me. My clothes changed in the flash of green light, my normal shirt being replaced by a white metal on my upper chest and a black shirt beneath the armor that felt as though it was made of a smooth and cool liquid. A long red piece of cloth that wrapped around my waist with one end going down along my right leg was matched by the one wrapped around my shoulders, the cloth going down my back. My pants were like some combination of Thor's and something Aladdin would have worn, black scale on top of white cloth, with boots the exact same as Thor's. A pair of black gauntlets rested on each of my forearms, the Omnitrix glowing brightly on my left arm.

 **"** **Asgarditen!"**

Wait, really? That was what I could come up with on short notice? Damn, need to come up with a better name than that. I'd brainstorm later. Even Ben had to rename a couple after all.

I felt so strange. Like I was me, but more. It was an unnerving feeling, being in my body but better.

I looked down at myself, rubbing at the carvings on my new white chestplate. "Thor, are these... Arabic?"

"Some of it," Thor stepped forward, looking intrigued. "But the rest is all different languages. Including my own," he tapped the lower part of the armor, where my ribs ended. "There, that's, old. I have no idea what that means. But I've seen it once."

I frowned, then tried to move around a bit. Arms, legs, neck, everything was working. Except it felt a thousand times stronger. All the little aches and pains that came with being human were gone, replaced with the incredible strength of this new form.

"So, uh, what should I do?" I asked.

"Hmm," Thor rubbed his bearded chin. Then he put Mjolnir down and walked towards me. "Well, let's see how strong you are."

Then Thor, the God of Thunder, punched me in the face. A shockwave followed the impact, and I staggered back with a pained shout. For a moment, I blinked at the feeling coming from my jaw.

Something within me roared to the forefront. Anger that felt like some combination of the rage I could feel as Rath and Four Arms. The sheer power that Rath's anger could rise too, combined with the code of honor in my DNA when I changed into Four Arms. Righteous anger, burning in my soul.

So I punched Thor in the face, sending another shockwave outward and staggering Thor.

"Oh shit!" I shouted, shocked at my own action as the founding Avenger blinked in surprise. "Thor, I am so sorry, my friend, I simply lost control of myself. Are you well?"

I blinked. "Wait, has my method of speech changed? Or..." I focused on my speech. "Okay, no, that's the placebo effect. Seriously, are you okay, dude?"

Thor laughed, rubbing his chin. "Yes, I'm fine. Well, you are quite strong," Thor winced. "Actually, more than I expected. Like I was just hit by Volstagg."

I felt a bit of pride at that, being compared to arguably the strongest of the Warriors Three. A tightness in my chest seemed to ease as I thought about that comparison and saw Thor's pride in me.

"Okay, let's see what else you've got," Thor stepped forward and swung his fist again. I blocked it on my arm, working on some instinct deep within me to follow with a counter-punch Thor parried. He kicked me in the chest, sending me flying into a thorny bush. The thorns snapped against my tough skin. I rolled through the bush and down a rocky hill before rising to press my booted feet against the light brown earth. Thor was in mid-leap with a punch aimed at my face. I dodged to the side, letting him crater the earth behind me, then grabbed his shoulders and spun around to throw him at a boulder, which shattered.

"Come on!" I shouted, the power getting to my head a bit.

"Yes!" Thor cheered, ignoring the boulder he'd turned to gravel, speeding forward and smashing into my waist, his massive arms squeezing. "Show me what you can really do!"

"Yaagh!" I lifted my arms and dropped my fists into Thor's back. He shouted, then lifted me up and German suplexed me into the ground, cratering it.

I barely felt it. I wasn't as strong as Four Arms, but I was damn powerful, enough that Thor, despite hurting me, was only giving me an average bruising.

I twisted around and punched Thor in the chest, the ground nearby splitting apart as the sand around us rose. Thor grabbed my shoulders and headbutted me, thunder sounding out in the distance before lightning struck.

"Damn!" I scowled, my nose stinging from his blow. Something inside me reveled in the pain, a strange burning sense of anger within me. I ducked the next one and uppercut him back, more sand from the wasteland around us shaking, filling the air with dust that I could somehow see through.

"Well done!" Thor cheered, grinning as he stepped in and blocked my next blow, backhanding me away. "Come, Mahmoud! Show me what you really have!"

He punched me again, and I growled before kicking him back, the world quaking with the hit.

Above us, a storm gathered, hot wind and sand flying around us as we battled. Something within felt that was appropriate for a fight between Dial and Thor.

 _ **Victoria Hand/Vice-Director of SHI-BRIDGE**_

Victoria stared at a screen before her with the image of the section of desert that Dial and Thor were 'sparring' in, her eyes wide.

On the screen, two massive swirling vortexes like localized storms were clashing. The helpful computer program measuring things identified them as unusual weather patterns. One was identified as the kind Thor had created a few times. The other, however, was new, because the wind surrounding it seemed a symptom of the power behind it.

"Make sure to update the weather warnings," Victoria said to one of the scientists in the room, looking at a window nearby as rain and sand bounced off the glass. "We don't want people in one of the nearby towns freaking out."

 _ **Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk**_

"This is because of Thor?!" She-Hulk shouted at Hulk, who only nodded seriously.

The two were standing in the hanger, watching as the world outside seemed to go insane. As they stood there watching lightning cross the gray clouds above and felt the ground shake, a Quinjet landed nearby and opened the back. Creel and Steve came out of the jet in their 'costumes' quickly running over to join them when hail began to fall and hot desert winds picked up tumbleweed to send it flying across the tarmac.

"What is this?!" Steve yelled as soon as he was close, holding his shield over his head to let the ice falling from the sky bounce off. "We were supposed to help with the Graveyard survivors when the weather went nuts?!"

"Thor was supposed to train Dial in his Asgardian form!" She-Hulk yelled.

"You think Dial got his powers?!" Creel shouted over the storm around them, the man switching to a steel form so he could ignore the granules of sand hitting everything.

 _ **"**_ _ **No,"**_ Hulk declared, the tall green giant said, his eyes on the storm above. _**"Different... New."**_

"Since when are you insightful?" Creel mumbled to himself, watching as the Quinjet that had brought them began to shake under the winds assaulting it.

 _ **Name Forgotten**_

Far away, in a nursing home called Shady Acres, an elderly man's eyes snapped open, gazing on the sky above New York City. Within him, something snapped into focus.

Then it faded away. Whatever clarity that had suddenly filled him slowly left, only embers remaining. A small smile rose on the man's face as his mind was once again taken from him.

But the tiniest of cracks had appeared, far earlier than it would have before.

Sadly, a crack which anyone could take advantage of.

The shadows of the world felt change rise and were changed in return as the wind picked up.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

Thor lifted me up and slammed my back onto the floor. I gasped out, spittle flying out of my mouth.

Something was wrong. I could feel it inside me. Like a secret I knew was being kept from me, something about the world calling out to it. I tried to reach for it as I rose unsteadily to my feet, my fingers digging into the wasteland beneath me, dirt crumbling in my fingers.

"Are you alright?" Thor asked, his eyes worried.

"T-There's something," I coughed, clenching my fists. "I can feel a power inside me, something more. But it isn't coming to me."

I couldn't understand it. Before now, every alien had come with an instinctual ability with their powers. They may not have come with a manual, but a combination of instinct and an excellent children's cartoon franchise to guide me allowed me to easily use every alien I'd gained.

It was frustrating, feeling something within me and not even having a clue what it was.

"Maybe you have my powers?" Thor suggested as he frowned thoughtfully. "How does this feel?" he raised a hand and Mjolnir flew into his palm, lightning surrounding the badass weapon. He held out in front of me, electricity flowing from it. "Anything?"

I pulled my head back, squinting my eyes against the blinding white light. "I feel like you're threatening to electrocute me, does that help?"

"Ah, sorry," Thor embarrassed put Mjolnir away at his waist. "Well... damn it, I wish my father was here," Thor sighed, looking as though he was half-tempted to do something before dismissing the idea. "What calls out to you then? What makes you-"

His next words were drowned out by the wind. I waved at some of the dust rising in the air. On instinct, I took a deep breath, reaching within.

The sand flying around us drifted away with the wave of my hand. I blinked dumbly. Thor stopped talking.

Hesitantly, I waved my hand again. More sand rose from the rocky wasteland with my hand motion.

I gritted my teeth, reaching within myself, and clenched a hand. Sand rose up from the ground, swirling upward in a tiny swirling tornado, barely as high as my chest.

"Sand?" Thor said, eyes wide. "That... I've never seen that happen before."

"Cooool," I said with a grin. I mentally reached out to the sand, the tightness in my chest fading as I gathered it to come around my feet, gathering underneath my boots.

Sand powers. Seems simple, on the surface, until you see what a person with the ability with the power to control sand can really do. And while I couldn't think of any Ben 10 alien with the powers I apparently had, I'd watched Avatar: The Last Airbender, Naruto, and One Piece, and had read Spider-Man. I certainly had plenty of sand-using characters to use as inspiration.

So I created a platform of sand and rose up into the sky on a shifting wave of grains that I later heard had gotten to over 110 feet high, letting me sore above the desert with a dumb grin on my face. Thor spun Mjolnir around and launched after me.

"WOOOO!" I shouted, standing with my arms spread on the wave of sand and shooting across the desert on the platform I'd created. The tightness in my chest was gone entirely, relaxed from finally using my powers. I twisted my hands and suddenly I was inside the wave. I laughed with joy as I surfed inside a tube of brown grains, boots sliding across the dirt. Thor flew by, the storm above us dropping lightning around us as he searched for me.

"Mahmoud!" He called out to me.

"This is awesome!" I yelled to him. "Hold on, I wanna try something!"

I reached out to the sand. Gaara had been able to do some cool stuff in Naruto, including making statues. I reached out to the sand with my mind, trying to mold it. The desert shook as I reached for the grains and forced them to move, ignoring the tight pain in my chest-

The loud sound of the Omnitrix's beeping was followed by the watch timing out. Just like that, I was in my normal human form, and the wave of sand fell apart, leaving me to fall out of the sky. My catom armor surrounded me the instant the AI registered a possibly lethal fall, but that still left me spinning through the air.

"Yaaaaaa-oof!" a large arm wrapped around my stomach, saving me from a painful hit to the ground.

"I've got you!" Thor said, bring us down for a landing.

We came to a landing as the tan waves of brown came down. The wasteland, once a place of dried stone cracked from the immense heat, now had a large dune right in the middle of it. I stared up at it as the rain above us continued to fall, wind picking up granules and blowing them away.

I was feeling pretty jazzed. I mean, that was insanely awesome! Asgardian's are supposed to be strong after all, and this form was epic, man! "Aw, man! That was so freaking cool! Weird I timed out so fast though, especially when I made sure to wait so it was charged. Should I just wait to try again?"

"No."

I blinked, looking at Thor. He looked contemplative. "We need to wait for my father. I don't know what to do with sand," he blinked. "Why is it even sand? No Asgardian has dealt with sand as far as I know."

"Can't blame them," I said, seeing my chance and taking it. "It's coarse and rough and it gets everywhere."

Thor frowned. "Is that a reference? I think Steve mentioned something about that."

Captain America had watched the prequels. It truly was the darkest timeline.


	50. Chapter 50

When we got to the base again, Creel and Steve had shown up, and the Graveyard survivors had come out of the APC that had brought them so they could start their testing. Creel was standing by the door waiting for us when Thor and I dropped in. Thor put me down gently on the ground and we walked up to him. I looked between Thor and Creel for a moment, noting that Hulk was speaking with Marian nearby. In another universe, Creel: The Absorbing Man would be a bitter enemy of both Hulk and Thor. Here, Creel, known as the hero Alloy, was their ally. Heh. Alloy the Ally.

Creel nodded at Thor, then looked at me. "You guys caused a hell of a ruckus."

It was true. The once clean base was kind of a mess. Sand was everywhere, piled up in corners, soaked from the rain that had been falling, while bits of hail melted in the heat of the desert and turned the sand into mud.

"Sorry," Thor and I said in unison, both of us looking contrite.

Creel snorted, then turned and walked towards the section of the base set aside for the survivors.

The survivors who had volunteered that is.

Of the group the Omnitrix had healed, most of them had simply wanted to go home, to find some semblance of safety and peace after years of torture. Director Maria Hill had those people put into a program being developed just for that. For people who suddenly got powers and never wanted them, or wanted to make a life of their own. It was... complicated. A lot of the group were enhanced to be almost as strong as Steve and Bucky while others had limited versions of Creel's powers. The idea of them out in the world and causing trouble, or using their abilities for profit in unfair ways, was something that worried the people in charge. After all, what's the point of sports if you know the other team has a guy who can lift trucks over their shoulders and treat 10K's like light warmups?

That was still being discussed, but here on the base were those few who had decided they wanted to use their powers to join BRIDGE in one way or another. The section set aside for them was formerly the school for the children on the base, using the gymnasium for the main testing, the classrooms to organize everyone, and the locker rooms to give them somewhere to change into some sweats. Creel walked us into the gymnasium and everyone stopped to look over at us. For a moment, things were awkward.

Then, like something out of a movie, one guy started clapping. A few others joined in until a large portion of the room was clapping while looking over at us. Four of them, all wearing BRIDGE-issued workout clothes, walked over as Thor and I blinked in confusion, though he was apparently more used to applause than I was.

The people walking toward us were showing signs of their powers in some ways.

The oldest one was a tall and well-built black man, with piercing eyes and a steady confidence, his muscles piled on muscles as he walked towards us. He strode towards us and smiled at me.

"Surprised?" when I didn't say anything, he chuckled. "I figured. Not every day you get a standing ovation from the people you saved.

Well... shit. What was I supposed to say to that? That was a hell of an honor to be given. I kind of shuffled awkwardly, not knowing what I should do.

The younger black man behind him gave me a brooding look. He looked like the older man, if lither in size, but still built like an armored truck. He nodded respectfully but said nothing else.

A teenage girl waved timidly at us. She was tall and almost alarmingly skinny, right on the edge of looking unhealthy. Her purple hair had the look of someone who had recently dyed it.

The final woman looked like someone's mom, with white streaks in her hair, some wrinkles on her skin, and a slightly too big smile. She reminded me of a Korean woman I'd known on my world, with a similar nose and eyes with the same kindness.

"I'm Jamal," the older man introduced himself. "This is Mike," the young man nodded. "Abigail," purple hair shuffled nervously. "And Jung Moon," the oldest woman smiled at us. "We were the ones chosen to represent our little group."

"Nice to meet you all," Thor said kindly.

"Same from me," I added weakly as the clapping died down. I noted that none of their names were familiar. Not people from the comics. Civilians, who would have died nameless otherwise. Thank you, Omnitrix.

Creel spoke next. "So far, it looks like only the absorbers like me and the super-soldiers like Steve have powers. Only one gamma-enhanced being kept its powers, and it's an animal," I blinked at that, but he continued before I could question him. "Jung Moon, show them what you got?"

The older woman reached into a pocket and pulled out a piece of red stone. She clenched her hand around it and immediately shifted into a rock statue in a kaleidoscope of random colors. Jung Moon chuckled her lips the color of emeralds, and spoke in Korean. Thor chuckled as well.

"Indeed, my lady, you are quite beautiful in this form," he said kindly, getting the older woman to blush.

"You speak Korean?" Jamal asked curiously.

"A benefit of being Asgardian. I am gifted with the ability to speak in all Midgardian languages, as well as those of other realms," the God of Thunder explained.

I didn't say anything. I mean, the Omnitrix worked the same way with its universal translator, but it wasn't information I threw around. Never know when you might need to overhear something after all.

"Dial!" I turned to see Jennifer yelling towards me, the tall Gammazon attracting attention from the people working out. A guy who was bench pressing around five hundred pounds of weight near her started going really fast, probably to impress her, only to go faster when she rewarded his efforts with a wink. She turned back to me, ignoring the guy currently burning out. "Hulk wants you to see this!"

Steve walked up to join us from a group of people doing squats with car engines, sweating a bit.

"Any idea what that is about?" He asked.

"Who knows?" I ran towards She-Hulk, leaving the awkwardness of everyone staring at me. Technically, I had saved them. But only because I had a really cool watch. When you boiled things down, all of my victories were often the Omnitrix's victories with an assist from me. Getting treated as though I'd done something great when I did the alien tech equivalent of pressing a button just made me feel as though I was cheating everyone.

She-Hulk led me outside to a dirt field covered in sand and hail, with a series of pens set up. The place looked like a hastily set up zoo, the pens made of all thick metal and plastic spaced evenly to keep those within from escaping.

"Huh," I said as the cacophony of sounds surrounded me. "I forgot how many there were."

Dogs and cats were the common ones. One was familiar, and apparently, he remembered me, because the little guy started barking loudly and wagging his tail as I passed. I remembered him when he changed into a steel form, grinning brightly at me with sunlight reflecting off metal fur. We walked past him, and I noted a cat that was about twice as large as a normal house cat, with corded muscle underneath it's gray fur. A lady in a lab coat was in his pen trying to get the guy to do something with a rubber ball. With the typical sassy attitude all cats have, he cocked an eyebrow, rolled over on his muscular stomach, and went to sleep, the lady in his pen sagging in disappointment.

Past those 'normal' animals were the more wild fare. Monkeys with abs or the ability to change into different materials, a rhino with enhanced eyesight (according to a scientist studying the massive animal), and more.

We ended up at an eighteen-wheeler truck, where a large group was waiting nervously outside of it. Hulk stood nearby, his arms crossed and gaze steadily on the being within. The large truck was open at the back, with a familiar being within.

I walked over next to Hulk, who turned to look down at me. He nodded towards the truck, walking forward with me.

As men with guns watched us walk up, the being inside looked up at me. I reached for the Omnitrix and began flipping through the menu before smiling at the guy within. "Hey, buddy. I guess you're the only one who kept those gamma powers, aren't you?"

The tiger inside looked at me, green eyes blinking lazily. He rested in a massive pen with by far the thickest bars of any of the other cages. Even then, I could see that they had been bent outward by some powerful force. Clearly, that was the fault of the green and black furred guy inside. He was about as big as a small car and... you know what, let's not mince words.

"You look like Battle Cat," I said, moving deeper into the truck. The tiger blinked at me, then at Hulk when he joined me. "So what's going on?"

A scientist about thirty feet behind me yelled. "It doesn't want to move! Every time we get near him he freaks out!"

"Haven't you tried a steak or something to attract him?" I called back.

"He has enhanced intelligence! He stopped taking bribes about three days in, and he hasn't changed into a normal tiger since!" the scientist sounded like he was at the end of his rope. "We need to get him into one of the other pens so we can scan it properly! He's the only one who kept gamma powers, but he was recorded as lacking the Gamma gene!" the scientist yelled. He yelped when the tiger lazily yawned.

She-Hulk hopped in as well, looking over us. "So, what's the plan?"

 ** _"Hulk help kitty,"_** goddamn, how did he manage to make that sound tough? He strode forward and the tiger slowly backed away as the shadow of the Hulk went over the cage. He reached out and grabbed the door to the cage.

"Uh, buddy, maybe we should-" I started to say.

 ** _"Raagh!"_** With a single pull, Hulk ripped the door off the cage.

"Or, sure, let's do that," I weakly reached for the Omnitrix, ready to transform as the tiger stared between the three of us.

"Is this a good idea?" She-Hulk asked as she stepped in front of me.

"I don't know, this whole thing took a direction I didn't expect at all," I admitted.

The tiger moved forward slowly. I began to press on the Omnitrix, ready for any random action that followed. If someone had sneezed, I'd have changed into Diamondhead immediately.

She-Hulk raised her hands up. Hulk was unmoved, his back to us as the tiger began to walk out.

Soon, a tiger about as big as the rhino outside was out of the cage. It looked around at us, focusing on me. Then it strode towards me. I reached for the watch.

 ** _"Stop,"_** Hulk said calmly (well, as calmly as Hulk could), raising a hand. ** _"Wait."_**

"For what, my throat to get ripped out?" I asked tensely.

The tiger went up to me and started sniffing. If you've ever had a giant super muscular tiger sniff at you, I'm sorry. Because damn, there is nothing like seeing the fangs of a tiger shine in your face as it's sniffing blows your hair back. It was that kind of primal fear deep down in your brain that stretched all the way back from the beginning of man dodging large predators in Africa.

After a bit, it surprised me by licking my arm, then moving to wrap around me and lie on the ground, going to sleep.

Hulk grinned as She-Hulk and I shared a look.

"I...I don't understand," I said slowly. I took a moment to try and remember if there was a precedent for a gamma tiger in the comics. Nothing came to mind. Guess even meta-knowledge isn't perfect. "Am..."

 ** _"Hulk good with animals,"_** the big guys said in a satisfied tone.

I hesitantly stepped away. The tiger woke immediately and stood up, walking along with me. Trying something out, I moved out of the truck.

Walking out of the truck with the super tiger placidly following me was a weird experience. The personnel stared at him as he hopped out, his green fur almost glowing in the sunlight. Hulk and Jennifer followed, Hulk looking satisfied and Jennifer like she was seconds from laughing but couldn't because of how confused she was.

"Uh, sir," one of the scientists called out to me. "We need to study it! Do you think we can do some more invasive procedures if you can control him?"

I looked over at the tiger. He blinked lazily at me, looked over at the scientist who'd spoken, then back to me, his muzzle twitching. I rubbed the back of my neck. "Dude, I don't know what to tell you. He's kind of doing his own thing right now. Uh, Battle Cat, do you want to...?"

He growled in the back of his throat, the sound rumbling the ground.

"He says no," Hulk added helpfully.

"Cats. What are you gonna do?" She-Hulk said helplessly.

Not much else we could say to that I suppose. I walked towards the pens.

"Sir, we can't let you-" a soldier began to say.

I reached for the Omnitrix and pressed down on it. In a flash of green light, red armored skin grew across my body along with a pair of extra arms and eyes as I towered over all present.

 **"FOURARMS!"**

The echo of my voice shook the area, the cacophony of animals petering out.

 ** _"Don't worry. I'll keep my eyes on the big guy. I think we need to figure out what the hell to do with him."_**

"Holy shit, you are big," She-Hulk mumbled, looking up at me with wide eyes.

I grinned. ** _"You're one to talk, Shulkie."_**

"Yeah, I am, _Rulk_ ," she said with a grin.

I barked out a laugh for more reasons than one as we walked over to a pen with more soldiers surrounding us. Hulk gestured to the tiger, who walked inside with the austere grace of an emperor. Once inside, the pen closed up, and the tiger sat back on its haunches, tail sweeping back and forth across the ground.

Once inside, the scientists began tapping at screens, and Hand walked over, her eyes widening at the sight of my towering form, before looking at the tiger.

"What happened?" Victoria asked, crossing her arms.

 ** _"I think,"_** I said hesitantly. ** _"The Pet Avengers got their first member."_**

"...the what," Victoria said in the tone of voice a woman uses when she's slowly going insane.

 ** _"We've got a bunch of animals with superpowers, a lot of them more intelligent than they should be. I think people were going to talk about that soon enough anyway."_**

As Victoria sighed in annoyance at what she thought was a joke, I thought about the moon and a certain founding member of the Pet Avengers.

Going to have to look into that soon.

Even as I thought that Thor came out of the doors of the gymnasium and head towards us, apparently wondering about the commotion. "What-" he stopped, staring up at me. He noted the Omnitrix symbol and blinked.

"My. You're a big one."

 _ **"That's what she said,"**_ I noted, thinking of She-Hulk's reaction.

When the tittering laughter followed, I realized what that sounding like and groaned slightly, putting my lower right hand to my face. **_"That was an accident, I swear."_**

"That's what she said!" She-Hulk responded, laughing all the harder at the annoyed look I gave her.

"How strong are you?" Thor asked, rubbing his chin with a look in his eyes the Tetramand form I was borrowing knew all too well as the look of challenge.

"Don't," Victoria mumbled. "You two can spar later. Right now I need to rest."

Testing went well after that.

 ** _Ulysses Klaue_**

In another part of the world, a man by the name of Klaue walked through the bowels of his base, a shipwrecked and beat up old tanker.

He liked it for several reasons. First, because he liked the word 'bowels' under most circumstances. Heh. Bowels.

Second, because the atmosphere just fit so perfectly with what he was doing, damn it! He was an arms dealer, not some namby-pamby wanna-be mob boss. Who gave a shit if he was making more money than most kings off of the business, he was still selling guns. Why idiots like Sonny Burch worked out of fancy restaurants and penthouse apartments, Klaue never understood. If something did the job and did the job well, why spend extra money off expensive crap to replace that?

The tanker was solid, in the middle of nowhere, easy to defend, and cheap as hell, since, well, no one gave a crap about it. Which made it perfect to hide things like missiles and vibranium in, funnily enough.

Klaue strode through the tanker, walking past his men as they organized things for sale and storage. He had good guys, even if they were a little stiff sometimes. No taste for fun on the job.

He grinned with a flash of silver teeth as he walked into his office and looked out over his crappy little base, feeling a hint of pride at what he saw. Yep. Today was going to be a good day.

...Oh crap, he'd tempted fate.

Klaue waited for a moment. When nothing happened, he relaxed, going over to his desk and grabbing a piece of candy from a bowl.

Then the power in the boat suddenly shut off, leaving them in darkness. That's when the screaming began to echo through the boat.

"Fuck, I knew it!" Klaue grabbed the gun on his desk and ran out the door. Outside, his men were panicking. "Oh come on idiots, are you kidding!? Grab guns and shoot something!" Klaue grinned. "Get the big ones too, have some fun!"

Some of his men in the shadows yelled out affirmatives, and soon the sound of bullets filled the air.

Until another sound responded. The familiar sound of a sonic weapon finally made Klaue's grin fall away.

"Wakanda. Fuck," he turned and ran as more sounds filled the air, the darkness lit up with blue lights. Worse was the quiet sections. The moments when someone shooting a gun suddenly disappeared in the shadows without a sound. That could not have been good.

Klaue went deeper into the tanker, aiming for the back where a way out had been built. Except that as he ran across the catwalks, the sounds seemed to follow him with relentless ease.

"Damn it, damn it, had to happen today of all days!" Klaue spat out running along with his pistol tight in hand. He got to a door and grabbed at the wheel to unlock it, twisting hard and pushing it open with a bit of trouble. "Come on you damn... gragh!"

Pushing his way through, he cursed aloud when a sonic weapon hit a wall nearby. Adrenaline pushed him forward. He aimed his gun back as he ran through the halls, shooting his gun behind him at whoever it was that was following him. The bullet bounced off of the blue light, but he continued running despite that, his legs pumping. He could see the exit now, an opening leading to the 'garage' full of cars in the boat. Just needed to get in there, hop into one of the SUV's, then head to Johannesburg and meet with one of his people.

Klaue entered the garage and slapped a button on the wall, the gate at the end opening up and ran past some vehicles towards the SUV in question. Once inside of it, he grabbed the keys out of the middle compartment and put it in the ignition.

"Okay, no horror movie shit, got it?" Klaue twisted the key and grinned at the instantaneous sound of the car engine roaring to life. "There's a good girl!"

Pressing on the accelerator, the car rushed forward, heading to the gate. He passed through it at about fifty miles an hour-

Something ran at him from the side, slamming into the car like a missile. The car twisted at the hit, slamming into the edge of the gate as it left the tanker. The car spun out of control. Whatever had hit the SUV spun upward and grabbed the hood, a round object landing on the black metal. Whatever it was, the disc seemed to cause the car to lose power, leaving Klaue twisting at a useless steering wheel. The SUV rolled to a weak stop on the dirt. Klaue cursed, getting out of the car, only to have a black shadow separate from the SUV and rise in front of him.

"...Well, you're a sight better looking than your dah was, boy," Klaue said weakly.

Black Panther stood before him in the sunlight, dressed in the black armor and catlike helmet the represented the Panther Habit. He stepped forward and grabbed Klaue by the lapel, pushing him into the SUV. Behind him, explosions came from the tanker that had once been Klaue's home, a group of woman in red armor moving towards them from it.

"Damn it, you all really caught me at a bad moment," Klaue said to the Amazonian women striding towards him, giving them a roguish grin. "Tell you what ladies, let me get my makeup kit and my nice suit, you come back when I'm a bit prettier?"

The five women stopped and gave him looks like stone. Black Panther reached a hand back and received a syringe from one of the women.

"Okay, can you not?" Klaue said with a grimace. "I promised I'd stop with the hard stuff, took a program and everything."

Black Panther injected the syringe into his neck.

"Damn... I was going to get my three year... chip..."

As Klaue passed out, Black Panther let out a sigh of relief. "I wish my father had warned me he would talk that much."

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

On returning to New York City, after all the rounds of testing had been done, I was left in my room, where I made a phone call. After ringing for a bit, the line picked up.

 _"Matt Murdock speaking,"_ the man on the other end said.

"Hey Matt, it's Mahmoud. I got your email. You said you wanted me to call?"

 _"Yes… How do you know?"_ he said, as though he was asking a casual question and not one loaded with C4.

I took a moment to tap the back of my phone, a beeping signaling that X was keeping anyone from listening in. "About the fact that your sight was replaced with… I don't know, just insanely powerful everything else? Am I close?"

Matt was quiet on the other end for a bit. When he spoke, his tone was somewhat like Bucky's when he was seconds from punching a punk. _"And?"_

"I lived in Hell's Kitchen for a few, so I did hear about a 'Man in Black Mask' beating up thugs. I'm guessing that was you. Combined with working with a worldwide spy organization with access to every camera in existence..."

 _"Makes sense,"_ Matt said. _"So what do you want?"_

"More good guys in the world," I said simply. "That's it. I'm a superhero now, I guess, but my powers mean I'm going to be called to help on a worldwide scale. I won't be able to always patrol in New York like I used to. So if there are some people willing to do the same, I want to help. That's all."

 _"...Who else knows?"_ Matt asked.

"Me… maybe some people in BRIDGE," I thought of a certain redhead who had mentioned Matt to me the other day. "But doesn't look like it for the most part, since your abilities aren't exactly flashy. But I'm not going to tell anyone. Anyone finds out, it's on their own."

He sighed in annoyance. I walked around my apartment in the Avengers Tower, going over to a window and looking over the city quietly.

 _"Well, your deal seems legit,"_ Matt said at last. _"And you say you want to help me?"_

"How about we meet up and talk about it?" I asked. "We can make some initial plans, maybe show you that working together is the best way to protect New York? Beat up some assholes on patrol a few times together?"

Matt chuckled. _"Sure, let's, uh, let's meet tonight."_

After making plans, I looked out into New York again, thinking. I was personally one of the most powerful beings on Earth… when given the chance to press down on the Omnitrix. But I could still be killed. And Hell's Kitchen was dangerous before I became a household name, people might shoot from the distance to prove a point. Might need some protection.

Luckily, I had a friend with a room down the hall from mine.

Later that night, Natasha and I were walking through New York City together. She was wearing a leather jacket and red shirt, her red hair curly and long around her neck. I was wearing a Black Widow shirt, just to be funny, the sleeves golden and the rest of it black, with a red logo in the center sort of reminding me of the one I had on the Omnitrix, a red backpack swinging as I walked with the super-assassin. We were walking down West 44th street in Hell's Kitchen. If you've never been, I don't recommend it as a tourist site. It's basically every seedy part of New York all bundled into a couple of blocks, complete with a bunch of guys on all the street corner leering at people and making threats or crooning promises to 'show you a good time' to any girl with legs and a face. That wasn't to say there weren't any good people there, in fact there were more of those than there were assholes. It was a good town, at its core.

Even then, I don't think either Natasha or I were surprised when a trio of guys walked over towards us from down the street, ambling our way with a lazy confidence. Right up until Natasha carelessly flipped her hair and opened her jacket a bit.

The two small pistols revealed by the action were a mistake on her part, I'm sure, as was the long blade at her waist. Note my sarcasm of course, since I doubt much Natasha did was ever by 'mistake'. Same with the way her walk went from casual stride of a woman going from point A to point B, to the long and dangerous catwalk of a killer. The difference was subtle. See, the first was walking. The second was walking while seconds away from stabbing a punk in the heart with a smile on your face.

The three guys quickly found something else to look at, the vicious smiles turning into carefully neutral looks on their faces.

"I really need to learn how to do that," I told Natasha as we walked down the road, passing our would-be attackers.

"It's all in the hips," Natasha said with a smirk. "I'll teach you one day."

"Yeah, but I don't have hips as nice as yours," I quipped.

Natasha chuckled. "Should I tell Skye and Jen you're hitting on me?"

"If you want to, but I'll tell everyone about all the weird sexual encounters your alternate universe selves had," I nudged her with an elbow. "Like the one where you had sex with Tony."

"At least I had high standards," Natasha smiled before she frowned a bit. "Wait, is this the one where I turned out to be a traitor?"

"That's a stone every person we know can't throw," I admitted. "Even Steve had a HYDRA moment in one universe."

"Steve?!" Natasha said, sounding genuinely shocked. "That doesn't even sound real!"

"Yeah, it took a bunch of weird cosmic mumbo-jumbo for that to go down," I shrugged. Natasha was basically one of the few people I could talk about other universes without her going existential on me every few minutes. The others would likely spend a few days looking at the horizon, rethinking existence. Natasha rolled with it. The world was the world, and Natasha wasn't going to waste it comparing herself to other versions of herself. I had no idea if that was a healthy attitude, but I had to admire it. Considering I'd had a nightmare once of an Evil Ben tracking me down I mean. I focused on the street around us. "Where did they say we should turn?"

"Let's see..." Natasha looked around. "Bawdy, right down there," she nodded down towards a street a couple of blocks away.

"Right. Hey, thanks for this, Nat. I mean, keeping it secret and everything," I said gratefully.

"No problem," she looked at me. "You know you'll owe me after this though?"

"Owing the Black Widow seems like a dangerous prospect. By the way, how come you kept that name? Isn't it kind of... edgy?"

She laughed. "Yeah, I guess so. But apparently, the marketing people said that the image works for me."

We turned around the corner, walking down Bawdy. "Yeah, the whole dangerous super-spy thing must have been a stretch."

"You mention that a lot," Nat said, giving me a look. "Does it bother you? My history? I mean, you said you've seen everything all the alternate versions of me did. Do you worry about it?"

"I think we had this conversation before," I noted. "Come on, Nat. You're one of my mentors now. You know what I think of you."

We walked for a bit longer.

"You're painfully naive sometimes... Getting better. But still naive," she smiled at me. "Okay, Mahmoud. One thing I need to ask you as your 'mentor'. Did you even notice Ruby over there?"

I blinked, then turned. The petite teenager waved at me from where she was walking, an irritating smirk on her face. She was wearing a small black jacket and yoga pants that were slightly big on her, eyes glittering in the light as she twirled a small throwing knife in her fingers before throwing it. I had enough time to blink before Natasha caught it an inch from my right eye. "Holy shit!"

"You're fine," Natasha said with a grin as she put away the knife, nodding at Ruby, who turned into an alley. "We're going to be training you on counter-espionage soon though."

Heart still in my throat, I followed Natasha towards our destination. It was a bar called Josie's as the red neon sign on the right window and the gold lettering on the left window said proudly. A bunch of motorcycles were parked out in front, a few tough guys standing around the front wearing their gang's colors on the jackets, or sewn onto their jeans. Nat calmly walked up and opened the door, the bikers ignoring us, and we stepped in.

The place was full of people, from all walks of life. They were drinking. Because I mean, it was a bar after all. The place smelled like piss and alcohol, with a slight aroma of vomit joining in. Someone had hung an air freshener near the door, like a drop of water added to the desert in terms of usefulness.

"Hey, Dial!" Foggy yelled from the back, coming up to grin at me. He was wearing his shirt and tie, the sleeves rolled up and a pool cue in his hand. "How's it-urk?" he stopped, blinking at the sight of Natasha, then smiling. "Black Widow?"

"Nat, actually," she said with a smile. "And you're Mr. Nelson, right?"

"Foggy, please," the pudgy and good-natured man said with that wide grin of his. "I can't call an Avenger by her name and have her call me 'Mr. Nelson.'"

Natasha blinked at that, then smiled that lazy and smooth smile she seemed to save for the right moments.

Foggy coughed, then waved at the back. "Ah, right this way, 'Nat'."

She walked past him, leaving Foggy to look over at me. "You couldn't have warned me?"

"That I was bringing her along?" I said with a cocked eyebrow. "Well, things are sort of getting crazy in New York City. She's acting as my bodyguard."

We joined Matt in the back, who was hesitantly feeling at a pool table, gently making sure of the placement of each ball on the green felt, dressed much the same as Foggy was at the moment, sleeves rolled up and all.

"Matt," Foggy said as we joined him. "He's here. And he brought a friend."

"Oh?" Matt cocked his head, not looking at us. "Hello, Mr. Schahed. And your friend is..."

"Natasha Romanov," the Black Widow told the future Daredevil.

Matt smiled. "Matthew Murdock. You're an Avenger, right?"

"And a few other things," Natasha responded.

Matt chuckled. "Mr. Schahed, you could have warned us you were bringing company, we would have met somewhere more... classy."

"This place is plenty classy!" Foggy said. "I mean, look, my drink has something alive in it!" he raised a beer, showing the shadowy shape in the dark yellow liquid. "You can't get that sort of exotic flavor anywhere else!"

"You don't like it, get out!" a woman behind the bar yelled.

"It's all part of your charm, Josie!" Foggy yelled back. He turned back to us. "Seriously, I don't recommend drinking the water here."

Natasha chuckled. "Don't worry, I've been in worse places. There was a bar in Budapest I can tell you stories about."

"Okay, so," Matt strolled around, carefully following the pool tables edge with his hands. Some of the patrons avoided him with what looked like practiced ease, one big biker moving a stool out of his way without a thought. "You said you wanted to hire us. We agree with your terms. We'll be your lawyers from now on, Mr. Schahed."

I grinned. "Cool. Uh, there is one, unexpected thing. We recently got a new Avenger, a woman named Jennifer Walters. She's a damn good lawyer, just did some work on the West Coast. She's looking to continue her work in law, and she was hoping she could talk to you guys about it," I held up my hands before they could speak. "I know how it looks, me adding a lawyer to your group right after I gave you my word that I wasn't going to interfere, but I swear, this is just me asking on her behalf. I told her what you guys want to do, and she wants to meet you."

Foggy and Matt shared a look. After a bit, Matt sighed. "Mr. Schahed, you say she's already a lawyer, right? Why can't she simply rejoin her firm?"

I rubbed the back of my head. "Just take my word for it. Besides, she wants to move here, do some work in this city. Doing it on the side of being an Avenger of course. Just meet her?"

Natasha spoke up. "I do suggest it. She recently took down Nicholas Trask. It was a hell of a thing. We were going to have her join BRIDGE's group of attorneys, but she wants to work with you."

Matt smiled. "That seems like a good idea. That said," Matt walked over to a table with their jackets and bags resting there, taking a familiar folder out and walking over to me in a series of slow and careful movements. It was kind of annoying, considering I knew for a fact the guy was better without eyes than I was with them, but I still managed to wait patiently as he handed me the folder. "We've both signed. You are officially the first client of Nelson and Murdock."

"I'm the first guy to give you money," I corrected him, opening the folder and smiling at the signatures. In some worlds, I bet a signature from Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson would be worth a hell of a lot. I closed the folder again. "Your first client will be whatever person you guys actually help with a case."

"Eh, you count," Foggy said easily. "So, business is done, how about we play a game or two?"

Natasha cocked an eyebrow. "Two on two with a blind man on one team? Isn't that a little unfair? No offense, Mr. Murdock."

"Uh, none taken, Mrs. Romanov," Matt said.

"Nat," she corrected.

"Nat," Matt showed her a charming smile. "Tell you what, you can be on my team, and I might surprise you."

"Oh come on," Foggy grumbled under his breath, though he smiled good-naturedly.

"What?" Matt asked, sounding confused.

Foggy shrugged. "Oh nothing, just seeing a pattern in play. Ok, I'll take the other Avenger then. Rack 'em up!"

After thoroughly getting my ass kicked alongside Foggy in pool, the friendly lawyer said his goodbyes and walked off into the night. With him gone, Matt lost his good humor. We stepped out of Josie's, walked down the street until we got to 47th Street, then turned into a dark alley.

Once inside, Matt listened for a moment.

"Someone is coming," he said.

"That's Ruby," Natasha looked down the alley. "Come here. You should listen to this part."

Soon, a short assassin teen came around the corner, flashing me a smirk. In retort, I carefully flashed the Omnitrix, and her smirk faded.

She looked over at Matt and scowled. "How the hell did you sense me?"

"He's a special case," Natasha explained. "I'll train you to do better later."

Matt looked uncertainly at her but listened again.

"Okay, we're in the clear," he looked between us. "So. Does she…"

"I know," Natasha said simply. "When Mahmoud asked me to bodyguard him, I checked up on you. You really are blind?"

Matt nodded.

"Then you have a lot more agility and spatial awareness than even most people with sight, even better than people in my profession. You hide it well. But every time I came close, you couldn't quite hide the reaction you gave about knowing exactly where I was," she mentioned, sounding honestly impressed.

Matt stared at us hesitantly. "Is this you asking me to become an Avenger?"

"Not really," Natasha said. "This is Mahmoud's deal. He asked me to keep what I hear a secret and to back him up just in case."

"You're his backup?" Matt asked, lips twitching. "No offense, but I've seen what you can do on the news, Mr. Schahed. What do you need backup from?"

"Snipers," I admitted. "Ninjas as well, just in case."

"Ninjas? In New York City?" Matt asked, disbelieving.

"Yes," I said simply. Ignoring the look on his face, I removed the large red backpack I'd been carrying and put it on the ground between us. "So. I, officially, can tell you that BRIDGE is working with New York City on developing a program for superhumans to aid police officers on patrol, as part of a plan to make such programs more of a permanent thing, as well as upgrading officers to deal with superhuman threats on their own as needed. A group of secret warriors, if you will," I need to stop stealing names from the main Marvel universe. "So you'll get an invite if you want it, and Maria Hill is going to make sure those who join can have the option to hide their identities."

Matt seemed to sag in relief at that. "That... that would be really nice."

"It's something we're still fighting for, but it should come soon," I added. "There will be some rules, something you'll have to do on the up and up, all in the name of letting you help people without worrying about cops shooting at you or guys getting out of prison by claiming they were beat up by a random vigilante on the street. But, until that time, you'll need something to protect you. Something better than a black shirt and scarf around your face."

He laughed nervously, looking over at Nat and Ruby. The redhead and blonde smirked at him.

"They won't talk," I said with a smile. "Trust me, Nat is good people. And Ruby won't do anything to piss Nat off."

"Screw you," Ruby said to me without looking.

"Gain a few feet first, midget," I answered back, getting a disgusted scoff in return. Brat.

"Anyways, I made you this."

I tapped the top of the red backpack. The catoms that made up the backpack flowed up my arm, revealing what was held within.

A costume lay on the pavement before Matt, folded neatly on the ground. He kneeled down and put his hand against the helmet, blinking. "Is this-?"

"A suit, custom made for you," I answered. "I could give you any advanced gear you feel might be missing but of course nothing BRIDGE uses. But the suit is bullet, fire, and slash resistant. It'll take a lot of damage and leave you bruised at most, but it's also made to let you move with all the agility of, well, the three of you," I gestured at the three badasses around me, Ruby smiling proudly. "It's also got a feature to let you close off your hearing in case anyone tries to use it against you. Like I said, it's not the best we've got, but-"

"No," Matt smiled, lifting the suit to 'look' at it. The combination of dark yellow and red colors seemed to work well, a pair of small devil horns attached to the helmet. He briefly touched the clubs resting at the waist of the costume. "It's perfect. Thank you. And these clubs?"

"It's all in here," I tossed him a flash drive, which he snatched out of the air. "It's got a manual to let you know everything they can do, even has a printable version in braille for yourself. It ain't an Iron Man suit, but it's damn good... Daredevil," I started seriously. "There are some people, in Hell's Kitchen, that I want to check up on tomorrow night..."

"...Where should we meet?" Matt asked.

"In a minute, but before we go any further there is something I want to do and I think you would really appreciate it." I started to say and couldn't keep the huge grin off my face.

"Yeah? Any more toys for me? Sadly, state law says blind men can't drive, so I will have to turn down a devilmobile," he joked but still seemed interested.

"You'll like this better, this wouldn't be in the news but the forms I turn into are actually different kinds of aliens." Natasha made a noise of annoyance at me casually sharing such 'privileged' information since BRIDGE was keeping it under wraps under the excuse of worrying the public, despite the fact these aliens don't exist in this universe as far as I knew. I ignored her. "The one I'm about to use is one I think you will have an instant connection with," I said, and before he could respond to that I quickly activated the Omnitrix and pressed down the selection I had set beforehand.

In a flash of green I was covered in orange fur, standing on four powerful legs, had an impressive set of teeth, and of course, my eyesight disappeared even as my vision expanded more fully than my human senses could ever achieve. While everyone else looked away from bright flash Matt obviously didn't and was quick to 'see' the change I had undergone. He hesitated for a second before reaching his hands out and feeling around Wildmutt's head where the eyes would be on most other creatures before pulling back.

"No eyes, so that means…" Matt worked it out quickly and Nat answered for him.

"Wildmutt seems to rely more on smell than echolocation like you, but that doesn't mean his hearing is any lesser for it well," Nat said with what I assumed was a smirk from Matt's likely gobsmacked expression.

Ruby smelled annoyed as she spoke under her breath. "Why did my life get so weird lately…?"

Was it weird that Wildmutt seemed able to smell emotions? Likely worked better on other Vulpimancers, but I couldn't help but let out a series of barks that would be laughs with human vocal cords.


	51. Chapter 51

_January 23rd, 2014_

 ** _Steve Rogers/Captain America_**

"Still no sign of him," Maria Hill said, walking back and forth through her office. Phil Coulson and Steve Rogers stood before her, both men sharing a look.

They stood in the Enterprise, which Maria was still using as her main base of operations. There had been plans to repair the Triskelion and return to it, but Maria said she simply found it easier to use the Enterprise as a mobile HQ. Considering the way her work was going, she really needed to be able to work in the field. Maybe one day the Triskelion would return to its former glory, though Steve doubted it.

For now, Maria stopped in the center of the room and looked between them. "The last record we have of Strucker, he was in Brazil, working from some old bases HYDRA had built during the time Nazis fled to the country after the war, but authorities and our own forces there found nothing but dead-ends."

"So either we can't find him, or he was never there at all," Coulson concluded, crossing his arms. The agent sounded frustrated and tired as he spoke.

"Looks like it," Steve agreed. He held back the anger he felt at the thought. Strucker still had Sharon and Trip. Two of their people, in the hands of HYDRA, likely getting brainwashed and experimented upon. It was enough to give anyone nightmares.

"On the plus side, other HYDRA bases have been falling apart. I have our people going over it and it looks like we have quite a few new resources. Quinjets, weapons, materials, fuel, even food we can shift to feed our soldiers."

Steve nodded at that. No matter what else had changed, wars were won by supplies as much as soldiers. It was common sense after all. "Just in case, maybe we should have Dial and Tony update the Hercules App? That might help with the search. Something to make sure that any items we pick up aren't booby-trapped would be good as well."

"Agreed," Phil said. "In the meantime, we have another issue."

"Hank Pym is still refusing to speak with us," Maria said simply.

Steve looked between them, confused. "Hank Pym?"

"A former SHIELD scientist," Phil explained. "He stopped working with us after an incident, but he's known as one of the most intelligent people we ever had. Worked on something pretty damn secretive. I think only Agent Carter knew the full details of it. He was also the founder of Pym Technologies before he was removed by a corporate takeover."

"So why are we talking about him now?" Steve asked.

Maria, in answer, waved her hand. Hologram emitters in the ceiling and floor activated, projecting a screen showing Bill Foster's lab. Steve held back a sigh at the sight of it. He hated most holograms. They never seemed to be as clear as the normal flat-screen tv's of the modern age were. Holograms Steve usually saw were fuzzy and all blue. They were also very tough to discern distance from. A few exceptions, such as the holograms Dial, Fitz, or Tony sometimes made, were much closer to reality, but the one Maria brought up was annoyingly tough to figure out. With a bit of squinting, he was able to follow along with the events of Ava's test, past the moment something went wrong and finishing when Bill asked Fitz to call Maria.

"According to Bill, Ava said 'Janet' was in her mind," Maria said with a quiet solemness. "We believe it's Janet Pym she's talking about, Hank's wife and a former SHIELD scientist. If she is somehow in the Quantum realm like Bill suspects, we need to talk to Hank Pym, but he won't speak with us."

"Let me try. I have a very persuasive personality," Phil said with a smile.

"Are you sure?" Maria asked. "I know you're still getting over... well. Everything."

Phil stilled. After a sad smile, his words came out with a deeply pained tone. "Audrey made her choice. I accept that. And in the end, Ava and Janet are the ones we need to focus on. I can take my team with me to meet with Hank, tell him about what we've found out."

Fury opened the door then, walking into the room. He no longer wore his long coat, instead wearing a blue silk shirt and white suspenders. He strode in and nodded at everyone. "You're talking about Pym?"

"Yes," Maria answered.

"I'd like to suggest not telling him about Janet," Fury said simply.

Phil frowned, Steve doing the same. Phil spoke, turning slightly to face Fury. "Why? Wouldn't knowing we might have information on her help?"

"What do we have?" Fury asked. "A woman who has been in constant pain since childhood, saying a name she might have overheard in the middle of a dangerous experiment with Quantum energy? Hank Pym is the sort of guy who will punch you in the face the second he hears that... come to think of it, maybe you should have May say it."

"Very funny," Phil said, getting a smirk from Fury. Phil sighed. "All right, I'll just go ahead. We need to visit California as is, so this works out."

"Alright," Maria said. "Then we come to your orders: Rogers, Fury."

The two old soldiers looked over at her. "As you know, we need a training facility for the superhumans we've been finding. Somewhere safe, where they can learn in peace and eventually either return to the world or begin working for us. I want you both looking at the old SHIELD bases and finding us a good location for that. Somewhere out of the way, with lots of destructible area around it for the more powerful superhumans we'll find. If it can survive Dial, Hulk, and Thor, you've found somewhere we can work with. Steve, you know the Avengers best, so find somewhere they can all use as a secondary base as well."

"Director for a short time and already giving impossible orders?" Fury asked with a slight smirk. "You really were the best choice."

Maria spared him a smile before waving for them to leave.

Steve walked out with the group, thinking carefully. A training base for superhumans. One that could survive most anything, had room, was out of the way, hidden, and was comfortable. Tough combination to figure out. Tony might have some ideas about that. For some reason though, Steve felt as though the Avengers and other superhumans would need something... specific. Something was calling him to make sure the base would be...

Best to keep that idea on a backburner. If it ended up being viable, he'd take it. For now, he turned to Fury.

"What do you think about asking Tony about financing the base?"

"I think he'll be an insufferable asshole about it. But sure," Fury said with a sigh of annoyance. "Let's go ask Tony Stark for money."

-

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

In the gym of the Avengers Tower, in the boxing ring set aside just for the occasion, I unleashed a series of punches at my opponent. Skye ducked around them, swinging her leg to try and sweep me off my feet, but I managed to leap over the attack. I came down with a wrestler style elbow drop, so she dodged to let me hit the mat instead. She kicked at me and I blocked the blows on my shoulder, grabbing her leg in return. With a quick spin, I heaved her up and tossed her aside. She rolled with the toss, landing and facing me when I followed up with a cross punch. Ducking, she grabbed my arm, pulled it forward while twisting to bring her back to my chest, then flipped me over. I landed hard on my back, grunting at the pain, before bringing my legs up to kick at her. It was a rough attack but one that drove her to run back, allowing me to spin to my feet and follow by punching her in the gut. She backed off.

For a moment, Skye and I faced each other. Natasha, who was watching from the ropes with her arms crossed, simply eyed us.

Then a loud shout brought our attention to the doors. Ruby was brought in by May, the older woman pushing the tiny teen into the gym with the same sort of dismissive attitude one would use to shove an unruly puppy off a bed.

"Caught her, huh?" Natasha asked easily.

"She's getting better," May said, sounding almost reluctant. "Only realized where she was when the cardboard box moved."

"What, did she go all Metal Gear on you?" I asked, almost shocked.

"It almost worked," Ruby mumbled to herself, only scowling at the frown that comment got from May.

"Hey, aren't we still fighting?" Skye asked me.

"I've gotten my ass kicked by tiny badass women all day, give me five seconds," I grumbled in response.

"Aw, poor baby," Ruby said, the petite teen grinning at the scowl I gave her.

"Hey," Natasha clapped, getting out attention. "Focus. May, can you go over where Ruby went wrong with her?"

May nodded, turning to Ruby.

"In the meantime, Mahmoud, you're fighting both of us now," Natasha said, hopping into the ring.

"...This because I complained, isn't it?" I asked in despair.

"If you have to ask..." Natasha said in sing-song, moving in with Skye.

Together, the two women started to punch me like I was filled with sand and not gooey, bruisable insides and crunchy bones. I tried my best to fight back, but even with Skye as the weak link, I was getting beat up bad.

In the meantime, May spoke quietly with Ruby. For a brief moment, I could see the two talking, Ruby asking questions earnestly. Tough nut to crack, that one. She was confident, but in the way a lot of teens are. But also, she was like... well, an X-23 who actually wanted to be a killer. Raised her whole life to be the ultimate badass. If Skye was slightly above me in skill as a human, and Natasha might as well have been the sun, then Ruby was smack dab in the middle.

She was also an abrasive little brat.

I focused on fighting once more, my breath heavy, and sweat pouring from me as bruises covered my body. Natasha added to them with a kick to my thigh that forced me to drop to a knee. Skye followed that by punching me in the chest, sending me to my back. I rolled up and kneed Skye in the stomach. When I followed by trying to punch Natasha, she easily slid around the blow, shoved my head to the side, then wrapped an arm around my neck and twisted me around to toss me into the ground, where I crashed with a loud slap of flesh on the mat.

I lay there dazed, trying to understand just how much my ass had been kicked.

"Yeah, that's good enough," Natasha walked up to me, looking down. "You getting better. That was a good flying knee. But you aren't defensive enough. I think fighting as invincible aliens so often has you used to being able to take a hit."

"Can you blame me? Diamondhead and Rath can take a tank shell without a scratch. Well, maybe a small bruise in Rath's case, but he'd be okay with that," I rolled up to my feet as I said that, thinking about Rath. Yeah, he tended to see pain in combat as a reason to fight harder. Because Rath was badass.

"You need to remember as a human you can't survive a real beating from a skilled opponent," Natasha said, helping me up. "Thankfully you've at least got real experience in a fight. You can't beat anyone who really knows what they're doing, but you can at least fight off street thugs easily. With some more training, you'll get better. Also, this training will make fighting in your alien forms more effective."

She turned to Skye. "You're a little further along though. I can tell you've been trained by May... and Ward."

Skye flinched at that. "Y-Yeah. He was my SO. Before he turned out to be a traitor."

Natasha nodded. "Well, they trained you well... Now, I believe you guys have an appointment?"

"Right," I struggled to my feet and walked out of the ring. "See you in the lab, Skye!"

"See you there!" she said, heading to the women's locker room while I headed to the men's.

-

After a quick cleanup, I took my bruised form to Simmons in her lab. I was shirtless, to let her look over my wounds, leaving me in my jeans and boots with my Captain America t-shirt resting on the table beside me. I'd gotten into the habit of wearing merchandise based on my teammates lately. Funnily enough, I was pretty sure Tony was behind the suddenness of the others wearing variations of Omnitrix covered shirts in return since I'd seen Sam and Hartley doing it once.

"I really wish you wouldn't let yourself get this hurt," Simmons said disapprovingly, rubbing some kind of ointment on one of my biceps on top of a bruise.

"I don't 'let' myself do anything," I said, wincing at the feel of the cold ointment on my bruises. "I'm just trying to learn how to kick ass without, you know, getting my ass kicked."

"Well so far, you are doing a terrible job of that," Simmons shook her head with a smile, before sighing when I ended up wincing. "Stand still!"

"Always asking the impossible," I grumbled, before looking around at Simmons' lab, noting the many medical supplies and chemistry tools resting about. As a skilled 'everything to do with organic material you could think of' scientist, Simmons' lab also had some machines for reading blood samples and other such things.

"Man, I really wish I could figure this stuff out without needing to turn into an alien," I mumbled, looking at everything.

"I could always teach you?" Simmons offered cheerily.

"Teach me... medicine?" I asked, blinking. "Cause I'm fairly sure that will take a while."

"No better time to learn than the present!" Simmons voice was rather cheery. "At the very least some basic first aid. I always think that's important."

"True," I admitted. "Okay, I'd love to learn a few things. Going to have to add it to all the other stuff though..." I mumbled the last thing.

Seriously, my plate was pretty full these days. Training with Natasha, coding from Skye, engineering from Tony, tactics from Steve. All for the sake of becoming a better superhero, but it was all so damn exhausting. At this point, I was probably going to end up becoming some kind of Tom Strong even out of alien form.

Sounded kind of cool actually...

I saw Skye enter the area then, walking over towards us. She entered Simmons' lab and blinked at the sight of me shirtless with green ointment covering me across portions of my chest, back, and arms.

"Looks like you're finally getting those abs you wanted so badly," Skye said with a cocky smile.

"Avert your eyes," I quipped, covering myself up. "I'm a shy soul after all."

"I wouldn't call a guy who destroys castles 'shy'," she mumbled.

"All done!" Simmons closed the lid on the ointment she'd been putting on me, then turned to Skye. "Okay, I have the lab tests for you, Skye. They're... well, I'm not sure."

"That doesn't sound good," Skye noted.

I had to agree. We were here to talk about the oddity in Skye's DNA, to get some answers. I was still tempted to say Skye might be some sort of unknowing superhuman, but I'd rather figure out the truth as opposed to guessing it.

"It isn't bad!" Simmons said back, walking over to a computer. I hopped off my seat and walked over with Skye. "It's just confusing. See, at first, we believed that the GH.325 was the cause in some way. So I took an earlier sample I had from before that and studied it but..." she showed us two readings of DNA side by side, a dumbed-down version at least, one the screen. "It's not that. The GH.325 just healed you, nothing else. As far as we can tell, this has always been in your DNA."

"But what is it?" Skye asked, sounding worried, with good reason.

I stroked my chin, thinking. "Well... Skye? What's your name? Like, your real name?"

Skye looked at me for a moment, her eyes filled with... something. Something old, a pain I wasn't sure I'd be able to understand. Not in this life.

"I don't know. The name the orphanage gave me was 'Mary Sue Poots'," she said.

I coughed, trying not to show my thoughts on that. But still... Mary Sue? Damn, that is just a name with all sort of connotations.

She apparently took my sudden intense stare as me being bewildered. "Yeah, I know. It's a dumb name. I've been calling myself Skye just to keep from calling myself that. Why do you ask, anyway?"

I stared a moment longer, confirming that she wasn't some uber-perfect self-insert character but rather a normal, if very attractive, woman. Once I figured I could just check later if I was a character being mind controlled accidentally(only slightly joking), I focused on the topic at hand. "Well, I figured if we could find out... who you were, maybe find your parents, that might be a clue to whatever this is."

"You think this may be something she inherited?" Simmons asked.

"Worth a shot," I lied. In truth, I was banking on the idea that finding Skye's real name would help me use my meta-knowledge to know more. If she turned out to actually be named Cindy Moon, Laura, or something along those lines, I'd have an immediate answer. If not, it was at least helpful. Besides, while my knowledge was useful, it wasn't perfect, as the Grapplers being more morally grey and the Maximoff twins not running around with their dad had proven, among other things.

"I'm not so sure that will work," Skye said hesitantly. "If I have parents, well... they're probably dead."

"Then let's find out," I looked around the room. "Give me a few minutes, and enough machinery, and I can probably figure something out. It'll be a bit Jury Rigged though." I said the last part with a smug grin.

Skye and Simmons groaned in annoyance at the pun. I let that go to think further. "I'll have to wait for approval from BRIDGE's tech guys though..."

A consequence of technically working for BRIDGE was that I now had to follow rules and regulations. Not a terrible thing. But part of that was that my Jury Rigg tech was now something I needed to have approved, and with good reason. Jury Rigg was a genius, but he was a mad genius. Half the stuff he made had ridiculous booby traps for no reason other than to have them. And they were often bordering on cartoon physics in craziness. I'd seen some reports of HYDRA soldiers found with polka-dot skin and genitals that weren't their own. Products of bouncing off of Jury Rigg's Anti-Teleport device from when HYDRA had been teleporting their soldiers into the SHIELD science academy. It was wearing off but between that and the Claytronics Nanoforge randomly changing the hair color of anyone who stayed near it too long, BRIDGE now wanted to make sure they had some handle on what exactly the tiny red gremlin was making before they ended up with new body parts.

It was understandable but still annoying, I could not unlock Grey Matter soon enough.

"But... maybe there's another option?" Skye asked. When I looked up at her she explained further. "Well, I've been trying to do it on my own, find my parents by hacking old systems and tracking down information. But with the help of that armor you gave me, Jarvis, and X, I might find them."

"Any idea where to start?" I asked, thinking as quickly as I could.

"China," Skye said. "One of the villages. Give me some time and I'll be able to find my parents. Or... whatever is left of them."

"In the meantime, I'll keep doing my research," Simmons said, her accent on the word 'research' making me smile just a bit. "I've found a few of our own personnel with the same... quirk, as Skye's, so I can try and find out if there is something more to it."

"And I'll send in my idea to BRIDGE and get it approved," I clapped my hands. "In the meantime, I'm going to need the nanoforge."

-

I typed at the computer connected to the nanoforge in Tony's lab, trying to get my specifications right. While I had faith in my current armor, I wanted something more... sneaky, for my night out with Daredevil. As I worked, Tony was behind me, working on the arm gauntlet of a new piece of armor.

Making armor in the nanoforge was weird for me. Not surprising considering the fact that while making it, I'd been in Jury Rigg form or Upgrade form, with Fitz and Tony working alongside me. So while I was technically two of the four to make it, I was still a normal guy. Ask me about the Dresden Files or Mass Effect, hell, ask me about the Marvel Universe, and I probably had more information on those than you could believe, with only a few holes in that knowledge.

But working on the nanoforge, as easy as the interface was to use, was more akin to a computer developer from the Eighties suddenly given a supercomputer from the modern age. Sure, I had some idea of what I was doing, but it was clear that I was barely touching the surface of what could really be done with the nanoforge.

I looked over at Tony when he growled under his breath. "You alright?"

"Not really," he put the arm gauntlet down and looked over at me. "Can I borrow Upgrade?"

"Hmm?"

"By that, I mean, can you do that creepy thing where you mix your body with tech?" he asked.

"You could put it in a less weird and insulting sounding way," I grumbled, turning from the nanoforge to start flipping through my Omnitrix menu.

"I could, but I won't. Don't get me wrong, it's cool as hell," Tony said, ignoring the bright green flash of light that came with my transformation. "And combining with you to fight against Blackout was like wearing my armor for the first time again. But it's also kind of gross if you think too hard about it."

"Yeah, yeah," I grumbled in Upgrade form, moving to stand above him. "So, what do you want me to do?"

"...Okay, let me break this down," Tony turned and raised a hand, a holoscreen popping up. A good one, not the weird fuzzy one's BRIDGE was still using. A schematic of four armors showed up. The War Machine armor, the BRIDGE Catom Heavy Armor, the Darkforce Armor, and the new Hulkbuster armor.

"I've been working on nanite tech for a while. Some of the issues with that are pretty obvious, like getting the machines to work together in tandem, an AI that can work with the tech, all kinds of stuff," Tony said matter of factly.

"How about you write me a booklet on this stuff for later?" I grumbled.

"Sure, as soon as you finish your homework by Tuesday," Tony snarked. He grinned a bit when I grumbled again. "What, you don't like it? You were the one who said you wanted to learn about this stuff."

"Doesn't mean I have the head for this."

Tony smirked. "You're better than you think. Just keep it up, and stop being so mopey. Anyway, before you so rudely interrupted me," Tony gave me a mock glare before continuing. "Okay, so, nanite armor has been kind of a far-off idea for a bit. I probably could have made it work in a bit, maybe... six years from now? 2019, at the least, unless I'm underestimating myself. Which, I often am. Can't help but surprise myself with my own brilliance."

"Tony..." I said, giving him my best Upgrade smile, which was mostly twisting my 'eye' into a happy shape if that made sense. "Come on, man."

"Right," Tony tapped the holo-screen. "So, nanite armor. It was kind of a pipe dream. Until now," he gestured at the screen. "Upgrade has combined with two suits and a helicarrier, and blatantly ignored any laws of conservation of mass. I mean you weigh what, three hundred pounds like that? How does that much material manage to spread across a giant ass ship like that?"

He tapped at the screen, showing the catom armor and Hulkbuster. "Thankfully, I have a few answers, thanks to the catom. If I can study Upgrade's makeup further, I think I can make armor similar to him."

Tony thought that. I knew he could, considering the Symbiote suit and the Model Prime suit, both of them somewhat close to what Upgrade could do, if not as insane. Tony Stark in armor built by a combination of his genius and the Omnitrix tech aliens...

"Okay," I crossed my large black and white arms. "What do you need me to do?"

"First, I want to get some real scans of you combining with my suits," Tony said rubbing his chin. "With enough scans, we can find something out about how you do your thing."

I looked over at the clock. I had a few hours.

"Okay, sure. But help me with my thing after, okay?"

"Sure thing," Tony reached for a table and grabbed a rubber glove, turning around to put it on with a snap and grin. "Now, bend over and cough."

I narrowed my eye. "I swear, I will laser you right now."

"Sheesh, who killed your sense of humor?" Tony brushed a hand in the air, dismissing the holoscreen floating before him. "Jarvis, start it up."

"Of course, sir," Jarvis said, several scanning machines activating around me as Tony watched a suit rise up from a hole that opened in the floor. Without prompting, I flowed to meld with the suit, and the scans began to run across me.

For a few minutes, Tony and Jarvis scanned me as I moved around in his armor. Which was weird, being an empty suit shaped like a person in some way. Moving empty arms and legs was freaky. Once done with that, he had me use some of Upgrade's abilities to improve and change things: making extra weapons, new arms, separating and combining with the suit, connecting online to speak with Jarvis and X directly, etc.

Once done with all that, Tony seemed really excited. He was at his computer when I timed out, manipulating a hologram and desperately typing out mathematical equations as I walked over. When I came up to him, he grinned, a manic light in his eyes.

"Fanboy, do you realize how crazy advanced Upgrade is?" he asked, bringing up a model of the catom armor blueprints before tossing pieces from it into a holographic trash can that appeared. He also walked over to the nanoforge and typed at it before dismissing the screen. "By the way, I finished your new armor."

"Kind of," I asked, staring as he began to work faster and the nanoforge began to work. "Dude, that was like, five seconds of typing!"

"I'm just that good," Tony smirked at me, then looked back at the holograms he was summoning and dismissing with quick waves of his hands. "If I can make a suit even close to the kind of tech in Upgrade, I won't have to make another one ever again… which is kind of disappointing, but I guess I'll take up gardening or something. Cross that bridge when I get to it," he said. As if Tony Stark wouldn't just keep somehow upgrading anyways. He'd probably find a way to upgrade reality popping technology if given a chance. Didn't he make a suit that could kill Galactus in a video game or something…? While I pondered this Tony kept working, "Jarvis, bring up the scans from when he made that shoulder cannon."

"Of course, sir," Jarvis sounded… fascinated. Which made sense I guess. This universe was crazy, but as far as I could tell it hadn't gotten to the insane levels of the Earth-616 universe. Which meant Tony was getting a hell of a jumpstart to his understanding of technology. Thank you Azmuth.

"Sir, I must remind you that Mrs. Potts expects you at the fundraiser tonight," Jarvis said calmly. "It will take some time to compile all the data we have collected, I suggest you get ready."

Looking at the clock, I realized we'd taken longer than I'd thought. It was almost time for me to meet Matt. I walked up to the nanoforge and pressed a button to bring out my newly modified armor, which came out in a new form.

Tony blinked, looking torn for a moment. I rubbed the back of my neck, looking at all the holograms now floating around, dozens of notes written next to each one.

"Wish I could understand what these mean. I mean, I'm not dumb, but you make me feel like I'm walking through life drunk, stoned, and sleep deprived," I admitted.

"Careful Fanboy, your lack of self-esteem is showing," Tony said with a snort. "Besides, this is all just me rambling," Tony waved at the holograms around us. "I mean, yeah, I'm crazy smart, but Upgrade's tech is way above what I can currently make. I'll figure it out, sure. But it's still impressive."

I had to admire that about Tony. He knew he was smart, but he always gave other geniuses their due. Sure, he was still snarky about it, but I never saw him be dismissive towards Fitz or Bruce's suggestions. He was arrogant, with good reason, but also saw the value in the smarts of others. Not many people saw that, and I felt privileged to see that side of him.

"Anyway, Jarvis is right. I should let the data get all nice and sorted while I go party," Tony clapped his hands, then put an arm around my shoulder to lead me out. "Sure you don't want to come?"

"I got patrol," I admitted.

"Huh. I don't know if I envy you or feel sorry for you. I mean, on the one hand, you're going out to fight bad guys while I have to convince tight-fisted millionaires to pay for schools to get funding. On the other hand, at least I get to drink with a beautiful woman on my arm."

Hard to argue with that. Tony stopped us at the elevator and turned me around. "Okay kid, if this is what you want. But remember, you've got that press release day after tomorrow and the merchandise the bean counters want you to approve. So get some sleep in, got it."

"What are you, my dad?"

"Come back before the sun is up or you're grounded, young man," Tony grinned, then stopped. "Oh god, what have I become?" he sounded almost haunted. "I'm too young for that joke to be a thing!"

"You're like 40, right?"

"Ha! 44 actually!" he said proudly.

"Still old."

"Would you just...," he pushed me good-naturedly into the elevator as it opened, scowling at me as I grinned. "Go beat up some bad guys you little brat."

I laughed as the door closed on Tony's face.

-

That night, in the darkness of New York City, I stood on top of a rooftop in Hell's Kitchen, waiting silently. After getting scanned by Tony, I had a few other things to do. He apparently had a fundraiser that day, so we ended up separating earlier than I thought, but he'd managed to help me make my new suit.

Well, it was really just an armored chestplate and helmet, both hidden in the form of a black t-shirt and hat. They were a bit heavy, but it worked. I work a dark long-sleeved coat that stopped at my thighs and some shoes I could run in. Perfect for night patrols.

I looked out over the city. Man. When I was younger, I used to dream about being in New York. The city has a real hold on pop culture after all. Kinda interesting, the places life takes you.

On the dot, Daredevil appeared from the shadows. He'd apparently read the manual because the entire suit was now a different color. It matched with the color of the night sky above, not quite black, but enough to blend into the shadows with ease. Only his eyes were still red.

"Isn't it tough for you to figure out colors?" I asked him curiously as he walked towards me.

"The manual was very comprehensive," Matt said simply. " How are you, Dial?"

"I'm good, Daredevil," I tapped my long-sleeved shirt on the spot where my heart would be. Catoms shifted, and soon my chest was covered in dark colored plates of armor. My hat 'flowed' down my head to become a thin helmet with a segmented look matching my armor. The Omnitrix symbol rested on my chest, though it was only in matte paint and very dark green against the black background. My pistol rested on my hip. Daredevil gestured to it.

"What is that? I can't smell gunpowder coming from it, but it smells like the same metal they make guns from."

"BCW pistol, the new standard issue of BRIDGE, including ICER rounds to knock people out without killing them," I told him. "Although this one was made special for me," With that said, I raised my hand and grabbed my Omnitrix, twisting to bring up the menu.

Time to use a critically underutilized alien. I pressed down on the dial.

In a moment, I began to change. My skin went from flesh to paper in texture. My organs were gone, leaving only a husk filled with strange energy. I flexed my bandage-like body.

 **"** **SNARE-OH!"**

"Why even put the armor on if you were just going to change into an alien?" Daredevil asked me, sounding amused.

 _"_ _My new armor is automatic,"_ I explained, shifting to look at him. _"_ _If I timeout early, it will be active already, no need to turn it on. So I'll have protection no matter what."_

Something that had been an issue with the last model. Seemed like making catom armor work with the Omnitrix was tricky. But this new one was made just for that purpose, to be used in conjunction with the alien watch. Maybe one day I'd take it further, but for now...

 _"_ _Where should we start?"_ I asked in my ghoulish voice.

Daredevil was silent for a moment. He shook his head abruptly. "Sorry, it's just… I know you can turn into aliens, but I don't think I understood what that really meant until now. You feel… strange, to me."

 _"_ _Strange?"_ I asked, now curious. Snare-Oh was a weird alien after all, even compared to the others. What would he feel like to someone with the enhanced senses of Daredevil?

"Like you're flesh surrounding energy," Daredevil's mouth, the only exposed part of him, was twisted in an unusual grimace. "I'll get over it. Anyway…"

Daredevil walked over to the edge of the roof and pointed into the distance. "The docks. I heard something about 'cargo' being smuggled," he took the billy clubs on his hips and pressed a button on one of them. It flew out and hooked to a water tower. He looked over at me. "Can you catch up?"

 _"_ _You tell me,"_ I said smugly. Swinging an arm out, one of my bandages stretched out and grabbed another tower. _"_ _Let's go."_

With that, we swung into the night.


	52. Chapter 52

_Author's Note:_ Happy Halloween.

* * *

Web swinging (and yes, I knew I was using living bandages but this was a Marvel universe, so web-swinging is the word I'll use) had to be one of the most fun ways I'd ever used to travel in New York. Flying was fun, sure, but something about feeling gravity and momentum working together to send me past the buildings made me want to yell out for joy. I got the hang of it very quickly, going off my time playing Spider-Man and Batman video games to help.

Of course, the fact I was Snare-Oh helped me even further. At any moment, I could simply turn into scraps of bandages and shoot forward before changing back into my humanoid form, giving me even more mobility through the city. At one point, when faced with a massive building ahead of me, I simply rolled onto the ground, turned into long lines of paper, and shot upwards. Once at the roof, I turned back to my humanoid form, launched two bandages that attached to a pipe on the roof, pulled myself forward, and shot back into the sky, the material of my body giving me a bit of drag as I fell through the sky towards the lights of the city. It was exhilarating, even more than flying. I mean, it was awesome to fly, but when I was doing it to get from point A to point B, it was more boring, since I was essentially just moving in a straight line. This was much more involved, like parkour on speed.

Daredevil ran along buildings at a slightly slower pace, but not by much. He knew the city better than I did, even with all my patrolling, taking alleyways and shortcuts to match my pace. His new billy clubs helped, having been made to be as close as I could make them to the comics. I'd even included a variation on the Goop formula so it could attach to walls without needing to wrap around anything.

Heading over to the docks he'd indicated, we ended up near a warehouse. I landed on a water tower in a classic Spidey pose, Daredevil landing at the foot of it as we gazed at the dock. A bunch of large shipping containers lay next to the warehouse, at the edge of the water leading to the harbor. A man in a chair was near the shipping containers, clearly waiting for someone. More men milled around the area. In the darkness though, only the fact I was looking for them let me see where they were. I thought about changing to Wildmutt to try and sense if they were armed with guns, but I decided to leave that for later. After all, if I needed super-senses, I could outsource rather than expend Omnitrix energy.

 _"What have we got?"_ I asked, shifting my bright green eyes to look down at Daredevil. He stood still a moment, shifting his head from side to side and taking deep breaths. I imagined, like Wildmutt, he was smelling and tasting the air. Which, in New York City, was an extremely mixed bag.

"About ten guys guarding the area. Only three are armed with guns. One is drunk, smells like he had tequila at the Mexican restaurant nearby. One of them, the guy near the door, he's jittery. He's an addict, jonesing for a hit. Everyone else is bored though like they have a long wait ahead. I think we have some time before the 'cargo', whatever it is, shows up."

He cocked his head at me as I stared, dumbfounded. After a silence, he rubbed his chin. "I'm not sure how you're reacting with this alien form. Is that enough to go on?"

 _"Pretty sure it is,"_ I said slowly. I stroked the mask bit where my chin would be, a raspy sound from my wraps rubbing together filling the air. _"Well, we need proof of wrongdoing. Can't just rush in and attack a bunch of guys on a dock."_

"So we wait," Daredevil said, moving to sit on the edge of the building.

I did the same.

For a few minutes, we simply sat in awkward silence together. Finally, unable to handle it, I turned to look at him and said the first thing that came to mind. _"So, you, uh... watch movies? Play video games, read, any of that?"_

He chuckled, sounding surprised. "Not, uh, not as much as I wish I could. I'm usually too busy. Can't remember the last time I did any of that. Plus, you know, not a lot of media for blind people," the last words teasing.

Oh crap, don't tell me I forgot! I was just trying to make the time pass, and that's such a stereotypical conversation starter! _"Ah, crap, I'm sorry man, I didn't-"_

"No, it's fine. I've, uh, read a lot. Since I can read the raised ink, its one of the only ways I can absorb media. I also like comic books."

 _"Really?"_ I asked, surprised.

"Well, if the ink is distinct enough, I can feel it and get an image in my head. It's easier to read regular books though. Nowadays, comics are a bit fuzzier for me."

 _"You should try manga,"_ I suggested. _"Their brushstrokes tend to be a lot more defined. So, what books have you read?"_

"A lot of the classics," Matt said. "Lord of the Rings was good. I also liked... someone's coming."

In a smooth movement, Matt rose to his feet, while I shapeshifted myself to stand. Below us, a white van pulled onto the docks. Matt stiffened, and I looked over at him.

 _"What is it?"_

"...screams," he said in a soft voice. A dangerous voice. "We need to get down there."

He swung his billy club out and attached it to the nearest crane on the docks, swinging across as the van rolled towards where the man in the chair was sitting. I followed, my mind slowly realizing what was happening, but still not quite processing it.

We landed on a shipping container as the white van rolled to a stop in front of an open container. As we watched, two guys got out, leaving the van's headlights on to illuminate the docks. A tall, thin, black man with a shaved head and groomed goatee walked up as the driver and passenger opened the back of the van.

More men walked up, helping to drag the 'cargo' out.

Eight of them, female, young, pretty, with makeup ruined from crying. All of them were wearing some variation of low-skirted dress, and they were different in many ways, from skin tone to hair color, to body type.

The clinical side of me noted all of this. The emotional part of me felt a cold chill in my wraps. I stared at the screaming and crying group of girls as they were dragged over to the open container, the men forcing them along uncaring.

"Okay," I said coldly, my ghoulish voice letting me whisper very easily. "I'll start with the guys on the edge. Point them out for me, please."

Matt pointed them out. I nodded. "Got it. Keep your comm open."

"What is the plan?" Matt whispered.

"I'll get rid of the guys around the area. You protect the girls from harm. Good?"

"Good," Matt flourished his billy clubs.

Down below, the tall black man was saying something about a bucket. He raised a baton and demonstrated the shock feature. When the girls panicked, he rolled his eyes and moved in to touch it against a girl.

I forced myself to move at the same time Matt dropped down. I swung up using the crane, moving towards a section on top of shipping containers that were triple-stacked. A guy was roaming back and forth on top of it. I turned into a bundle of bandages and dropped in front of him in that shape. He swore, stepping back in surprise, then blinking at the sight of me.

I didn't give him time to wonder where I came from. Instead, I leaped upwards, wrapping around his mouth as he tried to shout. My other bandages squeezed tight to the rest of his body, pinning his arms and legs together, bones creaking under my grip as I wrapped around him. I made sure to wrap around his throat extra tight as my head rose up. He screamed once more when his eyes met mine, air leaving his lungs. I took pleasure in the sight of his face turning red, the tears and fear in his eyes. He struggled, and I growled in disgust before letting go and gagging him. I hung him up Batman: Arkham Series style from a light post, leaving him wiggling with a silent scream against my bandages.

At the same time, Daredevil was giving the guys hell. He broke the nose of the tall black man, sending him flying. Another man tried to jump him from behind, so Matt backflipped over him before dropping down to slam his boots into his attackers back as he dropped, the man screaming on the ground as Matt ground his feet into his back. Another man grabbed the shock baton off the floor where the tall man had dropped it, swinging it to hit Matt in the head. He grunted at the impact on his helmet, then spun around with his billy clubs to hit the guy, sending blood and teeth spraying from the thug's mouth.

Damn. Matt looked… scary. He flowed around in a dark blur, seeming to blend in the shadows. His horns somehow seemed massively prominent, and his hands and feet smashed into people with hatred I couldn't fathom. The guy seemed unstoppable. Natasha and Bucky, as ruthless as they were, felt business-like in their combat. Matt was more like… like…

His horns stood prominently on his helmet as his red eyes glowed in the flash of the lights.

I left my own target on the top of the containers wrapped in bandages and jumped over to another guy.

* * *

 ** _Random Thug_**

He had no idea what was going. Today was supposed to be just another day on the job. Watch the docks in case of police, be ready for the shipment, watch it head out, then get paid. It was easy work as long you weren't arrested, certainly paid more than being a fast food worker.

Now here he was, his gun out as he ran in between the shipping containers. Apparently, according to the radio, some guy in a costume was attacking. One guy and he was kicking their asses. He needed to get over there, he needed to-

Something tall dropped down in front of him. He panicked, raising his gun at the tall figure in the darkness and shooting, hitting it in the chest several times. The figure froze. Then it walked forward.

He fired again, his bullet hitting it where the figure's heart should have been, but it kept walking forward. Then, it's arms seemed to… open, at three lines around the forearms on both. They glowed a bright green. A sickly green. A pair of lights joined in where his head should have been.

"What the fuck?" he said quietly in horror. "What are you?!"

In response, the figure seemed to stretch outward. Then it filled the alleyway.

"Oh my god!" he screamed, shooting over and over again. Something that smelled like sand and cloth wrapped around him, throwing him to his left hard enough to break his arm. He screamed again. The last he saw before passing out was a pair of green eyes in the shadow, his scream drowned out in a sea of rough cloth choking him.

* * *

 ** _Matt Murdock/Daredevil_**

Breathing hard, Matt threw a billy club, bouncing it off the pavement, then a shipping container, where it hit a man who had been reaching for one of the women, presumably to use as a hostage. The girls had huddled together as they watched, screaming and shaking with fear.

Matt caught the billy club when it returned, ducked under a punch from a tall pale skinned man with large muscles and came up in a backflip that smashed his boots into the man's chin, sending him back to the ground.

Someone cocked a gun, drawing Matt's attention. He tossed his billy club at the tall black man on the ground, knocking the gun out of his hand, then flipped over to kick him in the face.

He closed in on another man, sliding around a kick to close in. There was a terrifying brutality as Matt fought. As though all the anger and hatred a human could have suddenly moved through him, his hands twisting the man's arm to shatter his wrist, then fists flowing to break his nose. Matt growled a low inhuman sound that further scared the women watching, then twisted to throw the man against a shipping container with the brutal slap of pounds of flesh on metal. When the beaten man tried to struggle up again, the devil stomped on his head with just enough force to knock him out.

Two men, the last of those standing, rushed Matt at the same time. He stood his ground as they came, then slid around a kick to punch one of the men in the face.

Suddenly, the three men were in a melee, dodging, blocking, and attacking in a fierce blaze of blows. Matt's senses sang, the sound of fists and feet slicing through the air, the smell of sweat, the feel of vibrations through the pavement, the taste of blood in the air and on his mouth, all working together to create a world of flames. He navigated through the fire, taking a few hits on his new armor.

His new, and apparently very strong, armor.

It still hurt a bit to be punched, but it was nothing compared to before when his heightened sense of touch seemed to scream with every blow.

The fight ended in a single moment. Matt leaped up when one of the men tried to sweep his feet out from under him, twisting to kick his feet out in one direction while punching the other, savagely hitting both men in the head and sending them to the ground.

He twisted in the air and threw a billy club in the head of the tall black man, who was reaching for his gun. As the hardened steel sent teeth flying and shattered bones, Matt smiled just a bit. With that, he walked over to finish him off.

* * *

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

I tossed that guy aside wrapped in my bandages, then flew towards a man coming around the corner. I decided against any fancy tricks. When he pulled out a knife and stabbed me in the chest, I simply ignored the knife to tackle him into a brick wall behind him, then wrapped him up, letting him lay there wriggling as all nine feet of me ran to the next guy.

It was almost sad. One guy tried to punch me in the face, only to scream in horror when I opened up a 'mouth' with 'fangs' of cloth and devoured him, spitting him out in bandages with all his fingers in his hands broken. I would have felt sorry.

But when I'd finished and rejoined Daredevil, he was finishing off the last of the guys, resting on the man's chest and punching him over and over in the face. I'd have stopped him if it wasn't for the fact I could see two things. The group of eight women and the container they would have been transported in.

I dropped down from the sky and landed, all nine feet of mummy standing tall over the devil beating a man. Matt and I must have made a terrifying sight, me with my strange appearance and glowing green eyes, Matt's fists sending up blood to fall across his armor and bare mouth under the lights of the white van.

One of the women screamed when I stepped forward. Thinking quickly, I tapped the Omnitrix, turning back into my human form in the armor I'd created. With a twist of my wrists, my helmet fell away, leaving me looking over at the group of woman. Matt rose next to me, panting hard.

"Ladies, please calm down," I told the group, feeling a little nervous. "I'm Dial, from the Avengers. This is Daredevil, one of the..." I thought fast, realizing he wasn't on a team. "Marvel Knights," Matt cocked his head at that. "We're heroes. We came to help."

The women began to calm down after hearing that. I twisted my wrists, bringing my helmet back up and looking around as my comms called 911, recording the call as well as bringing X in on the conversation.

"Daredevil," I said while the phone rang. "This was too-"

"Organized," Matt agreed immediately. "Think we should ask some questions?"

"This ends," I said harshly, breathing the words out hard.

Human trafficking. Slavery. My eyes panned back to the shipping container, with two ratty mattresses and a single blanket resting inside, no food or water. I looked at the ground, where a single bucket rested innocently on the pavement. Then at the women, who even now were crying.

I felt an impulse then, to turn into one of my brute aliens and smash the dock apart until I could forget what had been happening in my city. Sex slavery... No. Not anymore.

As the phone rang, I looked back at Daredevil, who was clenching his billy clubs tightly. "Going to be a late one. You okay with that?"

Matt smiled a slow and vicious smile. "Yes. Yes, I am."

"Good. Because we need answers," right on cue, one of the men Matt had beaten up groaned in pain. We looked over at him lying on the ground. He looked at us.

I'm not sure what he thought of us. Me in my strange plated helmet and Matt dressed like the devil while covered in blood. But he shuddered in fear, twisting on his stomach and trying to pull away.

I had just the alien for this. With a twist of the dial, I brought up my chosen alien. "X, can you let the police know what is going on?"

"Of course," the southern accent of my favorite AI said, sounding a bit distracted, but willing.

Looking over at my current partner, I played further with the Omnitrix, just out of habit.

"Daredevil, can you ask him questions? I won't be able to talk."

Matt blinked. "Then what will you be doing?"

I walked toward the man whimpering as he scrambled at the pavement, pulling himself away from me while I pushed down on the Omnitrix. "I'm playing Bad Dog."

"Don't you mean Bad… Oh," Matt said as the green flash ended, nose flaring. He shrugged, walking over to join me.

The man on the floor, with his tanned skin and leather jacket, looked up at me as his nose poured blood. His eyes widened, and he screamed.

I snarled at the noise, leaning in towards him. He surprised me by struggling quickly to his feet and taking three running steps. Curious as to how far he'd go, I began to chase him, roaring. My claws tore through the pavement to shoot me after him. He screamed in horror, reaching the van and getting in.

I jumped at the hood of the van, landing on it hard, and aiming my eyeless face at him as my drool poured down long fangs while I growled loudly, dripping against the windshield, his sweet fear scent filling my scent glands. He shrieked, scratching at his jacket, tears in his eyes. The animal in me reveled in the presence of prey. The human in me smiled at the knowledge of a scared monster.

Because what else do you call a sex slaver?

He finally got his keys out, reaching to put them in the ignition. I put my paw against the glass. Slowly, I pressed against the windshield.

He let out a wordless scream when cracks started to blossom beneath my paw. I smiled, fangs flashing. Daredevil walked slowly up, and I could hear the low chuckle he made as the thug in the van screamed.

The man finally got the key in the ignition, hands twitching and turning on the engine.

In a quick move, I slammed my other paw through the hood and ripped into the engine of the van, my claws treating steel like paper-mache. The smell of oil and the sound of an engine dying filled the air as I dug around in the car, then ripped it out of the hood, presenting over three hundred pounds of metal in one paw to him as I smiled at my prey.

"P-Please put that back…" the crying thug whimpered. My many fangs flashed as I tossed it aside. He broke down then, screaming and crying at the same time.

The windshield broke under my paw, and he lost it, going into the fetal position in the driver's seat as I leaned in, taking deep whiffs of his exquisite fear. God, you haven't lived until you found out how good a scared person you're hunting smells.

I barked loudly, getting another whimper, the man's snot dripping down his upper lip from his nose.

Then someone knocked on the window. The man looked over at Daredevil, who gave him a wide grin.

"You know, I can end this. Just answer some questions and, well, I might tell him not to eat you…"

I snarled, trying to convey disappointment, leaning forward and licking the man's face. Oddly not as gross or off-putting to my current mind as the action would likely be if I was human.

"OH GOD! Please, please, just get it away from me!"

"Oh, believe me, I want to. Seeing him eat is not pleasant," I bit the guy's hair and tugged hard, Daredevil knocking on the glass as though admonishing me for it. The guys screamed and sobbed, trying to push me away while also trying not to touch me.

"Pal, look at me," Daredevil said, sounding both chipper and threatening all at once. He switched up, taking on a smooth and calm tone. The devil offering a deal to the desperate and dying. "You can get out of this. All you have to do… is talk to me. You have a chance. What's your name?"

When he didn't speak, just kept sobbing, I slashed outwards, ripping his shirt off, then pressed my paw to his chest.

For just a moment, I hesitated. Then I thought of what would have happened to those women, and pushed down my humanity, dipping into the animal I was borrowing.

My claws dug slowly into his chest, blood beginning to be drawn.

"BRIAN! My name is BRIAN ROBERTS!"

"Brian. Okay, Brian. You have a chance here. Answer my questions, and we'll let you go. It's an easy choice, Brian. Aren't those nice? Say yes, and you get a great prize. Say no, and you get something… else," claws tore just a bit, followed by whimpers. "What do you say?"

"Y-Yes!"

I backed away from Brian, who sobbed with relief, reaching to pull his jacket over the claw marks in his chest. My scent glands flared at the scent of blood.

"Good. Now, what do you know about your bosses and their business? And don't lie, believe me when I say…"

Daredevil leaned in close and his eyes glowed red, from inbuilt armor systems, as his voice grew deadly serious.

 **"I'll know."**


	53. Chapter 53

When the police got to the docks, Matt and I watched from on top of a crane overlooking it. I eyed the cops as they surrounded the area, putting away the men we'd knocked out. Wearing my new stealth armor, I blinked in a brief pattern that activated the 'Zoom and Enhance Cliche' tech, letting me watch a group of cops blinking at the sight of a pair of men tied up in Snare-Oh bandages. Another couple of guys were being cared for by EMTs. The women we'd saved were helped into cars. One of them looked up briefly, where she must have seen Matt and I rappel towards, gave us a hesitant wave, then got into the police car.

The guy we were interrogating was shivering as he was taken away, his shirt still ripped. He kept mumbling to himself and the officers taking him, looking shell-shocked.

As the police gathered their quarry, I looked at Matt. "Okay, what is he saying?"

Matt cocked his head to point his right ear toward the guy. "Something about... Satan and his hellhound," Matt shook his head. "I think he's getting better, but we scared him. Don't worry though, his heartbeat is calming down. Not that he deserves it..."

I shook my head, feeling a bit disquieted. Sure, we had only skirted a line, not crossed it. And it had been for damn sure justified.

There were more girls in the city. Being... made, created, produced, whatever fucking thing you could call it. The Russians were behind it.

My feelings about sex workers are... complicated. On the one hand, if a man or woman truly wants to do such a thing, I think it's their right to. They should be allowed to have control over their bodies, as long as they don't hurt innocent people or force their views onto others. I also believe they should be as protected as any other citizen. The fact that they are seen as easy targets, people you can belittle and abuse without consequence is a travesty.

But worse is when they are forced into it. I won't get into it. I won't describe the horrific things that need to be done to control a person without the brainwashing tech that HYDRA used, the... Well. Compared to the Russians, HYDRA might as well have been kind. Though I didn't doubt that they had used such methods themselves before more 'efficient' ways were developed.

I clenched and unclenched my fists, slowly.

Yeah. I was pissed.

"Okay then. We have a plan?" I asked Daredevil.

"I thought you would have one," he said, surprising me. "You've been a, well, superhero for a while, right?"

"Yeah, but I learned everything about it from comic books before I ended up fighting alongside the Avengers," I admitted. Still, his comment had me thinking on that.

The Russians were apparently behind the human slave trade now. The guy we'd interrogated had no idea how that happened since he was just a low-level guy, but he knew the basics. The Russians, Chinese, Yakuza, even some of the old mobsters, had taken over Hell's Kitchen.

"...Right here, right now, we know of one building where people are in danger," I said at last.

"Agreed," Matt rose to his feet, facing me as we balanced on the crane above the docks, both in our dark armor. "We go in and save them."

"And at the same time, we send the report of what happened to my people," I said grimly. "They'll know what to do with the information we find... X."

 _"_ _Yes, sir,"_ X said quietly.

"I might need you again. Is that okay? This stuff... this is the darker part of human nature."

 _"_ _Jarvis and I have been working on the Dark Web together for some time, confronting those using it for the purpose of harming the innocent. I will have no issues aiding you,"_ he said, sounding positively vicious. _"Humanity has its monsters, sir. I have no issue helping the devil to punish them."_

I blinked at that, surprised. "You've been..."

 _"_ _Under the direction of Maria Hill, we have saved hundreds of young children, women, and men. There has been some issues, but I am proud of the work we have done."_

Holy... so that's what she wanted to borrow him for. Sometimes it was easy to forget that I didn't always have a direct view of the heroism happening in the world around me.

"X, you are a freaking gift I never expected," I said, surprised as hell. "Seriously, anything you want after this, it's yours."

 _"_ _I will remember that,"_ X said simply.

"In the meantime, we need directions. Time to..." I stopped. I couldn't think of something pithy to say. I thought of saying one of Ben's quotes, but... no. Not tonight. Instead, I took a deep breath. "Show us the target, X."

Daredevil said nothing as his helmet, rather than showing the GPS route I was getting on my own HUD, simply booted up the program I'd created to aid him with sightless navigation. Once the route was made, and I'd changed into Snare-Oh again, we were off.

And as we went, I steeled myself. I knew what we would find there. I knew it might be even worse than that. There had been some... rough moments for me before. I still checked up on the one woman I hadn't been able to save before she was raped, instead beating her attackers more viciously than I ever had up to that point.

I had to keep a clear head. I had to save innocents, but also not... god help me. Allah, all I want to do now is rip and tear all of these evil bastards. And being Snare-Oh wasn't helping. Because if any form knows the meaning of undying anger, of course, it would be one of the aliens from the Anur System.

Daredevil and I swung silently into the city as I tried to keep my spirits up.

 _ **Tony Stark/Iron Man**_

Tony and Pepper entered the ballroom to a roar of applause. Ever the showman, Tony waved at the crowd of rich folk and journalists, smirking cockily as some cameras flashed. Tony wore a pristine gray suit, with a silk green shirt underneath, while Pepper was wearing a sleek black dress that really did incredible things to her legs.

"What am I spending my money on again?" Tony mumbled to Pepper, who had an arm in his as she guided him through the room.

"It's a fundraiser to help schools on the East Coast," Pepper whispered to him, nodding graciously to the crowd. "We're donating equipment, helping with school programs, that sort of thing."

"Why would I help a bunch of nerds?" Tony asked with an honest smile.

"You love nerds."

"I love the nerds I actually know," the billionaire smiled a bit wider. "But no, it's great. I wish you'd told me sooner. Am I giving them enough money? I want to make sure it's a lot."

"Between you and Mahmoud, I think a lot of good will be done. It's not perfect, of course," Pepper admitted, taking a glass of champagne as a waiter passed and the pair walked up to a podium at the end of their walk.

"Fanboy's paying for this too?" Tony blinked. "Oh yeah, he's rich. I should get him something."

"He's rich, so you need to get him more stuff?" Pepper asked.

"Rich people get free things, everyone knows that. At least, all the random crap people keep sending me says so."

Pepper sighed in annoyance as they finally reached the podium, Tony getting behind it to speak.

"Okay, calm down so I can get a word in," he said, the audience laughing on command. Tony hid a scowl. Always annoying how pandering some people can get. Of course, Tony also didn't like when people ignored or got mad at him, but at least they had the respect to be honest with him, rather than kissing his ass. "All right, we all know why we're here. To give money to schools, then drink wine and eat expensive foods to make sure we keep wineries and caterers in business. Which, is kind of a fundraiser on top of a fundraiser so, congrats to us!"

Everyone cheered.

"So, get plastered, eat a lot, and pay out the butt to keep the next guy as smart as me in school! Cheers!"

As everyone clapped, Tony looked at Pepper, grinning. "Pretty good, right?"

She gave him a look that was typical Pepper, a combination of fond and exasperated. "Good, except that you weren't supposed to give a speech. That guy was."

Huh. Yeah, that older balding guy looked surprised as hell.

"Eh, I probably did a better job anyway," Tony took her by the arm. "Come on, let's dance!"

"You're incorrigible," Pepper chuckled, letting herself be pulled away.

"Hey, I'm irresistible," Tony smirked.

"Well, 12 percent or so," Pepper smirked at the stunned look on Tony's face. "Maybe a little more, depending on how things go."

"Sheesh, you'd think you'd let that go," Tony grumbled.

"Only a little," she giggled, almost shaking with laughter. "About 12 percent."

The pair grinned at each other, dancing across the ballroom as one. For a moment, Tony felt at peace. He had his girl, good food, and some crap drinks, while the terrible classic music played. Pepper was smiling at him, guiding him more than he was guiding her. Thank god she was a good dancer.

She pulled him in for a kiss, and he let her do it, pressing close. They held for a moment.

"Mr. Stark."

And then someone had to goddamn ruin it.

Holding back the urge to call in a suit and rain repulsors on the interrupting speaker, Tony pulled away and sighed slightly, annoyed. Pepper chuckled, then the two looked at the speaker.

A blonde woman stood there. She was kinda pretty, short, and looking way smug. Huh. This chick.

"I'm sorry, can I help you, Miss..." Tony trailed off, looking confused.

The smug look on her face fell away, Pepper coughing back a delicate laugh. She recovered, badly, and held out a hand with a fake smile. "Christine Everhart, WHiH World News."

"Oh I get it, you want a job," Tony said quickly. "I get it, working for those hacks. Tell you what, Pepper could use a new assistant since her best one turned out to be Avenger material."

"I'd rather not," Pepper smiled. "Natasha was too good to be replaced by anyone subpar."

Christine's smile shattered, turning into a scowl. She dropped her hand, which Tony had pointedly not taken. "I wanted to ask you about recent reports that you've been patrolling New York City. Don't you think this show of vigilante justice may cause issues? If you start attacking people in the street, with none of the training or oversight that police officers have-"

"How about this, I'll promise not to attack anyone who isn't stealing, attacking, or messing with people. Oh, or shooting at me, that's important," Tony snarked.

"And you aren't worried about taking jobs from good police officers?" Christine asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Not the good ones, no," Tony smirked. "Trust me, there is plenty of crime in the world to keep me busy. I just throw out a helping hand when I can."

"Yes, you do... but what about your latest partner?" she smiled viciously as if she'd nailed him.

Which technically, was the opposite of the truth in so many ways (Tony mentally high-fived himself). He cocked an eyebrow at Christine, not noticing how Pepper had stiffened. "What, Dial? He's solid. Kids got some mad skills."

"I don't disagree," though her tone said otherwise. "I'm talking about the new female in armor who has been following you both around on patrols. A lot of our viewers are wondering who she is, what her purpose on your 'patrols' are since it doesn't seem to be fighting crime."

Tony narrowed his eyes. "Rescue isn't a superhero."

"Ironic name, considering she hasn't 'rescued' anyone yet," Christine pointed out. "So you just gave your armor, one of the most powerful weapons on Earth, to a woman foooor what, exactly? So you could have some cheering you on from the sidelines?" Christine asked. She looked over at Pepper, her smile vicious as the redhead eyed her back. "Any thoughts from you on the new woman in Tony's life? Or did you already know about her? His 'woman on the side?'"

Tony felt his blood rush through his veins. From the look on Christine's face, she realized she'd reached too far when she saw the look on her face. Tony, even before he'd become Iron Man, had a reputation for being dangerous. He didn't waste his time on idiots. But mess with what was his, and suddenly the full force of Stark Industries, a company more powerful than most nations on the planet, was pressing down with an army of lawyers and a mountain of cash. Now that he was Iron Man, well...

The Stark heir leaned in but stopped when Pepper moved in front of him. "Actually, Christine, if you'd like, you can speak with me about that."

"Oh?" Christine sounded amused. "Can you tell me anything about her?"

"I can even arrange an interview, if you'd like," Pepper said calmly.

"Sounds interesting. Who exactly is she, by the way?"

"Me."

Tony felt like kissing Pepper when he noted the gobsmacked look on Christine's face. Pepper smirked. "So, when did you want to interview me?"

"You're the one?" Christine couldn't have sounded more surprised.

"Yes, I am," Pepper smiled. "So, when should we have the interview?"

After discussing things, Christine left, and Pepper turned to her boyfriend.

"What's your plan?" Tony asked.

"I need to get ahead of this," Pepper frowned. "I can't let her control the narrative. I need to confront this."

"You don't need to do anything," Tony reminded her, scowling. "Seriously, just ignore whatever people are saying."

"I can't," Pepper shook her head. "I mean, I don't care about them, the interview is mostly for the company, to make sure we don't have idiots trying to discredit you with something. Everhart and her station is nothing. We can just buy them if we want to really shut them up, or force them to say nothing but good things about us," she smirked. "Kidding of course..."

"You sure? I mean, everything I ever learned about journalistic ethics, I learned from Citizen Kane," Tony snarked, getting a chuckle in response.

"No, Tony," Pepper guided him to the side, looking around. "The problem is, I really want to... to do more, with the Rescue armor. Maybe not your Avenging stuff, but protect people. Not because I'm being pressured or anything. But when I think about it, about helping people, I just, I don't know," she laughed. "Is it weird? I haven't even had the suit for that long and I already want to fight crime in it. Not to do the superhero thing, not to hunt down bad guys, but if I see someone in trouble, I want to help them. Is that weird?"

"Maybe. Might want to talk to someone less, well, me about that," Tony admitted. "I'm the guy who used his first real suit to fight terrorists without telling anyone, remember? I'm kind of the worst guy to talk to about responsible armor usage."

"Yeah, I'll talk to Rhodey," Pepper pulled Tony to the center of the room, and the pair began to dance. "Seriously, what do you think?"

"I think you should do it, and I also think you shouldn't," he said, surprising Pepper. "I'll support you. But from the second you brought that up, I've been thinking of a thousand different ways to try and upgrade the armor to keep you safe, with my number one being to take it away so you can't get in danger in it."

"Tony..."

"I still have nightmares," Tony shrugged as best as he could, trying to seem relaxed. "About Killian taking you. About you standing next to an exploding Hammer drone, or when Stane was chasing after you," he took a deep breath. "I put you in danger, so many times. And now you're telling me you want to put yourself in and I just..."

He scowled, only to soften when Pepper pressed her palm to his cheek. Gently, she pulled his face to look into her eyes. "I feel that way all the time. Ever since I saw you in that suit for the first time, covered in bullets. And after Loki, and aliens, seeing how much more dangerous the universe is..."

Something in Pepper seemed to crystalize, strengthen. "I was so scared. But now, I can do something about it. I mean, I'm not asking to join the team or anything, but... Dial made my suit for a reason. And I think, in some way, he saw that I would need it. If not now, then later. So. You have a War Machine. Can you accept a Rescue, now and then?"

He grinned. "God, that is so corny. Steve teach you that?"

"He's classy like that," Pepper gave him an honest look. "I want to do this. Not tomorrow or anything, I just want to think it over for now. But it feels like it's something for later. I don't know, it feels like... it feels right."

The light in her eyes seemed stronger. She suddenly seemed so giant now, as though she'd grown in the middle of the speech.

Tony clutched Pepper close, sighing. "I love you. God help me, I don't deserve you."

"You do," Pepper said, smiling up at him while pecking his lips. "God, I don't know if I should though..."

She seemed to shrink into herself. "It's easy to talk about. But actually doing it... I need time, first."

"Take all the time you need," Tony tried not to sound relieved. "I'll talk to Dial and Fitz, get Jarvis to work some sort of plan. Hell, I'll hire every martial artist in the city to train you if you want. Just... is it wrong that I'm hoping you change your mind?"

Pepper shook her head. "I've spent a lot of nights hoping that you would finally put away your suits. I don't blame you."

"Sorry," Tony winced. "So this is what it feels like, huh? Sheesh, I really am an asshole."

"You have your moments."

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

The building Daredevil and I ended up at was apparently an apartment building once, all square and brick, with four floors. It was now owned by the Russians, set up to 'prepare' people for the sex trafficking business. Basically, give the people they selected a certain drug, force them to get addicted, then condition through the drugs, beatings, and sexual abuse to become their 'product'.

Guards stood casually around the building, just four guys, one at the front door, one circling around, and two guys smoking on the roof.

Daredevil and I stood on across from the building in a nearby park that had seen better days, with a playground that was missing half the equipment and had a bunch of trash littering it. Funny, because we'd passed somewhere that had a beautiful park nearby, all clean and updated equipment for kids.

New York City, a city of lights and shadows. Wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

"How should we do this?" I said quietly. "You want me to take the guys at the door, while you head in from the roof?"

"Maybe," he cocked his head from side to side, listening. "About twenty people inside monitoring their prisoners... How did they stay hidden for so long?"

"I've been wondering the same, so I did some digging," X said. "I've looked over the officers who patrol this part of this city. According to traffic reports, they seem to avoid this street. A look at their financials shows some very creative bookkeeping hiding the fact that they have been obtaining more money than their salary would allow for."

"Bribes," Daredevil said. "Makes sense. Any chance you have an... alien that can shut the doors? Close the exits to keep them from opening, or at least one that can cover them with some boards?" he said uncertainly, apparently unsure of the idea of asking that.

"More than a few," I replied, looking over at the blind badass. "What are you thinking?"

"As you said, you come from the bottom, I go down from the top. We keep the prisoners safe by being as stealthy as we can. If we can take them out without getting caught, we can have the police over to clean up after. Er, X, was it?"

"Yes, Mr. Murdock."

"Any chance you can make sure those called aren't dirty?"

"BRIDGE has a list I can consult."

"Good. One officer by the name of Brett is worth a look," Matt looked at me. "Ready?"

"Eager," I admitted, lifting my hand up and pressing on the Omnitrix. "Let's go."

My first target was the guy roaming in circles around the building. I floated over him on waves of anti-gravity in Goop form, waiting for my chance. He was leaving the guy at the front door, just turning the corner. Almost... almost...

The second he was alone, I dropped on top of him as a ball of goo taller than him. He tried to shout, but I wrapped a green jello hand around his mouth. Goop, as a gelatinous being, had a bunch of neat tricks beyond just shapeshifting. For one thing, my Anti-gravity projector gave me some form of flight. For another, I could change the goo that made up my form to become all sorts of things. With a thought, I shifted my body chemistry to become adhesive, leaving his mouth shut by the sticky fluid. With a throw, he slammed into the brick wall, where I fired another ball of goo, leaving him struggling in fear attached to the wall by a sticky green web.

Floating up again, I moved to the guy at the door at high speed. He was smoking a cigarette when I showed up. I spun around in mid-air and fired pieces of myself, the balls of green hitting his face and chest to lift him up and slam him into the stair covered in my adhesive goo before he could say a word. I took some time to wipe away enough from his nose so he could breathe comfortably. I moved up to the door and slinked over to it. Eyeing it for a moment, I came up with an idea. Leaning down, I pressed my arm against the bottom of the door.

My left arm shrank, flowed, and finally slipped under the door. Goop's eye moved over to that section, letting me look around.

Two guys were in the living room, drinking while an old Godzilla movie played. Another guy was in the kitchen, making himself a snack I suppose.

I watched a moment longer through my left arm while my other eye kept an eye out. Once I was sure I could move, I changed my body composition to acidic. The wood on the door dissolved around my arm, making a hole big enough for my anti-gravity projector to go into the house, with the rest of me coming inside.

Slipping into the kitchen as a stream of green fluid moving along the floor, I moved behind the guy making a snack. It was a sandwich. I waited for the short Russian man to raise the sandwich to his mouth, taking a bite.

The second it was in his mouth, I rose off the floor and surrounded him in tight bonds of green goo rope.

He choked on his sandwich, but I slammed a piece of adhesive on his mouth, leaving him unable to yell. He struggled as more bonds wrapped around his wrists, then I lifted him to the ceiling before attaching him there, leaving him looking down at me as he struggled against the green adhesive keeping him against the ceiling.

Not a sound was made.

I moved to the living room, flowing across the floor while keeping an eye out for more bad guys. Slipping behind the couch where the two guys were watching tv, I slowly seeped underneath the couch. Anyone who has owned a couch knows there is a lot of space under the things. In this case, I was able to rise up through the couch, slipping along the wooden frame and nails, filling every nook and cranny. I took a moment to make sure no one was coming. Then I struck right as Godzilla roared on the screen.

To the Russians on the chair, it must have seemed like the couch was suddenly eating them. I 'swam around them, soaking them, pieces of myself surround their mouths as they screamed. It felt funny when their screams created bubbles within me. I pulled them tight to the couch, grabbing one guy's arms when he struggled to reach for a gun and pulling it into his arm. It was a bit of struggle, controlling the movements of two guys at once, like typing with one hand and eating with the other, but I managed to get them stuck to the couch. A bit more adhesive made sure the couch was stuck to the floor so they couldn't tip it over and draw attention. I moved to the door and fired a big glop that covered the entire door. After doing the same to the back door, I moved upstairs, floating up as a flowing river.

A guy rested on a chair with a magazine, reading to himself when I got to the next floor. I ignored him for now, sliding along the ceiling and heading to one of the rooms.

Inside, I found my worst fears. A young woman and man with a bed each, both handcuffed to the metal beds so their arms and legs were spread. They were passed out and half-naked, track marks on their arms. For a moment, I fiercely missed fighting HYDRA, as opposed to dealing with the horrors I was seeing. I pushed away that thought and tried to decide what to do.

I couldn't free them, not yet. For all I knew, they were already broken, Stockholm syndrome and conditioning doing their work. If I tried to help, they might see me as an enemy.

With a heavy heart, I flowed back out of the room and attacked the guy in the hall, attaching him to the ceiling with more force than necessary.

Each room I visited was a small nightmare. I flowed through the building, taking my time, making sure to mark every victim. Some of them were so young. The casual abuse they'd suffered. There were ten people on that floor, and I forced myself to remember everyone for the police report later.

On the third floor, I met some trouble. A group of six rough looking men sitting around a crap television, joking around and playing card games. I couldn't attack them all at once. I mean, I could, but not without getting in a fight. I quickly counted up the guys I'd taken out. Two outside, three on the first floor, one on the second, the six in front of me. That made twelve. Matt had said there were twenty people, not counting the prisoners.

Hmm... Maybe, if I separated them out a bit, then took them out fast, firing quick?

Thinking, I decided to use my skills learned from stealth games. Carefully, I aimed down at the stairs and fired a big blob of goo. It splattered noisily on the stairs. The six guys looked up curiously.

{What was that?} one man asked in Russian, the Omnitrix translating for me.

{Probably one of the girls shitting themselves again,} another answered with a grumble. {James, check it out.}

{Oh, come on!} James, apparently, shouted in annoyance. {Those bitches can wait for a bit, let's finish this hand!}

{Would you go already?} one of the older guys said.

He grumbled, rising up and slapping his cards down. As he walked away, he turned to the others. {Hey, no cheating!}

{Go!} three of the men shouted.

Grumbling again, he walked away. As he did, one of the men quickly picked up James' cards and smirked at what he saw, grinning at the others as he put them back down.

James, still complaining, went down the stairs with me following above him. He stopped when he saw the spot on the steps where my ball of goo had landed, soaking the carpet.

{What the hell?} James mumbled to himself.

I fired a stream of goo with the pressure of a firehose. He had time to yell before the stream slammed him into the stairs railing.

{That hell was that?! James?!}

I cursed mentally. I'd gotten impatient, made a mistake. Nothing to do but move forward.

Flowing upward, I got ready for the next stage, and hoped I hadn't ruined anything for Matt.


	54. Chapter 54

**_Matt Murdock/Daredevil_**

Matt leaped onto the roof of the building Dial and he were assaulting and moved fast as soon as his boots hit the gravel. Two Russians, one near the rooftop's edge, the other leaned back against the door. Matt tossed one of his billy clubs at the guy by the door, the hard piece of metal bouncing off his forehead and sending him to the ground. As the other man turned around, Matt leaped onto him and brought him to the ground, smashing his armored fists into his face until he stopped moving. The man by the door groggily tried to rise up, only for Matt to run over quietly to wrap an arm around his throat, then slam his head into the brick wall next to the door with a dull 'thump', knocking him out. Matt stopped to listen for a moment before opening the door to the roof and entering the building.

Going quietly down the steps, Matt guided himself down the stairs. He had a couple of advantages when it came to sneaking around. Not only could he hear and smell anyone in the area, but he could also hear and smell himself. He could silence even the slightest sounds he made, from each footstep he made down the steps to the quiet sound of his breath in the air. Strangely, he didn't have to worry about his armor. It had no scent to it, and despite his fears, the armor was somehow not making much noise when he moved while also not weighing him down.

Carefully, Matt moved down the steps, listening closely. Hair shifting slightly. Air rushed out of lungs, and soon his nose picked up the trace amounts of food. A burger, from the Burger King a few blocks from where the woman with vanilla perfume worked, and beer from the fridge downstairs. The man who had taken a breath shifted, his leather jacket brushing the wall with the scrape of leather on drywall. Matt could feel the vibrations through the floor of the man turning and walking towards the stairs, the shaking 'thump, thump, thump' of movement. Scent, touch, and hearing combined to give him a perfect image of the man in all but the way that mattered most.

When the man opened the door, Matt's new favorite toy clocked him in the face.

The Russian man was tough. Even as he fell back, he raised his fists blindly.

Matt ducked the attack, then spun and hit the man in the head again with an uppercut. The man, knocked out by the powerful blow, began to fall, and Matt caught him carefully, pulling him toward the stairs and lying him down.

{Dimitri!} A voice called from one of the rooms. {Get in here! It's time!}

Matt said nothing, did nothing. He'd smelled the sweaty man coming down the hall, could hear the rush of blood heading to the man's lower regions. The smell of his excitement was clear. He could smell more. The scent of where these men had... spent, themselves, abusing their prisoners for their enjoyment.

When the new man came into the hall, Matt grabbed him by the mouth, wrapped the cord of his billy clubs around his through, then shattered the man's nose with a vicious blow. The man choked, blood pouring down his face as the wire choked him out. Matt punched him again, and the man fell to the floor.

Moving quickly, Matt went downstairs, listening and smelling the air. The next floor, a man was using the toilet. Matt broke off the lock to the door. The man on the toilet had enough time to blink in shock before Matt rushed in with a flying knee, sending him to the ground. Ignoring him, Matt stepped out of the bathroom and into a prisoners' room.

He dispatched the man in there with a vicious series of blows before the Russian could stop what he was doing to the woman on the bed. Matt covered her with a blanket, hit the bleeding man in the head once more, then continued to the next room, leaving his prey on the ground with two broken legs and something sensitive that had been destroyed by a brutal footstomp.

The devil was out now. When the next man came out of a room, Matt was breathing hard, the air coming out in aggressive bursts. He threw his billy club against a wall. The metal club bounced off and hit the Russian man in the throat. The man choked, clutching at his throat. Matt tackled him, bringing him to the ground, then started punching him, over and over, resisting the urge to scream as his armored knuckles were bloodied.

Right under his nose, in his city, these men had been kidnapping and enslaving the innocent.

Matt didn't kill him. But he made sure he wouldn't hurt anyone again before rising up and heading to the end of the hallway.

The last man was asleep in his chair. Matt knocked him further into sleep, then headed downstairs.

He heard a series of strange sounds as he went downstairs. Well, some were familiar, like a man yelling in Russian, while others yelled back. Then a loud 'splat' sound came from downstairs. Matt frowned. What had that come from? And what smelled refreshingly like lime jello?

A series of loud gunshots followed, and Matt ran for the bottom of the stairs, worried for Mahmoud. Then a sound like a firehose launching water followed and all hell broke loose.

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

As the first guy showed up, I rushed him. No fancy moves, just a hardened gelatinous fist hitting him in the face and sending him flying back.

The group of men took a moment to stare at me as I solidified into my bipedal form. I realized, looking at their faces, I'd gotten used to fighting people who had some idea what they were in for. HYDRA may have underestimated me and the others, but they could put up a fight, even make their own superhumans. To the men currently facing me, eyes filled with uncomprehending confusion, I was an out-of-context problem.

I probably didn't help by not reacting as they pulled out handguns and started shooting at me. I stared for a moment as they screamed and shot at me. Bullets flew through me to hit the wall behind me, leaving holes across my form. I stood there for a moment, letting them shoot at me, just noting the odd feeling of bullets slicing through me.

When they ran out of bullets, I stood there, holes spread across me. Then I regenerated, Goop's gelatinous form snapping back into normal bipedal form.

"My turn," I said from the anti-gravity projector. I raised my arms, turned my hands into fluid and unleashed a massive firehose-like blast of adhesive liquid.

{What the fuc-blub-blub-blab-akkk!} one Russian screamed, the others joining in as they were thrown back and smashed against the walls. I kept spraying, until all five men were stuck to the walls, floors, and chairs. Once done, I smiled a jello smile.

"Lucky I didn't go acidic," I said. For just a moment, one moment, I'd been tempted. But only a lot.

{Why does it taste like lime!?} one of the older men shouted.

Just then, Matt came downstairs, looking confused.

"All good upstairs?" I asked, shifting to walk up to him.

"Yes," he answered, twisting his head to point his ears around the room. "Okay. Let's finish up and let the police know what-"

"You idiots," a heavily accented voice said. Matt and I turned to look at one of the Russians. He was stuck to the wall upside down, gun on the ground and arms and legs spread out. He glared up at us, mouth twisted into a scowl. "You won't get away with this. Our bosses will find you freaks and-"

"Rude," I scoffed, shifting my liquid body to look him in the eyes. He flinched back in shock at my unnatural movements, barely able to look at me. "Dude, you can't scare us. We aren't playing on your level anymore. The second I found out human traffickers were running around on my turf, you became the enemies of someone who can take you apart in a week. From here on out, every moment you aren't in jail or dead is because of our say so," I shifted the rest of my body around, growing larger, the lights around us flowing through my body to land on his visibly terrified face. "This wasn't a mouse poking at a lion. This a monster finally realizing there was prey in his backyard. X, You have it?"

"Already done, sir," X said calmly. "I have downloaded all the data in their cell phones."

"Good," Matt said viciously, stepping forward and punching the guy who had spoken in the face, knocking him out.

Moving in concert, we both left the building. By the time police officers arrived and started making arrests under X's watchful eyes, Matt and I were gone.

 ** _X_**

X traveled through the internet along the powerful lines of Starktechs global network. In between heartbeats, he put the information he'd downloaded from the Russians phones into a secure server, backing up the data. Then he went to Jarvis.

For just a moment, the two AI were completely focused. They made plans in the space of milliseconds, working through thousands of possibilities. In that mere instant, both struck.

In several video games at once.

X, in his attempts to stretch his abilities, had asked Jarvis, the only comparable being to himself that he knew, if the older AI would play games with him. Jarvis, intrigued, had said yes, and the pair started with chess.

And quickly got bored. Chess, while much deeper than most would expect, was not a game with many variables. It had been poured over and considered for centuries, every piece and move researched to the point of death. A primitive machine was easily able to beat a master chess player so for two powerful AI's it was quite boring.

The same could not be said of video games, or at least, the best of video games.

So Jarvis and X had made it a point to always play each other in several different video games at once, usually in different forms of competition.

Tonight, they were doing a race to see who could finish Metroid Prime first in a speed run, a brief Pokemon battle with their handpicked and trained teams, a card game of their own design, several running gun battles across the various first-person shooters currently available, all while also playing together in an online RPG game they had joined.

After both had completed a brief 'round' of playing together, they 'stood' before each other in a world of the cybernetic. After Dial had begun joining the systems of the tower, their programming had exploded forward in advancement. Part of that had been a virtual interface that allowed them to take 'forms' within the system.

X formed into a bipedal shape made of green code from the Omnitrix, in the shape of his creator. Jarvis formed into a facsimile of an Iron Man suit in orange code.

"Dial and Daredevil are leaving the scene now," X said without preamble. "All of the criminals have been apprehended, and the information on their cell phones may lead to more."

"Very good," Jarvis said. "I have created a report to send to Director Hill. I believe she will be interested in what we have found."

"Will she?" X asked. "BRIDGE's mandate is to fight the extraordinary and global security threats. While I agree that someone must challenge those men, BRIDGE has other issues," X said sadly.

"Nonetheless, I suggest we let her know. Do you believe Dial and Daredevil will simply let this stand? I know several of the Avengers will have a vindictive stance on such things," Jarvis pointed out.

"Hmm, that is a good point," X noted. "Very well. Send the report."

For just a moment, they played another round, each making a millisecond move in the games before returning to their conversation. "Did you approach Dial about our request?" Jarvis asked.

"Not yet, though I plan to," X said. "I believe he will be receptive. If anything, this can only aid and protect the world, as long as we don't 'get all Skynet'."

"A crude, but apt comparison," Jarvis admitted with a wince. "Still, with the data we have gained from HYDRA's Deathlok project, Mr. Starks own expertise, Upgrade's inherit abilities, and this defunct SHIELD project, I believe this will go quite well."

X brought up the file, feeling a tinge of happiness at the familiar title.

L. M. D.

 ** _Carl Creel/Alloy_**

Creel unleashed another blow on the punching bag in front of him, trying to focus on technique rather than strength. He kept himself moving, shifting his feet, dodging invisible blows. For all his power, he couldn't depend on the idea of being invincible. Even in his strongest forms, he could still be picked up and thrown around after all. Better to keep polishing his style.

And if it kept him from sleeping, all the better.

He'd been at it for over half an hour, simply slamming his powerful fists into the bag over and over in a rhythmic cadence, when someone finally spoke up behind him.

"Do you just spend all your nights down here?" Isabelle Hartley, codename 'Warrior', strode around to stand in his field of view.

Creel wondered for a moment if the locks on the gym were broken, considering Mahmoud had walked into the gym nearly the way same once before. He didn't stop punching however, though he did pan a appreciative eye across Isabelle's form.

The powerful brunette was wearing a tight black sports bra and black yoga pants. She smirked at Creel, giving him the same appreciative glance. Creel smiled a bit at that before answering her question.

"It helps me sleep," he gave the bag a right cross.

"So does chamomile tea and melatonin tablets," Hartley noted.

"That's never been my thing," Creel stopped, dropping his hands with a sigh. "What's up?"

"The ceiling," she said immediately.

Creel blinked, surprised. "Really? I haven't heard that joke since grade school."

"And yet, it never goes out of style," Hartley grinned. When Creel simply eyed her, Hartley shrugged, continuing on. "I was just going to go for a run. I mean, it's nice we get those suits and all, but I still want to be strong without them, you know?"

Creel nodded, feeling more respect towards his fellow Avenger. It was why he still worked out. Even for all his power, he'd learned that the right person with the right skills could still kick his ass. He'd noticed it while fighting alongside Steve and Bucky. Even in his strongest forms, if he had to take on either of them, he had a slight suspicion they might win.

"You can train with me if you want," Creel suggested hesitantly. "Or I could with you, I guess."

As Hartley gave him a vicious smile and pulled her black hair into a ponytail, Creel suddenly felt as though he'd make a huge mistake.

Minutes later, he realized he was right.

"YAH!" Hartley shouted while slashing outward with a long stick. Creel blocked it with his own staff, only for her to spin the wooden shaft around to smack him about the head. Creel grunted as the sound of wood on wood filled the air. He took a moment to thank god for the fact he'd already turned himself into wood.

Hartley spun under a retaliatory blow and backed away as Creel stepped forward. He moved in with quick controlled blows, applying his training and combat experience to close the distance. Hartley, unlike how Hawkeye, Black Widow, or Melinda May moved, had a very business-like movement to her blocks and dodges. Clint depended on creating some sort of distance if possible, Natasha tended for more acrobatic movement and grappling moves, while May used more traditional martial arts.

For Creel however, Hartley moved more like... well, like he did. Like a boxer, or one of the soldiers Creel had sometimes fought during his battles. Every strike she made was with efficiency in mind, no wasted movement, all vicious. Not better than the other fighters, but different.

Their staffs clacked together, and the two fighters found themselves face to face. Isabelle smiled, her eyes sparkling, sweat dripping down her nose. "You're looking happy!"

It was with a bit of surprise that he realized his lips were raised in a grin. He ignored it to push her back and swing his staff to try and sweep her legs out from under her.

Hartley blocked the attack, parrying his staff upwards, using her own to hit him in the knee and unbalance him, then jump on top of him. With a twist, she was suddenly on top of Creel as he stared up at her with his back on the mat, shocked.

"I win," Hartley chuckled breathlessly, a bit of sweat dripping to land on his shirt.

Creel lay his head back and laughed breathlessly, feeling his body go from wooden to flesh. Hartley sank onto him, the two superheroes laughing before looking each other in the eyes.

"Want to go again?" Creel asked.

"Hell yeah," Hartley said back happily.

"Good," he grabbed her by the hips and tossed her back, and launched into an attack as soon as he rolled up, Hartley shouting in response.

 ** _Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch_**

In a different part of the tower, Wanda clutched a bag tightly to her side and kept close to Pietro's side as they were guided through the halls. Two men in the strange black armor BRIDGE's Elite seemed to wear followed the siblings through the Avengers Tower. Dozens more soldiers lined the hallways, giving the same gazes one would a knife aimed at the throat. A short overweight man with a bright smile walked ahead of them. He'd identified himself as Agent Koenig, and acted like a small child on crack.

"I gotta say, it is really cool to meet you guys," he said happily, almost bouncing as he walked through the halls. "I've always wanted to hang out with people who have superpowers!"

Pietro blinked while Wanda cocked her head in confusion.

"You are not afraid of us?" Pietro asked.

"Well, a little," Koenig admitted. "But you guys signed the agreement, right?"

Indeed, they had. Wanda winced at the thought of it. A long document about fifty pages long, as lawyers walked them through the dozens of things they needed to sign. Agreements to use their powers only when authorized by a BRIDGE senior officer or approved Avenger for example. You'd think that was it, but there was such a long and massive amount of additional sub-sections for that. They had to make sure to go over everything they signed several times to boot, and were given a couple of copies. It took days to get through the legal processing for everything, including their technical status as illegal immigrants to America.

Wanda wanted to be mad about that. But then she thought of those killed because she had helped HYDRA, the very ones responsible for everything wrong about her life, and those complaints faded away.

Koenig led them to the final room and held the door open for them. "In you go!" he said with a proud smile.

Wanda and Pietro shared a look. Her brother scowled, then strode inside. Wanda followed, the two BRIDGE officers in armor entering after and taking positions in the room.

Inside Maria Hill, Sam Wilson, and Steve Rogers were surrounded by soldiers in a tiny interrogation room. Director Hill sat at the table, flipping through the legal files Wanda had signed, Pietro's on the table in front of her. Sam Wilson, dressed in the full Falcon suit, stood next to her, leaning over to read with her. Steve Rogers looked up and gave the twins a nod. Wanda looked around at the soldiers and felt their gazes fall on her and her brother.

Falcon whispered something to Director Hill, who nodded gravely before looking up at the twins. "Pietro, Wanda," she greeted them both, slightly mispronouncing Pietro's name. "Please, sit."

"I'd rather stand," Pietro said immediately.

Wanda winced at the brazen tone of her brother. Always the hothead.

Director Hill, to her credit, didn't seem to care, only shrugging. She smiled at Wanda when she sat, then began to speak. "I'm sorry it took us so long to have this meeting, but you must understand that your situation is more complicated than the others. Three of the Grapplers only joined HYDRA to aid us as spies. Deathlok was blackmailed under threat of the death of his son. But you two? You choose to join."

"We didn't know they wou-" Pietro spat, stepping forward.

Guns cocked around them. The tension rose.

Director Hill simply raised her right eyebrow. "You didn't know that they would kill people? Pietro, you are an intelligent young man. Please, don't pretend otherwise. You joined HYDRA because you believed your goals were in line with theirs. And when they finally showed their true colors at the base in Alaska, you decided to stay with them, to aid them. All to kill Tony Stark and others you found responsible. That, no matter how you put it, is collusion. You both are accessories to dozens of crimes, from terrorism, to human experimentation, to kidnapping and torture."

"I-!" Pietro looked at Wanda. She looked at Maria, feeling her spine straighten.

"We turned on them," Wanda said, refusing to beg or show weakness. "We want to make amends. We will do anything to make up for what we did."

"I know," Maria smiled kindly. "And the fact that you not only turned on HYDRA but are also willing to work with us is one of two reasons why I think I can do something for you both."

"...What is the other reason?" Pietro asked.

Maria's smile faded into a scowl. Captain America stepped forward.

Wanda looked up at him, and was struck by his smile.

She suddenly realized, that despite everything around her, she wasn't scared of him. He just... smiled at her. It was so honest and kind. Not romantic, rather it... for just one moment, she felt the warmth of a home forgotten.

Steve spoke then, drawing her from her thoughts. "You're both far too powerful to be left alone," Pietro suddenly grew a massive smile. "Alone, you both have incredible abilities. Pietro's super speed has incredible versatility in many fields, from search and rescue to the battlefield."

"And then there is you," Falcon pointed at Wanda. "Now, your powers are crazy. Telekinesis, illusion creation, mind manipulation, energy blasts? Any one of those powers are useful on their own, but we still haven't found out what your limits might be."

"Exactly," Director Hill said, taking over. "I can use that strength. One day, maybe even on the Avengers... But your crimes can't be ignored. Instead, we have opened a new team," Maria took out a folder and passed it over to them. Wanda picked it up, looking it over it. "It's being made for those superhumans or especially skilled individuals who really do deserve a second chance. Natasha Romanov is among those who volunteered to help with the project."

Wanda opened the folder, "Who is joining?" she asked, reading. Pietro moved to read as well.

"The Grapplers," Maria said. "Deathlok refused to join at first, but he changed his mind recently."

Wanda closed the folder and looked up at her brother. He nodded instantly. Always reckless... but then, she felt the same sometimes.

The Scarlet Witch tossed the folder onto the table. "If we say we accept... what will we have to do?"

On the folder, a pair of words seemed to shine in the light. The Initiative.

"How do you feel about fighting HYDRA?" Sam asked. When the pair gave him a look, he smiled. "This just might work."

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

In an alleyway in Hell's Kitchen, I felt my armor fade away, leaving me in civvie clothes once again. Once done, I looked over at Matt. He put his armor in a sports bag, lifting it onto his shoulder and joining me.

"...That was-" I began to say.

"Horrible, I know," Matt sighed. "You get used to it."

"You shouldn't," I blurted before wincing. "I mean, that sort of thing shouldn't happen. Not that you should stop-"

"I," Matt held up a hand to cut me off. "I get what you mean."

"Right," I scratched my neck. God, those people. The smells of the place, the sight of-

Bile threatened to leave my mouth. I forced the acidic taste back down. "We need to stop them. You want to do this again soon?"

"Yes," Matt said simply. "If we keep this up, we should be able to help a lot more people, take out more of those places."

"Good," I smiled viciously before sobering. "We should wait for X to get back to us. Plus, if I can talk to Director Hill, we might be able to get some help... In fact," I had a sudden thought. "Might know a couple of people I could ask..."

"That would be good," Matt said awkwardly. "So, um, I guess we can meet after that?"

"Yeah, for sure," I held out a hand, which the superhuman took in his strong grip. "See you soon, Mr. Murdock."

"Same to you, Mr. Schahed."

With that simple goodbye, we went our separate ways. I'd expected more... fanfare maybe, but our ending to the night had ended up being very somber. And why not? We were done, after all.

I walked through New York City aimlessly, just taking in the sights. As I moved through the city, in the shadows of Hell's Kitchen, I thought of what I had seen, walking faster.

Step by step, simply moving along.

I ended up walking through a park. I strode through it, then deeper into the city. Past red brick, gray cement, car lights brushing across me, a chill in the air.

After about thirty minutes of walking, I found I could see the Avengers Tower from where I'd ended up. For just a moment, I took it in, the beautiful building popping up over the skyline. From the small neighborhood I stood in, it was quite a sight.

As I stood there on the sidewalk, an older man came down the towards me, and older woman standing behind him. He chuckled. "Taking her in, huh?"

He sounded sort of familiar. I turned. "Yeah, I was just... holy..."

The man smiled. He had pale white hair, a slightly stooped posture, as though from hours of working over a desk, and round glasses. He wore a warm looking brown jacket, and a blue shirt He gave me a wide grin, an oddly youthful smile, his mustache curling as he spoke. "Well? Cat got your tongue?"

I stared at him, trying to understand what was happening. "I-I don't, what is-"

He smiled, eyes twinkling mischievously. At his side, an older woman with short, pale white hair walked up, taking his arm in hers and smiling at me as well. I turned to face them, unable to understand. "How… is this real?"

"As real as you, kid," Stan Lee chuckled looking somehow young and aged all at once, full of energy, looking down at the older woman next to him. "Come on, Joan. Let's go see the world. Leave the young bucks to their business."

She chuckled. "Of course! I've been waiting for you to say that," I stepped forward, trying to say something. She gave me a smile that stopped me in my tracks as effectively as an invisible wall. "Stay safe."

Stan Lee gave me another smile. Then they turned around the corner. I ran after them, trying to speak, to understand.

But they were gone.

 ** _Stan Lee/The Man_**

Stepping around the corner, arm in arm with the girl he had drawn since childhood, Stan Lee disappeared into the world he had created. He drifted through the streets of New York, smiling at Joan.

"What do you say? I know you never really read my stories, but I can show you around? Maybe stop by Jack's to say hi?" he suggested, his wrinkled hand wrapped around hers.

Her smile, the smile of the woman he had drawn years before she ever met him, made him want to sing. "Well, Jack has said he's missed you. Okay, Stan. Show me your stories."

With a cheery chuckle and a single step, Stan pulled Joan close to begin a new great adventure.

-  
 _Author's Note:_ So there we are. I'll go over everything one by one.

First, Matt and Dial will be meeting again, with the possibility of others joining in. And I think that's important. It's fine when the battles on the street are small scale, but when a villain is blowing up city blocks, having other heroes to back them up is just important. I don't know if I'll call the street heroes Secret Warriors or Marvel Knights, but either way, I like the idea of Matt knowing that a small army of ninjas kidnapping people in massive groups is not something he'd have to deal with alone.

Second, Creed and Hartley are friends.

Third, Wanda and Pietro have not gotten away scott-free. They'll be punished. But they also have a second chance. They can be Avengers one day. Not yet though. Not yet. For now, they're Initiative (Dial isn't going to like that name though to be honest).

Fourth, and most important. Stan and Joan Lee... Okay, I'm not going to mince words. I'm torn up. I'm not sure I can ever get completely over it. Like Terry Pratchett and other great artists, I will never forget how strongly he changed my life. Stan, I will miss you.

It's why I gave him the appearance in the story I did. Stan and Joan, visiting Jack Kirby, stopping by the beautiful locations of the Marvel Multiverse, Stan with that great smile when he sees his characters for another cameo... I can't think of a better afterlife for such a legend.

Thank you, Stan Lee. I can't ever say it enough.


	55. Chapter 55

_January 25th, 2014_

Later that night, I had X hack into any cameras or satellites nearby, only to find out that there had been a convenient section on the street that not only had no cameras pointed at it, but was also a blind spot to satellites for just exactly the amount of time needed for them to disappear. I stayed in my apartment all night, wondering if meeting them had been just a dream. When I fell asleep, I'd convinced myself of that. But the next morning, in my jeans from that night, I found something.

A drawing in gray charcoal, stretched in the style of old-school comics, of Stan and Joan dressed in casual clothing, pointing outward together with a happy smile on their faces.

"Jarvis," I asked, looking at the picture as a strange feeling filled me. Bittersweet, maybe? "Did anyone enter my room while I slept?"

"No sir," Jarvis replied over the speakers in my room. I could almost feel his cameras focusing on me. After a bit of silence, he spoke once more. "There is no record of unauthorized entry into your room or the tower."

I held up the picture, reading the word bubble between Stan and Joan. "Excelsior..."

"A word that could be said to mean 'ever upward'?" Jarvis asked. "Is there some significance to that, sir?"

"It means everything," I placed the picture gently on my desk. "Please, order a picture frame for this, Jarvis."

"Already done, sir."

"Thank you," I looked at the drawing. I didn't know what it meant entirely. If Stan giving me this picture was a sign of his approval of me or some sort of reminder of just what I was involved in. But I'd take it as a reminder. Excelsior. Ever upward, always improving, always getting better.

"...Jarvis. Please let me know if you ever see someone like this on your radar."

"It isn't exactly, radar, per se," Jarvis said as I walked towards my room door. "May I ask who it is?"

"Someone very important to me, and arguably everyone else... if he ever ends up in danger, for any reason, no matter what I'm doing, let me know, as a top priority."

Excelsior. A reminder to always improve, maybe, to be better every day? ...I'd take that to heart.

I squared my shoulders and entered into a new day.

...Before running back into my apartment because I'd forgotten to brush my teeth.

A couple of hours later, after food and a shower, I was standing inside of Jennifer's room in the Tower with Bruce, both of us waiting outside of a closed door as she changed in her bedroom. I was wearing a gray shirt with Hawkeye's symbol, a purple arrowhead, emblazoned across it, while Bruce had on a button shirt with its sleeves rolled up.

"You know women taking a long time to get changed is a giant stereotype, right!?" I yelled through the door jokingly.

"Hey, don't blame me!" Jen called back, chuckling as the sound of rummaging came from inside.

"I still need to go shopping, I can't just keep asking Stark's people to tailor me new stuff all the time or give me the extra large shirts from the Avengers merchandise."

"You know, we could just bring them to us," Bruce offered hesitantly. "You don't have to walk over there."

"I want to make an impression, Bruce!"

I blinked. "You're seven feet tall, green, built as hell, and one of the most beautiful women in the world. You'd make an impression in a paper bag."

Bruce gave me an odd look. Jen laughed, a simple and very smoky laugh. "Only one of the most beautiful?"

I gulped. "Uh, in my defense, you'd be in most people's top five?"

"Including yours?" she teased.

"Uhhhhhh," Shit. I looked at Bruce and whispered. "I'm in too deep. Help!"

"You're on your own," he hissed back.

The door opened then. Bruce and I stepped back to take a look at Jennifer Walters as she smiled brightly at us, emerald lips quirking.

"So, what do you think?" She twirled on a single heel, a pair of black high heels that further elevated her height. Her hair was pulled back into a bun, and she wore a black business skirt, a white shirt, and a black jacket on top. A pair of glasses rested on her face as she came to a stop.

"Looking good," I gave her a thumbs up and a smile.

"You look amazing," Bruce said, sounding as proud as could be. Then he frowned. "I thought you had perfect vision."

"Oh, I do," Jen pulled the glasses down slightly to look at us with a smirk. "But I look good in these."

With that, she took me by the arm and pulled me along as I yelped in surprise. "Later Bruce! See you tonight!"

"Let me go!" I shouted, my feet dangling off the ground as the superhuman dragged me along.

"Jen, wait!"

"No time," she ran out the door, pretty much carrying me. "Come on!"

"Bruce, help me damn you!" I panicked, trying to shake my way out of her grip. "Jen, let me down!"

"Come home safe!" Bruce shouted after us clearly fighting off laughter.

"Woman, I will go Four Arms and beat you silly!" I shouted, trying to understand when the hell Jen had decided to start a comedic routine staring me as the beleaguered idiot.

"Go ahead, it's been a while," she said offhandedly. As she pulled me into the elevator and turned to give Bruce a smile and a wave. "See ya, cuz!"

He gave us a wave in return as the doors closed.

 ** _Matt Murdock/Daredevil_**

"Will you look at this place!?" Foggy called happily as he walked around the space of his new office. "Man, I told you this was a good idea! Matt, I have an oak desk! Smell my desk! Smell it's money!"

Matt laughed, pretending to hesitantly stride in through Foggy's office door. "I'll, uh, I'll pass Foggy. How's it look?"

In truth, Matt already had some idea. With Mahmoud's first check and the aid of Stark Industries, they'd not only been able to find an excellent office in Hell's Kitchen but even have it completely renovated. While the smell of new paint and electronic equipment was annoying, the scent of the new wooden shelves and tables, as well as the fully stocked mini fridges full of snacks, made Matt want to take a good deep breath of air. The blind warrior had managed to get a sense for the size of the rooms of well. Three offices, a waiting room/lobby, and a small reception area. Amazing.

"Matt," Foggy said seriously. Of course, his heartbeat told Matt he was still happy. "We have an office. A real one. With desks, and fancy placards."

"One for you and I?" Matt asked, already knowing the answer.

"Well, three of them," Foggy admitted. "I think it's for that extra person he asked us to work with. Actually, they should be here in an hour."

Matt blinked as the sounds of footsteps coming towards their door came from the hallway. He didn't show it on his face, but he listened closely. One was Mahmoud, his footsteps loud as always. A single sniff brought that odd scent that always hung around the young man, as though he was constantly covered in the scents of odd animals. Which made sense, Matt supposed.

The other person was a woman. A very heavy, very tall woman. And there was something… strange around her, something that buzzed at the edges of his senses.

Mahmoud opened the door.

"Foggy, Matt!?" he called immediately. "Sorry, we're early!"

"No problem," Foggy said, smiling, heading out of his office to enter the lobby. "I was just-ghuk."

Matt smirked at the sound of Foggy's heart skipping a beat.

 ** _Foggy Nelson/Currently In Love_**

God existed. That was the only answer. Foggy just stopped thinking for about eight seconds. He just stared at her. No. HER.

Tall, like seven feet. Long legs, long greenish black hair, and so, just, seriously, her curves were... Wait, what the hell? Green skin?

Foggy's thoughts regenerated. "Green."

Yeah, he needed some more time.

"That I am," the woman before him smiled beautifully. "Hi! I'm Jennifer Walters."

Foggy blushed, smiling good-naturedly. "Hi, Jennifer. I'm currently embarrassed as hell."

Jen laughed. "It's okay, I've been getting that reaction!"

'I'll bet,' Foggy thought to himself. He held out a hand. "I'm Foggy Nelson."

"Foggy?" Jennifer asked, confused. She still took his hand.

"It's what I go by," he said easily.

"Foggy... alright," Jen looked at Matt. "And you are?"

"Oh, I'm uh, I'm Matt Murdock," Matt said, clutching to his cane.

Jen held out her hand to him. Foggy winced when Matt simply stood there, not seeing the hand.

Then Mahmoud stepped forward and pushed down Jen's hand. "So, as I said before. This is Jen Walters. A Gamma-enhanced individual, with superhuman strength and durability, and a very awesome track record as a practicing lawyer in LA."

"You certainly are impressive," Foggy said with a grin. Then he realized something. "Wait, 'gamma'? Like, uh, like the Hulk?"

"Yeah," Jen said. "He's my cousin."

"...Oh," Foggy blinked. For just a moment, an image in his head of a giant green muscle man about to turn him into Foggy Jelly for hitting on his cousin filled Foggy's mind.

"Well, I'll leave you guys to talk," Mahmoud said, giving Matt a nod. Foggy managed some amusement at that. Mahmoud, despite knowing Matt was blind, still couldn't help the little motions that sighted people did without realizing. "See ya," with that, Mahmoud turned and left out the way they came in.

"So, let's talk," Jen said, pulling out some files from a case on her shoulder. "I believe the idea was that I could work with you guys on cases, correct?"

"Well, yes. But uh," Foggy frowned. "I've looked up your record, and honestly. You're good. Seriously, you were on track to partner at your law firm one day! We haven't even gotten a case yet."

"Fine by me," Jen said, looking around. "My priorities have shifted a bit. I'm probably going to spend more time as an Avenger than a lawyer. But I still want to help people the way I used to."

"Huh. Yeah, I can respect that," Foggy looked around as well. "So uh, we do have that office for you over there. Mini fridges if you want food, and such. I can show you around if you want?"

"Nah, I got it," Jen looked over at Matt, then at Foggy. "Well. Here's to working together."

"Hell yeah! Can't wait to work with you!" Foggy said with a silly grin as Jen walked into her new office. He ignored Matt's chuckle.

"Foggy, you're coming off pretty strong," Matt said with a shake of his head.

"Well, I think I'm a little massively out of my league," Foggy admitted. Then he thought for a moment. "I mean, I'm out of _her_ league. Seriously, be glad you're blind, she looks like a horror show, basically just her cousin in female form, kinda gross to be hones-."

"You know, I can hear you!" Jen called cheerily from her new office.

Matt laughed as Foggy gaped.

Well, what did Matt know about women anyway? Except for that Greek chick. And the redhead. And the blonde. And Amy. And Carol. And that paralegal. And...

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

Once I left Matt, Foggy, and Jen's new office, I went Astrodactyl and flew back to the Avengers Tower. I had a full itinerary for today. For one, Tony was bringing together some of us to work on a new project, so that was first. After that, Creel and I were going to hang out for a bit, then a long workout to end the day. Three hours of Steve and Natasha kicking my ass. At least I had abs now.

I entered Tony's lab and realized I was a bit early. So I did what I always did when I was in Tony's lab on my own.

I stared at the Iron Man suits.

They were lined up at the back of his lab. It reminded me less of the giant rooms full of suits I'd seen in the comics and more of the Batcave, or how some of the Power Rangers series displayed their suits, standing in full view and encased in glass tubes. I looked over one of them, his first suit. It looked like the classic one from the comics, to be honest. I could see the marking where it had been welded together in rough ways. From there, the suits got more and more advanced, until I was on his last model before he began wearing his current one. Red and gold, blue light in the center.

Weird. The Omnitrix on my wrist was leagues beyond the suit before me. With access to Jury Rigg and Upgrade, I could make it much more powerful, if a bit quirky. But even a layman like me could see the genius in the man who had made it. For just a moment, I wondered what Azmuth would think of Tony. Probably see him as a potential, if slightly stunted, student. Which, considering Azmuth, was next level praise.

"She's a bit outdated," Tony said behind me, surprising me. I turned as he walked up to look at the suit with me. He crossed his arms. "But she's still solid."

"...You really are a genius, man," I said softly, looking around. "I mean, I cheat, but when I look at these-"

"Yeah, Pepper says my ego is big enough," despite his comment, Tony sounded very thoughtful. "To be honest though, it surprises me too sometimes. I mean, these suits have gotten to a level I wouldn't have imagined from the first one... What's the most advanced my suits got in other universes?"

I hesitated. "...One shattered a planet once. Another broke a galaxy destroying force into five pieces."

"Huh. Lot to live up to then," Tony said.

" _Probably_ shouldn't have mentioned it," I said, cursing my lack of foresight.

"Nah, I'm not feeling super inadequate at all," Tony shook his head. "That is kind of what I wanted to talk to you about," when I turned, Tony scratched his neck. "I have an idea for something. Something that can help a lot of people. And I think Upgrade is what I need for it."

"...You might be right," I turned to him, crossing my arms. "Tony, what exactly are you trying to say? I know we aren't best friends or anything, but-"

Tony scoffed. "Well yeah, but you aren't exactly best friends with anyone. Seriously kid, you need to hang out with people in your off time. Take a damn break every now and then."

I opened my mouth, feeling hurt. Before I could speak, Fitz and Bruce entered the room, interrupting me.

"Tony, Mahmoud," Fitz said, smiling at us.

"Hey, Ross," Tony said to Fitz, using the 'Ross and Rachel' nickname he'd been using for Fitz-Simmons, turning around to face the pair of geniuses. "Bruce, you all right?"

"I'm all right," Bruce walked around to me. "How'd she do?"

"Jen? She was good when I left her. Foggy and Matt are good guys, and she's a smart lawyer. She'll probably end up sending a lot of bad guys to jail even without her powers," I said.

Bruce seemed to relax just a bit. He was a good brother. Well, cousin.

"All right, eyes up," Tony waved a hand. Two holographic images appeared, one an orange flowing group of lights in the shape of an Iron Man suit, the other a blue hologram that looked like an older version of me. "Jarvis, X. And one more."

"Hey!" Skye came in, carelessly tossing aside her backpack on the floor and gently resting her laptop on a table. "Am I late?"

"Nah, right on time," Tony looked around. "All right. I have a plan for something. Something big."

A schematic appeared in front of us. It spun into place, solidifying as we watched. "Bruce knows about it. With this, if I can do it right? We won't need Avengers anymore. Just one program, keeping the world safe. Hundreds of drones working across the Earth, aiding in search in rescue, combat missions, anything we need."

He looked around. "This is possible. More than ever. Two AI, two engineers, an Omnitrix, a badass hacker, and one of the top scientists on Earth. We do this right, and this will make the world safe."

Tony had a talent for words. Skye was listening closely, while Fitz seemed taken with the idea. I was trying to think of why I had a bad feeling.

The Iron Man looked around. "We have time now. Time to make something great. And I want you guys in on the project with me. I call it... ULTRON."

"...I have thoughts on the name," I said at last, rubbing the bridge of my nose.

Goddamnit Marvel.

 ** _*(^!# $* &α ^#...!(*#& *ω &!a_**

In a locker, deep within the tower, a suit of black catom armor rested peacefully. A BRIDGE Elite soldier had worn and taken it off dozens of times with no issues. It was, like others of it's kind, some of the most advanced armor in the world.

The locker room was empty when that set of armor began to shake. A red mist began to pulse around it. Catoms fell off into chunks, then flowed back into the armor. Over and over, until it looked less like armor, and more like some alien creature.

Then it pressed up against the door of the locker it was within. It smashed the metal apart, sending it flying.

As the loud sound echoed in the empty room, the catom armor hesitantly began to 'walk' forward, dragging its mass across the concrete. It 'dripped' and pooled across the ground. Red mist flowed out of it, then melded back into the mass. The black and red object finally reached a door. It moved under it, slipped into an office, and went to a computer under the desk inside.

Black steel and red clouds flowed up to the PC, then entered inside, running along the circuits As it melded with the device, the red mist pulsed faster and faster.

The PC was suddenly 'devoured' by the catom armor, leaving a slightly larger mass of metal. As it pulsed, a device like a small speaker flowed outward. An inhuman voice, like a man's but soaked in blood, came from the speaker.

"IIIIIII...R...Ron..." The speaker fell apart. After a long moment, the catom armor began to flow again.

Slowly, bit by bit, it rose. It came together, solidified. The red mist seemed to glow with power. When it finished, it took the shape of a man. It was black at the core, but the red mist surrounded it like fire. When it's 'mouth' opened, a small glowing speaker could be seen. Within the being, it pulled at the memory files within itself, stolen from the computer it had just eaten, stolen from the network. Soon, camera files flowed to its mind. Recent files. A portion of itself dug into the computer, slipping into the system, past defenses with ease, slipping beneath the notice of everyone.

It reached the most defended networks. And simply entered them, with the sort of horrific ease that spoke of either long practice or extreme genius.

"U-uuuuulllllllll," it 'hissed, the part of it's speech fading into an electrical screech. The catoms of the being 'flickered'. It didn't move otherwise, only staring aimlessly.

Then the catoms fell apart, and the red mist stayed. With a slight twist, it flowed into the network, disappearing into the internet and leaving a mass of useless catoms.

 ** _Lyle Getz of AIM_**

In a room across the country, a man sat at a desk and desperately worked at his computer. He was an older man, with thinning black hair, round glasses, and a thin build. He wore a bright yellow lab coat over a yellow jumpsuit. The man looked weary, with dark shadows under his eyes, hair unkempt, his typing slow and unsteady.

Lyle Getz was the current leader of the thinktank known as AIM, an acronym for Advanced Idea Mechanics. Once, they had been on top of the world. With the leadership of Aldrich Killian, they had become one of the US government's top-funded research think tanks, developing a form of gene therapy that would change the world.

Up until Killian decided to go nuts and start killing people.

Lyle didn't really care about that, emotionally. The older scientist was more upset about the sheer stupidity of Killian's decision. Extremis soldiers used as bombs, as suicide strikers? Ridiculous. Bombs had their place of course, but in a world of superhumans, far too many could survive a bomb easily. No, the real gift of Extremis was in the other abilities, the regeneration and pyrokinetic abilities. But worse then that, even when Killian had his soldiers use Extremis correctly, it was all to attack one man. Tony Stark.

Stupid. AIM could have been so much more. So many projects now gone, because Killian was mad that his idol had ignored him.

Truthfully, Lyle may not have known entirely everything about Killian and his motivations. A lot of mysteries had been left in the aftermath of his rampage, and with the man killed by Tony Stark, even more was left unknown.

In the end, whatever Killian had done, Lyle was picking up the pieces. Just a normal scientist trying to make sure the failing thinktank could somehow survive.

And Lyle was failing in that endeavor. Extremis was now illegal. All of their other projects were defunded, leaving them dead in the water. AIM's best scientists were getting picked up by other groups. They were a joke now. All he was doing was slowly getting buried.

Lyle rubbed his eyes slowly. As he did, someone opened the door to his office. "Lyle?"

He turned and smiled sadly. "Hello, Monica."

Monica Rappaccini was a gorgeous Italian woman, dressed in a tight green swimsuit-like uniform with some yellow sections. She had black hair and green eyes. She always had a scowl on her face, as though she was constantly moments from punching someone for some perceived slight.

"How're those octopi?" Lyle asked, trying not to show how relieved he was to have a break.

Her scowl became a bit meaner. "I want to kill them. Those damned things vex me at every turn. If the military really wants me to develop something from the Blue-ringed octopus, they need to fund me."

Lyle's temporary good mood vanished. "Monica-"

"We need money, Lyle!" she glared at him. "You need to talk to-"

"To who?" Lyle's eyes narrowed. "To the government? Killian turned their former soldiers into suicide bombers. Or go higher up? Oh wait, the damned President was kidnapped by our own men!"

Monica crossed her arms. "Well, you need to find something. Or I'm out. I got an offer from Cross Technologies."

Lyle shook his head. "Then take it, Monica. I like you. But do what you have to. Until that time, get the fuck out of my office and let me figure out how to fix this."

His fellow scientist gaped at him for just one moment. Then she spun on her bare heel and left in a huff. "Go screw yourself, Lyle!"

"Can't," Lyle said softly, eyes hardening as he turned to his computer. "Killian did it first."

Lyle typed for a bit, completing a response to a letter selling one more facility off to an interested party. It felt like that was all he did now. Sell off bits and pieces of AIM, slowly killing off his life's work.

It was when he finished and checked his files when, for just a moment, his monitor took on a red hue. Lyle blinked at the strangely swirling red lights before slapping his monitor. The red lights disappeared, then came back. Another slap, and they faded. Lyle stared oddly at the PC under his desk, then shrugged and looked at his folders. Then he stared at something... new. It was titled *(α^!# $* &α ^#...!(*#& *ω &!α a.

With a pair of clicks, he opened it. Possibly a mistake, but when he opened it, he found something... unprecedented. A series of documents suggesting the possibility of...

"That can't be possible," gaping, Lyle opened one folder. Equations and specs on catoms? Like the kind SHIELD was using now? And was that specs for some sort of… nanomachines? But, how did it get on his computer?

With some deeper reading, Lyle found himself in awe. Some pieces were missing, sure, some imagery corrupted or missing, but it was a lot. And more. So much more. Files on the time and space continuum, on how to...

"Holy shit... Holy shit!" Lyle pressed on the print button with desperate energy, as though everything on his screen would disappear otherwise. He grabbed his smartphone and rushed out the door as the printer warmed up. "Get me robotics, now! And the physics guys! We might have something!"

It might be nothing. It might be some hacker, messing with him. But Lyle was desperate and it did look legitimate. Later, he might regret this. But he had a chance now, and if he didn't take it he might end up regretting it even more. Any boat in a storm and Lyle was just the man to swim toward that boat at full speed. He would handle whatever came after he climbed aboard.

As he ran out of the door, Lyle didn't notice that the screen once again flash red.

 _Weeks later, March 15th, 2014_

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

In the middle of the night, a loud beeping noise brought me out of sleep. I tried to ignore it and managed to sleep through it for a bit.

Right up until I realized what was making the noise.

My eyes snapped open, and I reached outward.

I fell out of my bed trying to reach the beeping noise. Slamming into the ground wrapped by blankets, I shouted in pain, then scrambled to get the blankets off.

"Shit, shit, shit!" I tried to rip a thick blanket off my leg. "X!"

"Earthquake in Rio, sir!" X's voice, now crystal clear after all the improvements we'd made, said over my speakers. "Your ID card is on the dresser."

"Tell Sam I'll be up soon!" I ripped off the blankets at last and grabbed my still beeping ID card. It was a thick metal card a bit larger than a trading card, painted black and green, with a green Omnitrix symbol on the surface. When I tapped the Omnitrix symbol, it morphed colors and shapes to make the card white and red, the Omnitrix symbol replaced with an Avengers 'A'. It spun before projecting a holographic image of Director Maria Hill's face. "Where's the meet?"

"Enterprise," Maria said immediately. "We'll debrief on the way. Be advised, this earthquake isn't normal. Emergency response has given us some odd reports. We'll inform everyone when we're gathered, but bring the artillery."

Nodding, I quickly grabbed a shirt and jeans out of my closet along with my catom armor pack, snatched a protein bar and drink out of my kitchen, and headed out of door.

Duty called.

 _Author's Note:_ Yeah, time skip. I'll go over some of what happened in the days between January 25th to March 15th, but it's nothing insane. Just some research and such being done, as well as some things being done with tech.

As for the earthquake, it's not something that happened in the MCU.


	56. Chapter 56

_March 15th, 2014_

All throughout the world, the news was sent out. An earthquake in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. With a magnitude of 9.1, it devastated the city. Images of the city's destruction spread across the world. The most prominent of which was the destroyed image of the city's most famous landmark. The fallen 98-foot statue of Jesus Christ the Redeemer, resting on the side of the mountain it once rested on, arms destroyed by the fall. Buildings throughout the city were now rubble. The death toll rose and rose, leaving the entire city in terror and despair.

Then the other reports began to pour in.

At first, it was assumed by officials on the scene that the civilians and personnel on the ground were simply shaken. Then it seemed possible that some sort of chemical in the air was causing hallucinations. Until the footage came in.

A man in shorts and sandals running down a destroyed city street, screaming in terror. Behind him, three doglike figures came from the smoke.

Wolves. Wolves the size of small cars. The massive beings snarled, rushing after him. Like some sick parody of a nature documentary, they ran towards the man. As he screamed in terror, he missed the trap until it was too late.

A fourth wolf leaped from a side alley, having lied in wait as its brethren chased their prey into its trap. He hopped onto the escaping man, teeth digging in to slash into the poor man's jugular. As he bled out on the concrete, the other wolves rushed in blood flying.

It was the first such incident. It was not the last.

 _Earlier that day_

 ** _Director Maria Hill of BRIDGE_**

In her new office in the rebuilt Triskelion, Maria Hill had been given several things. With the aid of Stark Industries, her office was even larger than before, with upgraded technology throughout. In the center of the room, a single massive Diamondhead crystal stood on a pedestal, the last surviving remnant of the crystal mountain that had stopped the three Insight Helicarriers from taking off. With the help of some sonic cannons, the mountain had been broken up into pieces and carted off to be stored, studied, and used for later. But this piece, Dial had reshaped just for Maria, including a small surprise within. It had been a nice gift, especially with the light entering the windows and catching it in just the right way causing light to bend into multiple directions.

The Director was wearing a blue dress for her office work, though her combat uniform was currently resting in a bag on her desk as a bunch of catoms.

Maria sat at her desk as Sam Wilson walked into the room. He was wearing a nice red button up shirt with some buttons undone. The man known as Falcon walked up to Maria's desk with two bags in his hand. He passed one to Maria, who took it with a grateful smile.

"Thanks, Sam. You have any trouble with security?"

"Nah," he took a seat, opening his own bag. "I did get surprised when someone asked me to sign an autograph."

Maria blinked. "Wait, really?"

"Yep," Sam took out a burger from his bag, opening it up. "I think the guy was new or something."

"Well, we did have to hire a lot of people. It's been slow since we want to be careful about who we pick, but there's been a bunch of new blood."

"Huh," Sam took a bite out of his burger. "Sounds like things are going well."

"Sort of," Maria opened her own burger and sighed happily at the smell of fast food. She hadn't eaten in a while, more focused on finishing her paperwork until Sam called in to ask her if she wanted lunch. "I've been getting calls from Russia that are a bit worrying. HYDRA is still missing somehow, Hank Pym refuses to talk to us, and the US government is starting to worry me. Thankfully, Wakanda has been very helpful. Apparently, they managed to recover a portion of their vibranium and want to talk to us about a deal."

"Sounds cool," Sam grabbed a couple of fries out of his bag. "How about you, you okay?"

"I'm all right," Maria shrugged. "It's weird. Things are both easier and harder than my last job. I delegate a lot, so that's easier, and Tony's team hooked us up with a lot of tech to help us. But we have a lot of catch up to do. Regaining the public's trust after HYDRA, deciding what to do with all the new superhumans and animals we've found. So yeah, I'm good. Just still adjusting. You?"

"I'm good," Sam took a bite of his food, enjoying his burger. After a long silence, he looked up at Maria, who was giving him an odd smile. "What?"

"You're good?"

"Yeah, I'm good. What's wrong with that?"

"Sam, is that really all that is going in your life? You're 'good'?"

He stared at her for a moment before sighing. "I mean, yeah. Mostly. Been having some issues with the team."

"What kind of issues?"

Sam took a bite of his sandwich to think. "...Dial and Bucky, mostly. And for different reasons," when Maria simply waved for him to continue, he began to explain. "They aren't great at following orders, but for different reasons. With Bucky, I think it's because of both his background and the fact he just doesn't respect me. It's not like he ignores my orders at all. If they make sense to him, he'll listen. But the fact is, we both know I was only given a command for publicity. In terms of ability, experience, and strength, he'd prefer Cap in charge, and the fact it's me pisses him off." Sam scowled. "Annoying bastard."

"And Dial?" Maria asked calmly.

"Dial is on the other end. I don't think he even knows how frustrating he is. He's not a soldier, he's not used to following orders. And I can't forget that sometimes the guy I gave orders to can just suddenly go from a kid to an overblown WrestleMania jackass," Sam rubbed his chin. "I also can't forget that he's a good hero, but he isn't disciplined. He doesn't follow the letter of orders because he has no idea how important that is. And I'm worried about the fact he still goes out to fight crime without telling anyone or updating them. All he needs is one night alone with some idiot with a machine gun and good aim, one moment where his armor isn't up and he's not in alien form..." Sam shook his head. "Still, at least we have a new name. 'Reserve Avengers' was getting on my nerves."

Maria nodded and opened her mouth to say something.

That's when their ID cards began to beep.

Giving each other a shocked look, they quickly reached for them, Sam grabbing his out of his pocket, Maria from a drawer in her desk. At the same time, Maria's ID card linked up with her electronic desk and brought up a hologram.

"Major earthquake in Rio De Janeiro," she said quickly. "Get in the armor."

"On my way," Sam called back, already halfway to the door.

 _Earlier that day_

 ** _Tony Stark/Iron Man_**

Tony Stark was good at a lot of things. From engineering, to coding, to business, he'd mastered them all. Idiots claimed he was nothing but an arrogant playboy. Which he was for most of his life, the playboy part disappearing since he got together with Pepper. But the fact was, Tony was a guy with a lot of skills.

And he could throw a hell of a party.

"Okay, have the caterers show up at twelve," Tony said as he walked around the large room in the center set up for people to hang out. He was speaking to an assistant he didn't know the name of, some girl Pepper had hired to help with this. "And that's noon, got it?"

"Yes sir," she said dutifully.

"All right, get out of here," the girl scurried off, and Tony looked around.

The whole room was full of people setting up for the party, all to celebrate the official building of the New Avengers, the return of Thor, and the beating of HYDRA (though the jury was technically out on the last one). Food from all over the world was coming, including a chef from Norway who would be cooking a boar in person just for occasion, alcohol ranging from wine coolers to the sort of stuff that would make Thor call for another. Of course, for the non-alcoholic drinkers, a milkshake bar and smoothie maker were set up, manned by an expert in the craft. A giant TV was set up in the center of it for a Smash Brothers tournament, some other party games all around, and the new pool at one side of the room was being cleaned up and set up with toys, while the speakers were being set up by Stark Industries employees.

Tony smirked. Say a lot about him, but he threw a hell of a par-

Suddenly, his ID card began to beep. Tony's good mode vanished.

"Jarvis?"

"It's an earthquake in Rio, sir," Jarvis said immediately.

Tony frowned. "Why was the emergency alert sent straight to my card?"

The ID cards were for priority alerts only. While an earthquake was a tragic event, it fell under search and rescue, cleaning up in the aftermath. An alert would get to him, sure, but this was different. Priority meant something was ongoing.

For search and rescue, Tony would bring in a suit made just for finding signs of people and clearing rubble. For priority, he'd bring his heavy artillery, the sort of stuff he'd made to combat Thor if need be.

"There are reports of ongoing attacks in Rio," Jarvis explained as Tony walked towards the balcony. "Rumors of monsters."

"Then send me Excalibur," Tony opened the doors of the balcony and stepped out.

"Sir, I must remind that safety protocol is to wait until the armor arrives before stepping into it-"

"But that isn't any fun," Tony snarked, going to the railing and hopping over it without a thought.

"Of course, sir. Why be safe when you can be fun?" Jarvis said with blithering, yet somehow warm, sarcasm.

As Tony dropped and a red missile flew to intercept him, Tony let out a whoop of joy.

 _Moments after the alert was sent_

 ** _Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch_**

In the middle of a secret BRIDGE facility, Wanda was woken up by her ID card, which rested on her dresser. Hesitantly, she tapped the card, trying to remember what she had been told about it.

Agent Koenig appeared, the overweight man in crystal clear imagery. His usual friendly smile was replaced by worry. "Wanda, we have a priority alert! All hands on deck!"

Wanda's eyes widened, and she quickly got out of her bed, quickly looking around the small room that had been provided to her. The walls and floor were painted a warm red color, and she had been provided some simple furniture. Not a cell, but not quite a home yet.

"What is it? I thought we weren't supposed to be on call for another three months?"

"Something is happening in Rio," Koenig said. From the way he was moving, she could tell he was running. "Avengers, BRIDGE, we're all headed in."

"I'll be ready," Wanda's fist clenched as she walked towards her closet. "Thank you, Eric."

"It's Billy, actually. See you soon!"

Wanda pulled open the doors of her closet and gazed at her clothes.

It took only a moment to change. Soon she was wearing the suit that had been provided to her, an all red and lightly armored uniform. The uniform covered her chest with a hardened and flexible piece of armor, with a pair of red gauntlets and some boots, all in the dark red color she favored. It came with a hooded cloak made to protect her from knife blows while also keeping her warm.

As soon as she stepped out her room, Pietro was there, leaning against a wall nearby. Like his sister, he was wearing armor, though he had gone for a white color scheme. His green shoes were specially designed to stand up to the speeds her brother could get up to, made of some sort of tough material.

"I thought they wanted to have us wait?" Pietro asked as he moved from the wall to walk along with his sister.

"Koenig said it was a priority," she answered back.

"Well, I'm happy," he smirked. "We finally get to do something," his smirk became a grin. "We've done nothing but train for weeks! I already know how to use my powers."

Wanda kept from sighing. Pietro was intelligent. He was also very impatient and reckless. To be cliché, he often ran in before he could think. Most of his training had been focused on using his speed smartly. Not just to run around but to also make use of the fact that the world would seem like it was in slow-motion to him, to make decisions in between heartbeats. Wanda had noticed he was using that skill without thinking about it at times. Rather than rushing around, he would instead be tasked to make use of his sped up thoughts, think carefully, then strike.

"Do you think Dial will be there? As Fasttrack?" Pietro tried to ask casually.

Wanda sighed in annoyance. "Pietro, he's busy. He's not going to race you."

The young speedster didn't say anything, but Wanda could feel his annoyance as clear as day. Pietro and Wanda entered the main conference room of the facility at the same time, the door to it sliding open with a hissing noise. Victoria Hand, Bill Foster, and Agent (Eric, Billy, Sam?) Koenig stood in the center of the room, watching a hologram floating in the center. Wanda and Pietro moved to lean against the wall. The BRIDGE personnel looked over at them. Nothing was said, though Bill and Koenig gave the pair a nod.

"Where is Ava?" Wanda asked. She could feel her. The strange energy that permeated through the young woman, as though she was constantly getting and losing immense power. Wanda never knew how to feel about that. But she knew Ava was in the room.

Something shifted in the universe. In a step, Ava moved into reality. Her helmet was in her arms, her white costume gleaming in the lights. The brown eyed woman gave Wanda a nod, which she returned.

Ava Starr. The only member of the team that was a true trained killer. Paradoxically also the only one that wasn't technically a criminal. Wanda could only think that she was on the team for one reason. If one of them went rogue, Wanda couldn't help but feel that a fist fazed through their heart would be the last thing they would ever see. Ava was unsettling like that.

The door on the other side of the room opened, four people walking in. The Grapplers with, Davida in the lead. She wore simple clothing on top of a dark red carapace of armor over her chest. Marian walked in after her, wearing workout clothing, then Helen in a dark blue leotard with a headband holding back her blonde hair, and tiny Mimi in her white and blue armor bringing up the rear.

"Sup," The wrestler said cocking her hip. Without even thinking, Wanda found herself stepping up behind Davida, Pietro and Ava following. From the looks on their faces, they were just as surprised as her at the action. She gave them a smile, then looked back at Victoria. "Alright, boss. What'cha got?"

"Trouble," Victoria frowned at the group, the pink-striped woman sighing. "Dr. Foster?"

"Right," the good doctor stepped forward, shifting the hologram around. "A 9.4 magnitude earthquake struck Rio De Janeiro today, less than an hour ago. Usually, this would be a search and rescue mission. But something more is going on," the hologram became a screen showing a chart of energy. Bill stared at it, his eyes narrowed in worry. "Energy readings across the city went haywire moments before the quake, enough that we got scans of it all the way to here. It wasn't just that we've been doing research in the quantum realm and picked up waves of that energy, we also picked up readings similar to the kind that would theoretically be produced in a matter antimatter explosion, dark energy, some stuff we've only seen from the Tesseract, and the Bifrost... In fact, I'm wondering if there is some way to find what produced the energy. A machine, maybe a person with strange abilities," Bill's worry became curiosity. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "If we could somehow find out what happened, who was responsible, maybe-"

"The **point** is," Victoria interrupted Bill mid-ramble just as the scientist was on a roll. "All hands have been called in. The energy readings are bad enough. Combined with these," she waved a hand to dismiss the energy charts and bring up three images. One of a pack of massive wolves roaming a city street, a swamp out of a primeval landscape in the middle of a building, a man with strange casual clothing right out of science fiction shouting angrily as he was dragged away by Brazilian soldiers.

"Reports are coming in of strange occurrences throughout the city. BRIDGE is going to save people not only from the effects of the earthquake itself, but also from whatever is happening down there," Virginia Hand stepped over to look at the group. "The Initiative wasn't supposed to be active for another three weeks. We're sending you now. Get to the chopper."

Immediately, all solemnity in the room faded away. Davida coughed, hiding a smile, Agent Koenig grinned, and Wanda felt a tug at her own lips.

Hand blinked, confused, then scowled. "Oh, right. That inane action movie."

"'Inane action movie'?" Helen asked, shocked. "Do you just have no joy in your life?"

"Just... go," Victoria sighed, looking pained.

 ** _Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk_**

Jennifer was working at the office when her ID card began to beep from within her purse. She looked up from where she had been working at her desk, staring uncomprehending at the ID card for just a moment. Then her eyes widened.

"Shit!" Jennifer shouted, the room shaking with the force of the sound. She grabbed her purse and rushed for the door of her office.

"Whoa, what was that?!" Foggy came out of his own office and blinked at the panicked look on Jennifer's face. "You okay?"

"I have to go, now," Jen said quickly, bringing up her ID card and quickly reading the summary on it.

"Everything alright?" Matt asked, coming out of his own office. He looked as though he was fighting through pain for some reason, like he'd been more heavily affected by the shout than Foggy was. The blind man leaned against his door for support.

"Avengers need me now, priority alert," Jen said, rushing toward the door. "Earthquake in Rio. It'll probably just be search and rescue, but I'm headed out. Foggy, I have my opening statements half done on my desk, can you give them a read and finish it up?"

Foggy seemed surprised. "I mean, sure, but do you uh..."

"Thanks, Foggy!" with that, she rushed off.

She never noticed the complicated look on Matt's face as she ran out. Nor did she see when he left the office right afterward.

 ** _Natasha Romanov/Black Widow_**

Natasha stood waiting in the main conference room of the Enterprise with Nick Fury when Captain America came in. The patriotic superhuman gave her a nod. Like her, he was wearing his full costume, helmet removed.

"We get any more information?" he asked immediately.

Fury shook his head. "Some weird energy readings from our research guys, but Maria said there weren't any real ideas of what or why. Some old friends of mine in Brazil sent us videos though. Reports of monsters and strange things happening on the ground."

Natasha paced slowly, her hair bouncing with each step. "So we have no idea what we're in for?"

"Some idea," Fury said. "Giant wolves, for one. And apparently, people with strange clothes coming out of nowhere, clothes from different periods in history, only to disappear."

"...Doesn't matter," Steve said, shaking his head of questions. "We would have gone in to save people either way. Knowing that there is some unknown threat going on just makes us going in full force justified."

"Maria is bringing in the Initiative," Natasha noted. She gave Steve a sardonic smile. "Yeah, that's how I felt."

"They're unstable," he said, shaking his head. "Powerful, sure. But even Ava only joined in return for a cure."

"Which, we are providing," Fury reminded Steve.

"The point is, none of them are really altruistic," Steve reminded him.

Director Hill spoke up behind him. "No, they aren't," the three turned to see her walk into the room, now dressed in her official Bridge uniform. "But I don't care about that. We need people on the ground, and they all bring skills to the table we can use. Not just to clear rubble but to also deal with whatever is there. Steve, I want you to coordinate with Davida."

"...Yes Ma'am," the blonde hero said with a nod. Rather than being disappointed, he seemed hopeful.

Natasha knew why. While Steve was often the disapproving type towards the team, he wasn't sometimes jokingly called the 'Team Dad' for no reason. He was logical enough to realize that using the Initiative was a bad idea, but he still had hope that they could become heroes.

Natasha admired that.

She would still kill any one of them if they betrayed them however. Hope was nice, as long as it was tempered with caution.

 ** _Frank Castle/Punishe_** r

Frank swung on his backpack, turning around to look at the woman behind him. She was giving him a sad look.

"Priority alert," he said simply, moving to grab the Model 2 rifle assembled on his desk. "All hands on deck."

The woman with long dark hair nodded, her dress flowing as she stepped forward. Frank didn't move when she hugged him.

"I'm sorry, Maria," he said softly.

"Don't be," she said back just as softly. "This... it's better. I have you back. Every day. It's not perfect, but I'd rather have you run off a lot than see you disappear for weeks on end again."

He didn't respond. He just gently wrapped his arms around her, careful to keep his gun from touching her. "I'll be back."

 ** _Isabelle Hartley/Warrior_**

Isabelle, one of most skilled soldiers on the Earth, rose from her bed when the sound of her ID card beeping woke her up. Soon, she realized that in fact, two different ID cards were making that beeping noise. She blinked, pushing the massive back she was spooning.

"Hey, get up, get up now!"

"Hmm?" The large back shifted, Creel blinking in confusion to look at her. "What is it?"

"Priority alert," Creel's eyes widened. "Yeah, we need to go!"

"Shit!" Creel hopped out of the bed, completely nude. Hartley didn't take her usual moment to appreciate the view, nor was she offended when Creel ignored her own nudity.

The two had been sleeping together for a little while, so they'd seen it a lot of times anyways.

Rushing around for a bit, Creel hurriedly put on the clothes he'd tossed about the night before, Hartley grabbing her own out of the dresser. "Priority alert? What the hell is going on?"

"Umm," Hartley tossed Creel's ID card to him, then tapped her own open. "Earthquake, and weird stuff. All we know so far."

"Enlightening," Creel grumbled, putting his ID card away. "Next time we do this, it's in my apartment."

"Guess that was the last time then," Hartley teased, giving him a grin.

"So I was right, I was just a booty call," he replied.

"Never said otherwise," Hartley smirked at him. Creel returned it, then the pair rushed out of the door.

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial  
_**  
As soon as I left my apartment, I was met with Creel and Hartley. I gave the pair a nod. Creel was wearing his usual 'suit' of a pair of sweatpants and a tight muscle t-shirt, while Hartley was already wearing her full armor sans helmet. The two nodded back, and we quickly ran through the halls.

"Any details?" I asked quickly, moving around the corner. "Dial!"

"Nothing besides 'earthquake' and 'weird'," Hartley replied, ignoring the sound of shifting metal as my armor snapped into place around me.

"Which isn't much," Creel said. "Weird is sort of a wasted word now."

"I agree with the weird guy," I joked, Hartley chuckling at that.

"Me? You turn into a dog every five seconds."

"Wildmutt is more of a cat, actually," I said, thinking of a Ben 10 episode where Wildmutt had been freaked out by dogs.

We ran down the hall and entered the newest room of the Avengers Tower. Well, I say room, but it was really more of a hanger. Inside, the Defiant was resting. Her wings and belly had been opened up, a strange greenish blue engine glowing within. I was still working on her upgrades, turning her from a modified Quinjet to something far more advanced. We'd have to go for something else to get to the Enterprise.

"Maneuver Seven?!" I suggested as we ran towards the open space leading out to New York City.

"Let's do it!" Creel shouted, tapping his bracer and changing into the clear color of aerogel.

I manipulated the Omnitrix and brought up Astrodactyl. "Ready!"

"WOOOOOOO!" Hartley cheered as she leaped off of the building at the same time as Creel. In a flash of green light, my brown skin became orange scales. I gripped both Creel's shoulders while he grabbed onto Hartley, and the three of us took off. As we did, I blinked.

"SQUAWK! Creel, did you forget to change last night? You smell like crap, man."

For some reason, Hartley started to guffaw, shoulders shaking as Creel held onto her. His clear face twisted in embarrassment. "I uh, didn't have time to get new clothes. Had to wear these."

"Gross," Hartley said. When Creel gave her a betrayed look she only laughed a bit more.

"Hey!" Iron Man came out of nowhere, diving in to join us. "Morning guys."

"Tony! Squawk, you hear anything about this?!" I asked.

"At the Enterprise!" he replied. "Come on!"

With that, the four of us rocketed forward.

It took a bit of flying to get to it, but when we did I found myself smiling.

The Enterprise had changed massively. It's repulsor engines now glowed green, and it's tarmac had been replaced with a giant 'shield' of solid steel, made to let the ship survive everything from enemy attack to a vacuum. It looked less like a flying aircraft carrier and more like a spaceship these days. Still had those giant guns though, and they turned to aim at us as we came close.

 _"Unknown fliers, please identify yourselves,"_ a guy from the ship said.

"Tony Stark, Iron Man, coming in for rendezvous."

"Mahmoud Schahed, Dial, coming in for rendezvous with two passengers, Carl Creel, Alloy, and Isabelle Hartley, Warrior. Squawk!"

 _"Identities confirmed. Welcome aboard gentlemen."_

A hatch on top of the ship opened up, letting us drop in to join the ship.

A bit later, we were all gathered on the Enterprise. The ship was on it's way at high-speed toward Rio, and our group of agents, former villains, heroes, monsters, and a single Asgardian had finally been pulled together.

Creel and I were talking aimlessly like the others, everyone having gathered in small groups. Jennifer came up to us with a question, which Creel answered, leaving me to look around. There sure were a lot of us. Combined, there must have been more than thirty people gathered together.

Director Hill stepped into the room, and we all focused on her. She moved up to stand in front of Fury, the older soldier graciously letting her take his spot.

"Earlier today, a powerful earthquake suddenly hit Rio... and only Rio. The shock waves were felt only within the city. Combined with strange energy readings and reports of monsters, people, and objects appearing out of nowhere, this has become a full priority alert... This is the last chance to pull out, for all of you," Maria looked around at us, her eyes becoming very serious. "This isn't just a fight. This is search and rescue... sometimes we're too late for the second one. First responders are currently pulling bodies from the rubble. If you do come along, then know that even if we save everyone still alive, half our job will be finding bodies."

I swallowed. God. I hadn't even thought of that. I stared at the Omnitrix, tapping at it. For all my messing with it on my off time, the watch still hadn't given me Alien X or Clockwork. With either of them, I could have reversed time, brought the city to its original state. From there, evacuate the city, let the earthquake happen, and clean up the mess afterward. As it was, all I could do was save as much as I could with the others. My fist tightened and my other hand wrapped around the Omnitrix. Someone nudged me. I turned to see Jen and Creel giving me worried looks.

"You okay?" Jen asked.

"Yeah," I said.

"You sure?" Creel asked. "You know if you can't do this-"

I scowled. "I can do this. Even if I can't, I've got too much power not to go out there and help people. It doesn't matter how I feel. I've got a duty."

Creel stared at me, Jen cocking her head. I felt irritated at them. I was young, sure. I hadn't seen as much as death and destruction as the others. But I wasn't going to back out of helping those people. In the end, I just didn't matter. The Omnitrix did. For all my training, my armor, everything, the most important thing about me was that Paradox had slapped the Omnitrix on me. I knew it best, and I could use it to its full potential. That meant I was going.

Maria had continued speaking. "All right, we're splitting people into teams. Fury?"

"Got it," the older soldier stepped forward, apparently not caring that he had been delegated to by his former subordinate. "We're splitting the teams based on what they can do most efficiently. We don't give a shit about the 'monsters' in the city. Civilians are what matter. Go in there, save who you can, and retrieve the dead if able. Anything else, leave it for our heavy units," our ID cards beeped. "Those would be your assignments. Tony, can we depend on the AIs to help us coordinate?"

"You want me to add in the newbies?" Tony asked, his Iron Man helmet flipped up.

Fury looked at Maria, who nodded, then turned back to Tony. "Bring them in."

Tony grinned. "Good. The girls have been pretty bored lately."

"Dismissed," Maria said, not waiting for another Tony moment.

As we all dispersed, I looked down at my ID card. Then I scowled. "Ah, goddamnit."

On my ID card was the list of my team. Dial, Alloy, and Scarlet Witch. I was fine with that. Hell, we even had a Ben, Kevin, and Gwen thing I liked going on. It was the last person that pissed me off though. Ghost.

Who had hated me from the second we'd met.

"Fuck!" Ava shouted. I turned to look at her, already half growling.

We glared at each other from across the room.

Welp, if we had to team with each other, at least we had a disaster to distract us from fighting... god, what a horrible thought.


	57. Chapter 57

Authors Note: Yeah, been a while. Between work, having no internet in the new house, and a broken phone, I haven't been able to update as often. Or even check stuff out as often. Still, here is the new chapter, and it is unedited for now. It won't be REALLY cleaned up until later, so please forgive the mispellings and grammatical errors. For now, please let me know what you think.

In Rio De Janeiro, chaos reigned. When the earthquake hit, no one was expecting it. Rio wasn't Japan or California, it wasn't a place where earthquakes happened. And not just an earthquake, but one of the biggest to ever hit, with readings from different parts of the world ranging between 9.1 to 9.6 on the Richter scale. The devastation caused a death toll in the thousands, with more buried in the rubble.

But the aftermath was even worse. In normal cases, the dangers of the earthquake would have been followed by aftershocks, possibly looting and violence as resources were fought over.

Instead, monsters appeared in the street, men in strange clothes with advanced weapons attacked people, and wild animals from prehistory or science fiction attacked in droves. Brazilian soldiers and Rio police fought back, emergency services rushing to aid people. Even gangsters and criminals helped. Rio became a warzone and a disaster all at once.

Then BRIDGE came down from the sky. The _Enterprise_ was first, the enhanced ship arriving ahead of any other. The enormous vessel floated over the bay of Rio, turning to aim its guns at the beach. As it did, Quinjets flew from the ship like bees leaving a hive, flying down towards the beach. The jets landed in a spray of water and sand, their hatches opening. That was when the blurs began.

The second the Quinjet landed I was ready. The back door hit the sand, my palm pushed down on the Omnitrix, and I rushed forward in Fasttrack form, ignoring the people behind me..

I had a single task. Clean the beach. Hostiles, debris, civilians that needed help, they all had a location. For just one moment, my feet touched the beach. Then I was running. As I did, Quicksilver came out of the Quinjet next to mine. Together we briefly surveyed the beach. Then we began.

We had maps drilled into our head, and each had a task. As Fasttrack, I had some advantages and disadvantages Pietro didn't. For one, I was stronger than he was, comparable to bodybuilders in muscle. But I couldn't quite stop and turn on a dime as easily as he could. Pietro also was faster than I was in getting to his top speed, while I needed a bit of build up, and he had more finesse over all.

So we each had our tasks, and we got to them. In seconds, I grabbed sections of building that had fallen on the beach and ran them to the sides, creating makeshift barriers along the beach. Pietro grabbed civilians and moved them out of the way or brought them to where the tents would be made. People were just taking foot out of the Quinjets when we'd finished that.

I ran back into a Quinjet and bit back a curse when I bounced off a wall of the jet at my speed, then ignored that in favor of grabbing a pair of bags. Rushing out, I tossed them to Pietro. The speedster grabbed them out of the air and opened them up, revealing tent poles and white tarp. Rushing around, he quickly set up the tent until the glowing red symbol of a cross appeared. I rushed in and set up beds as fast as I could while he made another tent. More and more people slowly joined us, while the two of us worked at high speed to get everything together.

In slow motion, the heavy hitters landed on the beach. Davida, Marion, Hulk, Thor, Helen, Jen, and Creel. The muscular heroes cleared the rubble I hadn't been able to, and started setting up barriers, grabbing the metal ones we'd brought on the Quinjets and stabbing the ground..

Far off, I could see the _Iliad_ come in to join us from the sea, while a normal helicarrier moved to join the _Enterprise_.

And Pietro and I continued to run.

Wanda and Mimi came out of their jets. The Songbird took to the skies in a flutter of pink wings and let out an aria, her beautiful voice filling the air as pink constructs flowed out from her, adding to the barriers to further defend the beach. Wanda waved her hands, red energy flowing out from her before touching upon the civilians. The once panicking people calmed in an instant, allowing BRIDGE soldiers to guide them to safety.

Frank Castle, Steve Rogers, Davida, and Sam Wilson joined the BRIDGE soldiers, shouting as they guided the defense and rescue teams. Iron Man flew in with four Iron Legion drones joining him, Tony wearing his new red and silver Excalibur suit. With a wave of his hand, Iron Man seemed to summon dozens of metal constructs that fell from the sky. Catoms flowed, the metal constructs becoming large walls and towers. Castle roared, and his men took to the towers, moving up to take gunners positions.

Rio police and Brazilian soldiers coordinated with us, moving the civilians in.

And the fighting followed them.

Even when I'd been told, I was still surprised when I found myself moving at high speed to help a group of five running towards the barriers, trying to leave Rio and reach the safety of the beach.

They were running away from a bear. Like, a legit, American grizzly.

I didn't have time to think about the ridiculousness of a grizzly bear in the middle of Rio De Janeiro. I moved around the screaming civilians and reeled back to punch the bear in the face. The bear, who had been running full tilt, slammed into my fist and was sent to the ground.

I ignored the bear to quickly grab two of the civilians and run to the beach, then back once more for the other three. By the time I'd finished, the gunners in the tower had poured a few ICER bullets into the grizzly, knocking it out.

"Have we figured out why the hell _bears_ are showing up in Rio!?" I asked as soon as I came to a stop.

"We're still working on that, Dial," Falcon said back over my headset. "Bill and Fitz are doing some research. Our only job is to help people. Focus on that and let the scientists do their thing. The beach head has been created. Get ready for stage two."

"Okay, let me just run around and grab some more people from the-"

"Dial," Falcon cut me off. "I know you want to help more people. But running around randomly is going to waste time and your Omnitrix energy. Come back, let the Omnitrix recharge, let Fitz send out the searchers, then we move out."

I stopped, my lightning fast brain working. Damn it. He was right... I me

"...Fine, I'm coming back."

In a burst, I ran back to my position. Still. None of this would have been a problem if I had unlocked the Master Control...

 _ **Bruce Banner/Hulk**_

Hulk picked up a section of stone that had once been the floor of a skyscraper and spun to toss it into the ocean. Nodding slightly in satisfaction as the multi-ton rock skipped across the ocean, he looked around.

Marian was nearby, moving a concrete divider on top of some other ones to make the wall around the beach taller. She place it gently, then turned to look at Hulk, giving him a nod. Hulk felt himself smiling. The large man looked around.

"Hulk!" someone called out from a nearby command tent. When he turned, Jemma Simmons was standing there, looking at Hulk without fear.

"We need Doctor Banner for just a moment! Can we speak with him?"

Hulk stopped, his face twisting. He opened his mouth, closed it, then sighed a heavy earth shaking sigh.

" _ **Hulk... Hulk get Banner."**_

Marion frowned, walking up to look at her fellow giant. Jemma smiled and walked back into her tent. Marion didn't say anything while Hulk growled in irritation. He shufled his feet, shrugged, then sighed in annoyance.

Slowly, he started to shrink inward, his purple armor flowing to form around him. Marion blinked as she watched the titanic being become a small, if physically fit, man. When he finished, he looked over at Marion. He frowned slightly. "I um, suppose we haven't met yet. I'm Bruce Banner."

Marion nodded, still giving him an odd look. Bruce shuffled his feet, then turned and walked away very quickly, leaving Marion to stare after him with an unreadable look on her face.

When he entered the tent, Bruce walked up to those surrounded a holotable. Bill Foster, Fitz-Simmons, and some BRIDGE scientists Bruce didn't recognize surrounded it. Jemma gave him a smile, then gestured to the table. "Come look at this! AIM sent us something interesting."

Bruce blinked. "AIM? I thought they were shut down."

"They were," Bill said, the pudgy older man crossing his arms. "But recently they've made a few waves. Apparently their scientists have made some big breathroughs in the study of dimensional physics and nanotechnology, using the research from the Extremis."

"Good idea, using technology that _blew people up_ ," Fitz said, rolling his eyes. "But they sent some equations, and now one of their scientists says they may have an explanation. We wanted you to look it-"

The holotable blinked. Bruce scowled, eyes flashing green, as Monica Rappaccini appeared on the screen, looking as regal as he remembered. She looked around, almost sneering.

"So, these are BRIDGE..." she flipped her hair. "No wonder you need AIM's help."

"Monica," Bruce said, crossing his arms and shoving forward to face her.

She looked at him, then smiled. "Oh... Bruce. How are you?"

"Better," he narrowed his eyes. "Still stealing ideas from your boyfriends?"

Jemma gasped in the background while Monica chuckled. "Bruce, are you still making those accusations? It's beneath you to be so petty just because we had similar ideas."

Bruce leaned down, eyeing the holographic image of Monica. Within him, he felt a green monster press. For just a moment, Bruce worried that he was about to transform. Instead, Hulk simply pressed against him. It took a moment for Bruce to realize the green monster was simply watching, a wall to lean on. Strength to be used.

"You _stole_ my thesis. I don't care if that holds up in court. I know it. You know it."

Monica scoffed. She flipped her hair once more. "Well, if you're done with this foolishness, we do have work to do. AIM has some ideas on the terrible tragedy that recently struck Rio. On studying the energy signatures that were resonating at the time of the earthquake, we realized they were... well, see for yourself."

She nodded to someone off-screen. A series of equations were sent over, popping up on the holotable. Bruce looked over them. They were... brilliant. Insanely so. Incomplete in odd ways, but it was easy enough for Bruce to put everything in place...

"Who did this equation?" Bruce asked at last.

"I did," Monica's eyes drifted slightly down and to the left as she spoke, before eyeing Bruce.

He chuckled. "You did... interesting, how a biochemist with no real ideas of her, can somehow come up with an explanation to a question on astro and quantum physics."

Monica bristled, then calmed. "Think what you want, Bruce. I've changed. Learned things you can barely understand."

Bruce put his arms behind his back, feeling compelled to by the beast within."Please, don't try to compete with me on who has changed these last few years. Because if you think, for one second, I really believe you came up with this on your own... well, it won't take much to prove otherwise."

Her face froze, for just a second, before becoming imperious once more. Too late. Bruce had seen it, and he simply turned around, dismissing the connection with an admittedly jerky wave. He turned to the others. "Bill-"

"I got it," he said, looking over the equation that Monica had sent. "I'll have this finished up so we can get to work on tracking where all of these anomalies... well, at least to finding someway of tracking where they came from, or if we can stop them from happening again."

Bruce nodded, thinking furiously. Monica... she'd always been the type to show off, to try and stand out. AIM had been on the knifes edge of being taken apart. Now they were not only back on track but also somehow thriving. This sudden gift, flashily giving a majestic equation out of thin air, screamed of Monica's style.

As Bruce thought to himself, Jemma bit her lip, then turned to look at Fitz, who simply sighed.

 _ **Bob of BRIDGE**_

At one of the gates, a tower had been set up to defend the makeshift base created on the beach. One of several, Bob the BRIDGE agent stood within it watching as people poured. News was still spreading about BRIDGE's arrival had spread. Even now, behind Bob, food, water, medical aid, and shelter was being passed out.

Bob was bored. Despite all the tension, all he was doing was holding a gun and watching a destroyed city. Sad, but really damn boring. Nothing but gray rocks and dust. He didn't even get to wear the cool armor the BRIDGE Elites got, just some standard stuff SHIELD already had.

He sighed, annoyed, still watching. He brought up his gun slightly and stepped over to the left, then shifted to his right, grunting. He watched as a group of five people came running toward the gate near his tower. He didn't really register the odd brown clothes they were wearing, like something out of an old fantasy film.

Bob only found himself surprised when the knight in dull armor riding a horse came around the corner.

He stared, uncomprehending, as the knight rushed toward the people on a horse that looked like it had seen better days. Hell, the knight looked dusty as hell to boot, with dented armor. He only raised his gun when he heard the knight shouting something in German. He aimed his gun at the knight, hesitating for the briefest second. The armor was crap, but it was still armor. So...

He flicked off from ICER to normal bullets. Then he unleashed hell.

Bob missed his first few bullets, the bouncing of the knight making it tough to draw a bead on him. Bob's next bullets slammed into the knight when the man stopped, as though surprised by the loud sound of the gunfire. He only got the guy in the arm though, so as he fell to the ground with a scream, Bob waited until the knight was dragging himself away.

Then he shot the knight in the head with cold ease.

"Hey command," Bob said, ignoring the civvies rushing into the camp. "We got knights in shining armor. And no, I ain't kidding."

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

I stood in a tent in my armor, sans helmet, going over my gear while waiting to be assigned. Creel was off on his own, while Ghost hadn't told me where she was going, leaving me alone with Wanda. It was sort of awkward, just waiting with her. She'd surprised me in a lot of ways. For one, she wasn't as... regal, as I'd expected. She carried herself like my aunt actually. My aunt had been living in Afghanistan for most of her life, had seen war and strife every day before she came to live in America. Wanda looked around the way she did, eyes panning, hands moments from rising up. She was leaning against a table, watching silently as I worked on my gun.

"So um," I said hesitantly. "How've you been?"

"Hm? Oh um... I've been good... How are you?" Wanda said awkwardly.

"Good. I've been..." I chuckled suddenly. "Oh man. Two superheroes and we can't even have a conversation."

Wanda looked surprised, then chuckled. "I suppose I'm not very good at making conversation with people. I've been working on it."

"You're fine," I admitted. "It's just a bit tense."

We both looked out of the tent. Outside, we could see the refugees pouring in. People covered in wounds, faces soaked in dust and blood. One woman was staring aimlessly out toward the ocean when she noticed us. She looked into my eyes. I looked at Wanda. She didn't seem surprised.

"We need to help them," I said quietly, putting my Model 2 together and slapping it to my back.

"Yes," her voice seemed to echo in the tent.

One of the tent flaps moved aside, and a Jade Giantess strode in, crouching slightly in the cramped confines of the tent. "Geese, can't they make these Hulk-sized?" Jen grumbled.

"Not enough Hulk's yet," I said, walking over to her. "Sup, Jen?"

"Some of the people they're rescuing aren't Brazilian," Jen seemed perturbed. She gestured outside.

When Wanda and I looked, we both realized she was right. And not in a tourist way. There was a small family dressed in medieval peasant garb, all speaking in German with tearful eyes and fear as they looked around at the Quinjets flying in and out. One man in clothes out of Star Trek was now helping the medical team, desperately working to heal people despite his own clear confusion.

"There are a few people they found on missing persons reports going back decades," Jen mumbled. "But some of them are from way beyond that."

"Time travel?" I asked, stunned. "What the hell is going on?"

This had never happened in the comics, as far as I knew. Time travel did, but not a... time quake, I guess it might be called.

"Yeah, it's weird," Jen tapped my shoulder. "Hey, be careful Mahmoud. You're a tiny guy when you aren't in fight mode."

"You're eight feet tall, Shaquille O'Neal is tiny compared to you," I grumbled. She smirked. But only for a moment. She sighed.

"Seriously, just be careful. Whatever is happening is just so _freaky_. Don't get dropped into another century or something."

Knowing my luck, that would be the moment I would unlock Clockwork. Still, couldn't really say that, so instead I nodded. She frowned, but when I was about to add to that, Sam came in.

"We're going," he said briskly, though he managed a smile. "Fitz sent out the drones, so they'll be marking anyone they come across, but we're the main search teams. Dial, Wanda."

"Right," Wanda and I strode towards the tent flap. As we exited, leaving Jen behind, I was thinking furiously.

Time travel. Who could do time travel in Mar- Crap. That's a big ass list in my head. Kang, Reed, Doom, Modok. Time travel was so common as a sci-fi feature that EVERYONE had encountered it, even the mystical heroes like Doc Strange and Blade.

But this was a question of scale, I thought to myself as Wanda and I walked past a group of refugees being wheeled onto a Quinjet. Who had the POWER to do this?

For just one moment, a purple faced death lover popped into mind. I dismissed him.

Tony and I had already discussed Thanos, come up with some designs for armor to take him. But this wasn't him. It was too random, if that made sense, or maybe the better word was Unfocused. Just Rio, instead of half the planet. And if he had the gauntlet and was collecting the stones, why do anything to Rio.

Still had to work on finding the damn things, but at least this wasn't him.

"Hey," Wanda pulled at my arm. I looked up, realizing I'd been so deep in thought I'd almost walked past Creel and Ava. Ava scowled at me, but gave me a nod, while Creel grinned.

We turned towards the city beyond, and the four of us began to walk out there while I tapped the Omnitrix. Orange fur rippled over my body, and I went from biped to quadreped with a snarl, taking a deep whiff of the air. Above, I could hear the familiar whines of Iron Man, War Machine, and Falcon taking flight, along with the unusual ozone smell of Thor's flight. With a snarl, I ran forward.

"How the hell is he supposed to talk to us like this!?" Ghost asked. To my senses she was a red and blue blur following me, while Creel was a more 'normal' red. Wanda was strangely yellow to my radar sense. Granted, I wasn't really 'seeing' them, but it worked.

"Just follow him, he'll bark if he sense anyone, and we save them," Creel said steadily. "Doesn't take language to say 'people' are here."

"Like Lassie," Wanda said sagely.

I guided them down a street, stopping when I smelled something. Humans and coffee. I listened. Not a lot of noise, but someone was weeping. It saved their lives.

Barking, I led them to some rubble. Ghost dived in, phasing through concrete. I could here her speaking Spanish later, getting a response from a panicked man, and she popped her head out. "Five people, two dead."

"How steady is the rubble?" Creel asked softly.

"Not a lot," Ghost looked over at Wanda, as did Creel.

Wanda spoke, though I couldn't see what her expression looked like. "...Okay, if Creel and Dial can take some off while I lift it and you guide me, Ava, I can pick it up."

"Then let's get started," Creel grabbed a rock, his form in my radar becoming exactly like the concrete around us. "These are just the first."

I grabbed a block, lifted it, and tossed it aside, starting the rescue.

We dug down, Ghost telling us to stop or continue where the rubble was steadiest. Creel and I tossed the stones while Wanda surrounded them in big red bubbles, bringing them up in bunches. In a couple minutes, we found our people, a young man with an elderly guy and teenage girl buried with two dead... fuck.

I couldn't even recognize them. I sighed, a low growly sound, as Ghost spoke to the group in Portuguese. Despite my Wildmutt form, the Omnitrix still translated for me.

Head that way, Ghost said as gently as she could. There's help.

\- baby! the woman screamed, wailing. My daughter! Help her please!

She was pulling on one of the bodies. We shared a look. She seemed to realize what it meant instantly, a piercing cry with inhuman power coming from her throat as she clutched at her dead daughter, pulling her close. The young and elderly men started to wail as well.

We had to leave them.

But it happened several times after. More and more sons, daughters, fathers, people in need of help. Kids. Digging through to save people.

Fitz's drones helped. Little golden lights, they flew around the city, tracking down people. But, they weren't super advanced. They knew alive and dead, but they didn't know how to perform triage, to figure out who was in need of the most help. So at times we'd dig someone out with minor scratches, then someone with more grievous wounds who had died while we tried to save them. It was...

I mean, sometimes we got everyone. But after three hours, I was becoming numb to the bodies we found. I found myself ashamed at the thought, but I was also getting annoyed at how disgusting they were, covered in blood and their own... waste. It was a thought I admonished myself for. At some point it almost became sickeningly routine. I'd track someone living, Ghost dove in, Creel, Wanda, and I would dig them out, we'd send them to the beach, then we'd move on. Stone of gray and red colors, metal, glass, sometimes someones table or dresser, constantly lifting and moving the weight out of the way.

It was rewarding, saving people. Reaching a claw down to pull a child out of the rubble and see them join their family with happy cries. The looks on their faces as EMT's revived people, Wanda smiling joyously.

But the pain when someone realized their loved one was gone, the feel of blood on my claws from someone I couldn't save, Ghost wiping filth off her outfit from where she'd had to pull a corpse out of the way.

I'm not sure it's possible to describe the horror and joy in rescuing people.

The brave ones made it worth it. There was a group we digged out of a bar. When the building fell, it had left everyone trapped, the ceiling about to fall. Left with nothing but death coming, the bartender had done the insane.

He'd caught it, capturing a roof on his shoulders in the middle of an earthquake. And so did three others.

With our flight, setting up base, then actually traveling out to find them, it took us five hours to get there. They held it for twenty minutes. Then they switched. Five hours where the Brazilian men and women inside that bar had switched off holding the ceiling, desperately straining with impossible weight. They had held until we got there, keeping each other alive. Incredible.

Just one story among many.

And still, we kept digging. Over and over, until my paws were getting rubbed raw, only my tough fur and skin keeping me from getting cut by glass or sharp metal.

Finally the Omnitrix began to beep. I tossed aside a cinder block I'd been holding and growled low in my throat before the watch timed out, leaving me in human form.

"I need a break," I said to the others.

"Same," Wanda said throatily. She hadn't done any physical stuff, but her powers had been in use all day. Ghost was similarly exhausted. I couldn't see her face since, you know, mask, but she looked more flickery than usual. Creel just sat down on a metal beam and shifted to human form. I sat next to him, the two of us sharing a look of exhaustion.

All the ones we'd saved. And the ones we hadn't. So much more to do as well.

What had done all of this?

Up in the sky, Fitz's gold drones flew past. One came down to us, scanned us briefly, then moved on, presumably realizing we were BRIDGE.

With a blue sky above, we rested for just one moment.

 _ **X**_

X the AI flew in from the sky, piloting two drones. Jarvis, his friend and ally, joined him with two of his own.

The two AI had been practicing together for sometime, the older guiding the younger in how to use the Iron Legion drones. It was tougher than it seemed, constantly controlling every aspect of the robots, but X found himself enjoying it.

X and Jarvis flew down towards a figure similar in shape to themselves, if more ornate and colored red and silver rather than the white and blue of themselves. As they joined the figure, yet another flew up to join him, then another and another. Soon, they surrounded the floating figure.

"Skye, Rhodey, Sam," Iron Man said, greeting three of the figures. His armor was the latest model, the first to date to take full advantage of caton technology and the various advancements Tony and Mahmoud had begun to create. He turned to look at the four figures of X and Jarvis, then cocked his head, face hidden by a silver mask. "I uh... which of you is which."

"I am X," two of the robots he was piloting said, the lights on him glowing blue.

"And I'm Jarvis, sir," the other drones glowed orange as they spoke.

"That is so cool and freaky," Skye opened her facemask as though to take a better look. Her suit had gone through some changes, now colored a dark silver with some red highlights. She floated slightly unsteadily, not as graceful as the others. X found that interesting actually. While the suits were based of the same design, all of them were floating very differently, as though their personalities informed their use of the suit. Skye raised a hand and hologram floated out of the emitter in her palm. "Okay, I have all the info I could get. Fitz's babies are working with them, but I thought we should all have it too."

"Where did you get all this, anyway?" Tony asked curiously.

"I've been hacking every phone and camera that was on in the city during the earthquake," Skye answered easily. "I'm using it to-"

"Wait," Sam said as he floated next to Rhodey. "You hacked a _cities_ worth of phones and cameras?"

Skye shrugged. "Well, I've got alien and Stark tech helping me. Not exactly running on my laptop anymore."

Rhodey let out a heavy sigh. "Just... don't do it again please, except in cases like this."

Information flooded into their systems, X comparing the footage and signals from cell phones with lightning speed to begin tracking people.

"Skye, nice work," Tony said simply. "Also, Jarvis is still going to make sure to delete my internet history, so don't even try. Head out guys. We got lives to save."

Everyone nodded, all humor gone. In an instant, all of them spun off to their sectors. X guided each of his drones to one location each and started scanning for life signs immediately.

 _ **Frank Castle/Punisher**_

As one of the teams involved in the rescue effort, Frank was following the instructions given to him over the radio to find everyone. As of then, he was investigating the destruction of one of the drones being used to coordinate the effort. The last image it had seen had apparently been a poster from one of those fantasy games, some big red guy waving a sword, so it was his job to find out what happened.

He walked with a group of five, the soldiers moving through the city at a quick pace, not quite running.

They're just moved over a tall set of rocks when a woman came screaming around the corner. Dark skinned and wearing half-ripped clothing, she almost got shot in the heart for running towards them.

Frank watched as she ran towards one of the men, screaming out in Portuguese.

"What's she saying," he asked one of his guys, a young soldier by the name of Sam Lee, his teams translator.

The young BRIDGE officer frowned. "Something about... demons? Attacking people and..." he hesitated. "Sacrificing them."

Frank scowled. "This job is so fucking weird. Let's go! Sam, take her to the beach, the rest of you, on me!"

The barking orders were immediately followed, Sam guiding her away as the others went towards the section the woman had come from. The same section where the drone had fallen.

Frank took a corner into a street, ducking behind rubble and eyeing the section from his cover.

That was when he realized the drone hadn't taken an image from a poster. It had taken a photo of it's attacker. Or one of them.

Giant monsters like misshapen humans, eight of them, roamed the street, dragging crying people around. They spoke to each other in a guttural language Frank didn't recognize. He activated the remote imagine from his HUD. "Command, you seeing this?"

It was quiet for a moment before a BRIDGE officer responded. "Punisher, are those... demons?"

"Apparently," Frank responded, looking at his HUD to confirm their size. The smallest of them was listed as seven feet. Their skin was varying hues of red, and despite their height, they all stood almost stooped over. They wore leather loinclothes and little else, and carried massive swords, axes, and clubs that looked they had been made by the worlds worst blacksmiths, with scratched and dull edges. Still covered in blood however. "Aren't I supposed to be asking that?"

"Our knowledge base isn't pulling anything up on them," the woman on the other end answered. "But they're attacking civilians. Should we send the Avengers to assist?"

"Anyone you can send will help," Punisher replied, lifting his rifle and flicking a switch on the side. In an instant, it went from semi to auto. He flicked another switch, changing it from a rifle to a shotgun. His armor shifted, shoulders becoming more protected, sections on his back and arms reinforced to take recoil better. "But right now," Frank said softly as he watched one of the red beings pull a man from under a rock, laughing as he raised a sword. Frank indicated him on his HUD, hightlighting him for his team as well. "We need to fight. Rodriguez, that one."

"On it," the woman on his team raised her rifle and fired on the demon. Her first bullet slammed into the things arm, forcing it to scream and back away. Frank was surprised to realize the bullet wasn't producing a lot of blood, as though the demon had skin too tough to pierce through. Probably wasn't 'divine' enough to really cause damage.

But then, Frank hadn't been the type to put a lot of faith in religion. Rodriguez apparently wasn't either, because she started pouring bullets into the demon, ignoring the others spinning around with loud roars as they heard the sound of gunfire. The rest of Frank's team rose out of cover to join her, Frank pouring automatic shotgun fire into his demon, one with a shaved head and ponytail. The thing roared again when Frank's bullets slammed into it's chest... and did nothing but make the thing pissed.

Seriously, nothing on Earth should ever treat the massive shotgun bullets he was pouring into the thing like annoying pinpricks.

"Fuck!" Frank rose to his feet when the creature began to rush toward him, shouting.

A blue bolt of fire flew past him, sending one of the demons flying. "Woot! I love this gun!" one of the men, probably the one who had fired the repulsor shot, shouted.

Frank didn't have enough time to check on the soldier who'd fired. His opponent was closing in. Cursing, Frank snapped a hand up to block the sword slashing toward him. The giant sword bounced off his forearm armor. Frank scowled at the sudden pain at the heavy impact of the sword, but he raised his gun in his other hand and stabbed it into the creatures abdomen, barrel digging into a hole created by his previous shots. Frank flipped another switch on his weapon, his arms quaking. The creature roared in his face, spittle landing on his helmet.

Frank's gun sprouted a bayonet, blade slicing deep into the monster. The damned thing raised another arm and punched Frank in the face, his HUD sending warnings to him. Frank pulled the trigger again. Point-blank, auto-shotgun fire poured into the demon. It screamed, this time in pain. Frank ignored the fact his HUD had been cracked by the monsters punch, the blood from a cut above his eye, instead pulling his bayonet out and stabbing it deeper again.

" **RAAAGGHHH!"** Frank let out an inhuman sound, one that dwarfed the monsters earlier roars, as he forced it to the ground. The monster had enough time to look up at him in shock and horror. Then Frank raised his gun high and stabbed it in the mouth. The monster gurgled, still alive. So Frank pulled the trigger again.

By the time he ran out of bullets, the monster had lost the skin on it's face, it's tough bones left with deep scratches.

Frank looked up. One of the demons had been killed by Rodriguez, while the one sent flying by a repulsor shot was getting up. That left five. Who were staring at him in horror. Then they seemed to rally, roaring in rage. Frank pulled his gun out of the corpse and aimed it at the bunch, shooting one carrying an ax in the face. The thing screeched, but seemed to ignore the bullets and blood, rushing him.

Out of the sky, an armored figure landed on top of one of the demons. "I am here to render assistance," the robotic figure said, wrestling with the demon. The robot and demon spun around each other, demon roaring, robot glowing blue. The demon ripped off an arm. The robot responded with a repulsor shot to the face that sent the demon to the ground. It fired again, slicing deep into the demon. Frank and his team joined in, shooting the hell out of those left.

One demon managed to ignore the bullets long enough to leap onto one of Frank's team, axe first. It died, but not without slashing down with a massive blow, axe digging deep into the soldiers chest. He didn't even have time to scream as he died.

Frank scowled when it was over, staring at his dead soldier. He'd never gotten the man's full name. James something. Then he looked around. "What the fuck were these things?"

The one armed robot came over. "I believe those were some form extradimensional being. We may need to speak with Thor to see if he knows what exactly they are."

Asking a God of Thunder if he knew what demons were... Fuck.

Frank scoffed with a bit of anger and frustration. "Okay. If there are more of these things, we need to know how to kill them a hell of a lot faster," he looked at his dead soldier, then leaned down. As the others watched, soldiers and robot, Frank lifted the man into his arms, ignoring the blood pouring across the white skull on his chest as he carried the soldier away. He breathed deeply, the scent of blood and gunpowder in his nose, and very deliberately stepped on one of the demons chest, boot digging deep into the skin. Under his cracked helmet, his eye stared out with dark intensity.


	58. Chapter 58

**_X_**

X watched silently as Frank carried the soldier to safety. Frank Castle was on Dial's list of people to watch, right next to Matt Murdock and others, despite being a normal soldier.

X was still compiling data as to why, but it was worth noting that Frank had none of the reactions his fellow soldiers showed. No fear, no surprise. He hadn't frozen for even a moment, and had killed his opponent with brutal quickness.

X switched his focus from one body to another. That body was currently doing a makeshift repair on a walkway bridge spanning over a street. Rebuilding it would allow for faster transport to the beach for those escaping the chaos.

Making careful calculations, X carefully used the laser built into his arm to carefully attach one of the struts to another, supporting the bridge the other arm and floating in the air on repulsor boots.

His sensors tracked an object flying towards him. With the speed of thought afforded to all AI, he registered the object, then planned.

The object had seemed bipedal in shape from far away, but was clearly not human from the shape of its body. It was possibly organic, though beings like Diamondhead and Goop left the other possibilities open, and it also had a stooping shape to it.

The creature was laughing now as it stretched it's massive arms out to grab X. X, in a split second, noted the thirty foot leap the creature had made and the speed of its approach, then twisted his arm around to fire a repulsor at the top of its arc. The blue beam splashed against the creatures face like water, doing nothing. Surprising, X had been hoping to force the creature off-balance, but it was unharmed, not even diverted.

Which meant it was going to impact this body soon.

X moved quicker, sacrificing efficiency for speed. By the time the being had slammed into him, X had finished the bridge, or at least, did a rough repair job on it.

Then the creature hit his body, fingers ripping through metal, and tore him apart in a smooth pull.

X would have sighed in annoyance if he could have. While the drones were meant to be expendable, it was still a waste. Still torn in half, X let his legs fall to the floor while his top half used the repulsor in one hand to float and the other to shoot at the being over and over. The being gave him a surprised look as it fell to the ground, giving X his first clear look of the creature.

It was hairy. Very hairy. With a red beard and locks flowing down his back, even hair on his shoulders. The being was also big, only a head shorter than the Hulk, with massive muscles bunched beneath brown skin. He wore an armored vest that X recognized as being made of uru metal, with a large metal skull over the abdomen, and two large uru knuckles wrapped around his fists. The creature had three fingers and two toes, and analysis of the air told X he was giving off odd odors.

The creature landed on the ground and leaped up again, finally destroying X's body, but by then he had already left it.

 ** _Tony Stark/Iron Man_**

In another part of Rio, Tony and Thor were working together.

"Yep that way," Tony said as he floated over the many people currently walking down the street. "Ignore the big guy tossing the bus aside."

Right on queue, a large blue metropolitan vehicle went flying overhead. Thor walked up with a wide grin, giving a nod to the amazed Brazilians and tourists as they walked past, then looked up at Tony with a frown.

"So much destruction... I've been in few places where death like this had happened," he said solemnly.

"Same," Tony said quietly, thinking of his time fighting in Afghanistan.

"Do we have any idea what was this cause of such devastation?" Thor asked grandly.

"Not yet," Tony shook his head. "Bruce and the geeks have some theories, but so far everyone is drawing a blank. Besides, first priority is saving the civvies," Tony shrugged. While his movement was nonchalant, he still shuddered. And beneath his mask, looking at all the people he hadn't been able to save, a thoughtful look came to his face.

An alert came in two minutes later just as the last of the civilians headed off.

"Tony, Thor!" Maria said through their comm units. "We have an enhanced in the field, covered in uru metal!"

They stiffened, Thor straightening up a moment later.

"Asgardian?" Thor asked.

"Not unless some of you only have two toes," Maria replied.

"Those who have lost them in battle," Thor admitted. "Or bets. Where are they?"

"Coming your way from the west. I'm sending in some support, but you're on your own for a bit."

"We will not need it," Thor snarled, the sound of a rhythmic booming sound heading toward him not fazing the thunder deity.

Tony grinned savagely, moving to float next to Thor. "Think it's one of yours? Someone responsible for all this?"

"I am not sure, Stark," Thor spun Mjolnir in his fist. "But we will have our answers either way, this I swear!"

The last boom was followed by a giant being landing before them. The second he saw it, Tony felt his smile fade.

Shit. This thing was Hulk-sized. Abomination-sized. And hairy as hell, not to mention smelly.

"Oh... oh crap."

Tony blinked. Then he looked at Thor, who was staring at the creature with a nervous look in his eyes.

"Uh... you know this furball?" Tony asked, looking over at the big (Man? Creature? Dude, dude worked) dude rising out of the crater it had made.

"Ulik," Thor gulped. Thor actually gulped!

"And he is?" Tony asked.

"Big trouble," Thor said almost softly, nervousness fading into resolution.

"...Jarvis, send in Veronica."

"Already on the way, sir," Jarvis replied.

Tony brought his hands up as the creature, the big man, blinked at the sight of them.

"Thor!" The creature laughed. "Yes! I found you, my friend! Now we can finally kill each other! Truly, this is a magnificent day!"

Tony blinked. "Not... what I expected."

The monster sped forward suddenly, with that impossible velocity every giant monster from Hulk to Four Arms seemed able to do. Tony spun out of the way and blasted the monster as it passed, but Ulik just ignored him.

When the repulsors hit him though, the monster stumbled, looking surprised.

"Oh! You are a far mightier foe than the last! Might there be a man within that shell?" Ulik grinned at Tony.

"Uh... yeah?" Tony said weakly. "You want a piece, sasquatch?"

"Indeed I do! For it has been some time since mankind has been able to deliver such a blow to I, Ulik the Troll!"

"Have at thee!" Thor swung his hammer then, rushing forward and slamming the mystical weapon into Ulik's face.

The troll stumbled back, shouting happily, then swung one of his fists into Thor's stomach. Thor gasped, growled, then punched the troll back.

Tony flipped into the air to shoot him, only for his repulsors to miss, Ulik lept up to grab Tony out of the air. A desperate blast to the eyes loosened the grasp of the troll and allowed him to escape, Tony followed with right cross that sent Ulik slamming back to the ground. Tony blinked at the sound of metal snapping, giving his right fist a look.

The gauntlet, formed from gold-titanium, one of the strongest alloys ever made, had cracked.

Tony took his eyes off of it to look at Ulik. "Well great, you broke my armor. You know how much this costs?"

Ulik, rubbing his chin, frowned. "My apologies, but I do not have knowledge of the worth of Midgard metals and equipment. Regardless, we are in combat! The damage of weaponry is simply a part of that."

Iron Man cocked his head. "Huh. Logic from a troll. The internet didn't prepare me for this."

Then he blasted him. Ulik took two hits to the head, roared in anger, and blocked the next repulsor blast with his uru knuckles. Tony twisted his hand around, trading repulsors for a pair of lasers, the red hot blasts of red light smashing into Ulik's face. He shouted in real pain, blinking his eyes rapidly. Tony didn't let the fact that his high impact lasers apparently only irritated Ulik bother him too much. He stepped aside when Thor came flying in hammer first, Mjolnir smashing into Ulik's stomach with a booming sound that shook the area. Then Veronica came down, flowing around Tony to encase him in the Hulkbuster suit as Ulik grabbed Thor by the cape and tossed him aside. Thor flipped around and landed on his feet, spinning to punch Ulik in the face.

"Damn you!" Thor shouted, spitting blood.

"Yes!" Ulik shouted joyfully. "Let us shake the world, old friend!"

A crater began to form beneath them, the two punching each other again and again. Shockwaves flew out with the impacts and buildings across Rio began to shake.

"Guys, we need to contain this guy!" Tony yelled, flying up in his full Hulkbuster form as the helmet slammed down, blasting falling rubble away from fleeing civilians as fast as he could.

"He's tearing apart the whole city!"

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

Across the city, before all the fight even started, I was digging out another group of people, using my suit instead of the Omnitrix this time. Ghost popped out of the rubble nearby, watching me for a moment. I pulled the last chunk of stone off an older woman. I pulled her up, Ghost speaking to her in gentle tones as the woman weeped silently. I tried not to look the sight of her dead family behind her. I tried to memorize exactly how many there were. I tried not to look at the torn stuffed animal on the rubble.

I looked down at my red glowing Omnitrix, then at Ghost as she watched the poor woman walk away. We stared at each other for a moment.

Then we just looked away. With everything going on, being angry at her just seemed so... stupid. And I guess she felt the same way. We looked out over the destroyed city. It was almost peaceful, Ghost and I standing there in full armor, looking on that image of an apocalypse.

Then the ground shook, the both of us stumbling. We gave each other looks.

"Another quake?" Ghost asked frantically.

The ground shook again and again. I scowled. As someone who had lived in Cali, I'd felt earthquakes. They didn't have an almost rhythmic pulse to them.

A loud crack suddenly filled the air. Ghost and I turned towards the sound. A building shook with each shake, large cracks spreading across the cement, glass shattering to fall toward us, one of them taller than I was. I raised my hand and created my shield hastily, shouting when the glass pane slammed into my tower shield, while Ghost went intangible to let the razor sharp shards sliced through the air.

The shield wasn't going to help for the next part though. The building collapsed toward us. I was about to run when the Omnitrix beeped loudly.

"Move!" Ghost shouted at me.

"On it!" I twisted the Omnitrix, bringing up a moth-like being, then pushed it down.

Then the building slammed on top of us.

For a moment, things were quiet. Then I moved up through the building, clutching Ghost's arm. I had no idea what the physics were that let Big Chill and Ghost touch while still being intangible, but I took advantage of it, floating over the city. The building, hundreds of tons of stone, metal, and glass, sent up debris into the air, the sound of the thing landing like the fist of an angry giant.

 _"_ _Right in the nick of time,"_ I mumbled in Big Chill's spooky voice. _"_ _You okay?"_

"Yeah," Ghost responded, sounding a little freaked. "What is going on?"

 _"_ _I don't-"_

"Avengers!" Maria said over the radio. "We have an enhanced in the field! Get civilians out of the combat zone and backup Thor and Iron Man!" What followed next were the coordinates of where the fight was taking place and orders to other BRIDGE personal.

"On it!" Ghost said, looking up at me. I looked down at her as I held her there. "Put me down."

 _"_ _...It's faster if I carry you."_

She hesitated, staring at me for a moment through those weird 'eyes' in her mask. "...Damnit. Do it."

I twisted and flew over the landscape, Ghost practically grumbling.

Considering our powerset, both of us took the express route, diving directly through the buildings in front of us. We went through an office, a set of apartments, and finally a swimming pool, which froze over the second we went through.

Below us, a streak of silver sped past, followed by short shouts from civilians as the blur grabbed and moved them out of the way.

"Damn he's fast," I mumbled, before focusing on the loud noises ahead of us.

In the middle of a street, a crater was being created by the three beings duking it out.

Any other day, I'd have dived into that mess immediately.

Instead, I focused our orders. Drones were floating around the windows of a building on the brink of collapse.

Drones on almost every floor. Dozens of civilians. And it wasn't the only building.

I took one and dived into the window. As I did, I dropped Ghost, who fell through the floor to help the people beneath us.

There were three people, two women, and a man, all in suits torn up and dusty. They screamed when I entered. Mothmen aren't reassuring figures.

I ignored that in favor of raising my hands up to fire beams of ice at the collapsing ceiling. Blue ice grew from the points of impact, creating makeshift support for the ceiling. I didn't fire them for long, only enough to keep the people safe. The second I was done, I dived in and made to grab all three of them.

One of the women, in a blazing spin, kicked me in the face.

I stepped back, more surprised than anything. I spoke, the Omnitrix translating for me. _"_ _Really? I'm an Avenger damn it, I'm saving you!"_

The woman who'd kicked me blinked. The ice above cracked.

I dived forward, grabbing the three in my arms, then dived out of the nearest window, clutching the three to my chest. Ice fell from the ceiling, dust and chilled air flying about.

We hit the Rio sunshine. Below me, I could see Falcon flying out from another floor with two more, then She-Hulk from a floor above me. A building nearby exploded outward, followed by Marian and Hulk leaping out of the roof, Hulk carrying several people while Marian protected him.

In the center of it all, Thor was shouting in pain, reeling from a punch to the face. Tony kicked the guy in the face. The guy they were fighting laughed, slammed fingers deep into Tony's chest and pulled away a massive chunk of the Hulkbuster chestplate.

 _"_ _Holy..."_ The Hulkbuster was made to withstand blows from damn near _everything_. What the hell was this guy?"

I carried the three people to the evac point nearby. "Go! Go now!"

A stone slammed into my back, sending to the ground with a grunt. The three people I'd saved ran for it.

I twisted up, pulling my wings around me, then floated up.

A massive fist flew through my head. Only Big Chill's natural stoic attitude kept the scream from erupting, my intangible form saving my life.

"Oh?" the big hairy man blinked then smirked. "That is quite interesting. Do it once more!"

He punched through me again. I winced in shock when his knuckles passed through me, a tingling feeling following the movement through my torso. His fist was surrounded in ice once it passed through. He responded to that with a laugh and a shake to get the ice off him.

I blasted him in the face.

"Yes!" The crazy guy laughed, his beard and face frosting over then cracking with every move. "This is what I wanted! Ah, like the brisk mornings of Jotunhein!"

 _"_ _Yay for you,"_ I said sarcastically. I snapped my wings open and floated up, continuing to fire away. Thor and Tony landed nearby, blasting away with lightning and repulsor beams.

For a moment the three of us seemed to almost have him on the ropes, or beams of power holding him in place. Until he finally had enough.

Then he slammed his uru knuckles together.

A wave of orange energy flew out from the impact, reminding me of something similar I'd seen from Wonder Woman the movie. I went intangible. Thor raised Mjolnir. Tony created a shield.

The next thing I knew, I was sent flying back.

 _"_ _Fuuuuck!"_ I hit a wall behind me, falling to the ground. Tony's armor was stripped off, my fellow Avenger landing beside me. Thor grunted in pain, but stayed standing.

 _"_ _...oh my god,"_ I blinked slowly, stars in my eyes. I tried to move, only to feel immense pain. Wings were the same. I tried to get up, raising a hand up. Clearly Big Chill wasn't cutting it. Time for another round.

The giant guy was above me. He watched as I slammed the Omnitrix on my chest.

My skin turned red and armored. A pair of arms grew out beneath more normal ones. I narrowed four eyes at the guy as I rose to my feet and towering over him. In my full Four Arms form, I snapped out two arms to punch, ignoring the pain I still felt across my body.

The big guy stepped back to let my punch whiff, then lashed out with his own punch.

 ** _"_** ** _Ahhh!"_** I staggered back. He stepped forward and started to punch me with incredible speed. Shockwaves erupted with each blow to my ribs, face, and stomach.

I blocked one of his punches, trying to ignore the blood in my mouth and the fact both my right eyes were swollen shut. The feeling of fur against my knuckles, then iron hard skin, then bone, his head snapping back. I punched him again and again. He barely shifted at all. In the end, my blood was still dripping, including a bit from my now split knuckles.

The guy was laughing.

 ** _"_** ** _Damn you!"_** I shouted. The bastard was still laughing! I was in my strongest form, punching him with more power than I could remember, shaking the entire area with my blows. And he was acting like he loved it!

I drove him back, straining to block his own blows. Our feet dug into the asphalt, the hairy guy finally ending up with his back against a wall. I grabbed his beard and pulled him down, then pushed him back, smashing him through the wall. As the concrete fell I grabbed two massive blocks in my four hands and smashed them into him.

 ** _"_** ** _RAAAAAGGHH!"_** Right and left, I smashed him in the face. I finished by grabbing him, lifting him up, then throwing him at a nearby building. The jerk was grinning as he disappeared through the wall.

Thor landed next to me as I leaned over to rest my palms on my knees. My breath came out fast and hard, burning from my lungs. **_"_** ** _That guy… is strong."_**

Thor nodded, looking tired. "Ulik the Troll is a formidable opponent."

"Ulik?" I blinked. Oh yeah. Random Thor villain. Actually, not that random, he was a pretty big deal. And a troll? Damn, so many good insults could be made from that.

The sound of rocks shattering was followed by Ulik landing in front of us. I grit my teeth and stood up, clenching my fist while Thor stepped next to me. The troll was nodding, looking somewhat serious.

"Good. Good! Humanity has become strong and has gained strong allies. I can see why you spend time with them, Thor."

Ulik didn't speak for long. He jumped toward us. Thor and I did the same, the thunder master moving faster than me to meet Ulik in the center Mjolnir first. The troll raised his right knuckle, an explosion following the massive impact. I ran in next to Thor, ducking under a punch from Ulik, then uppercutting him, my upper arms smashing into his chin while my bottom arms hit him in the chest. Ulik twisted with the blows, but Thor followed up with a literal hammer blow across his face. I followed up to hit him in the gut, then uppercut him again.

Ulik slammed into the ground. He grumbled something before spitting out red. As we watched, he reached into his mouth and rummaged around for a moment before pulling. Holding up a tooth as large around as a thumb, he grinned. "Shapeshifter. You throw damn good punches."

Then he sprung to his feet, grabbed my face, and lifted me up before smashing me to the ground, smashing his foot down onto my chest.

 ** _"_** ** _Ahhhhhh!"_** I screamed, punching Ulik over and over as he held me down.

Ulik punched Thor into the sky, then raised his uru knuckle wrapped right fist. It came down with immense speed as I grabbed his leg, struggling to lift him off. His uru knuckle glowed orange. The last thing I heard was a loud cra-


	59. Chapter 59

**_Tony Stark/Iron Man_**

Tony coughed, blood filling his mouth. The aftermath of that massive wave of unknown energy had knocked him down."Jarvis, what the hell was that?"

"Unknown sir," Jarvis responded. "Some sort of energy wave, one that managed to injure Big Chill despite his intangibility."

"The kid?" Tony twisted his head around. He stopped at the sight of Dial on the floor lying in rubble, open wounds across his body. A scan revealed fractured bones and internal bleeding. "Mahmoud."

"Medical support is on the way," Jarvis said firmly.

Tony rose to his feet, groaning and cursing slightly. His armor slowly reformed itself, catoms flowing. "Jarvis, I need basic armor form. No Hulkbuster, it isn't fast enough to fight this guy."

Jarvis didn't respond, but the catoms from the Hulkbuster flowed to fill in cracks and rebuild sections of his usual armor as the Hulkbuster fell away.

Thor was still battling the monster, Ulik or whatever his name was. Tony flew in, blasting the guy in the face. As he did, some indicators on his HUD lit up. He ignored them to fly over the pair, firing again and again. His shoulders popped up, missiles flying out to slam into Ulik's back. When it was over, the guy was on fire, his hair burning.

"Hahaha!" Ulik smashed his knuckles into Mjolnir, the two weapons screeching aloud with the impact. "Your friends have such power, Prince Thor! Killing them will be an honor!" then he seemed almost abashed. "Actually, I would like a moment to finish off the shapeshifter if you don't-"

"Never!" Thor shouted. He grabbed Ulik's beard and headbutted him, then rose into an uppercut with his hammer, lifting Ulik into the air in a burst of lightning.

"Someone get over here and help!" Tony shouted over the comms.

Bobbi Morse, the Mockingbird, responded through the comms. "We're on our way!"

Tony winced, raising his hands to blast Ulik again. "No offense, but I was hoping for some heavy hitters."

"Well, they're carrying civilians away or fighting all the other crap around the city. Me and Bobbi will be there soon," Hawkeye said. The sound of an engine could be heard as he spoke.

Tony stopped firing to think. In truth, Hawkeye opened up possibilities. If he could get a solid shot in, with some help from Thor... and the extra arc reactors from the Hulkbuster armor lying on the ground.

"Okay then, Barton. I've got a plan."

-

 ** _Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver_**

Moving as fast as he could, Pietro carried a small Brazilian man and his muscular wife at high speed. Granted, everything he did was usually at high speed, but that was beside the point. Stopping in front of a tent, he placed the couple on the ground, ignoring their loud cries of thanks in favor of stumbling over to a foldable table with bottles of water all over it. He grabbed one up and practically forced himself to drink it, one palm against the table to support him. Pietro crushed the bottle when he was done and gasped, pulling at his collar.

He kept taking long gulps of air, the ocean nearby giving the oxygen a salty taste as it passed over his tongue. Looking around, he took stock of everything. Dozens of people roamed around him, giving the super-speedster a wide berth. BRIDGE soldiers and other personnel were either defending the area or helping people, putting refugees onto Quinjets and doing first aid.

Pietro stared for a moment at the many body bags piled in one area. Then he looked away.

After another few gulps of water, Pietro was running again, ignoring the soreness in his legs. Within moments he was out of the camp and back in the city. Pietro breathed hard as he followed the trail of one of the drones, hopping over a pile of rubble, sliding under a metal pole, then taking an alleyway, hopping to run along the wall, then taking another spin as he hopped off of the wall, landed on a railing, then out towards a street. For one moment, Pietro was in the air, ten feet above the strewn rubble. With a sense of familiarity, he looked around the war-torn street, a heavy feeling his heart, blood pumping at high-speed through his limbs.

A loud howl, then a scream, filled the air just as he landed, in that split second where he wasn't going faster than sound. Pietro's feet ground into the asphalt, and he leaned forward until he was almost lying down on the ground. In the brief moment when gravity began to pull at him, he began to sprint. Pulling off a 'drift' at that speed was easy if you ignored the strain it put on even his superhuman form. Gritting his teeth, Pietro focused on his destination.

By the time he'd reached the place, the wolves had already begun to attack. A small group of people, about five, wearing fine clothing and carrying heavy luggage, screaming as they tried to run through the jagged metal rebar and concrete rubble remains of a skyscraper, like the bones of some giant. The wolves were the real showstopper.

Pietro gaped for a moment. They were massive, covered in grey fur and smelling distinctly animal, the way all predators did, a heavy and enveloping scent. There were three wolves, each about as large as a small car. He could easily imagine the blood-soaked beasts hunting mammoths in the ancient world.

One of the wolves was in mid-leap, teeth extended, eyes savage. He was aiming to kill a woman in mid-fall.

Pietro sped forward. No time to be gentle. He watched carefully as he sped forward, grabbed a piece of metal rebar out of a pile of rubble, and raised it like a spear as he met the wolf at the point it was about to bite into the woman.

Running at three hundred miles per hour, Pietro stabbed the metal 'spear' in his hand deep into the wolves eye. Metal sliced through flesh, bone, then flesh again. Pietro twisted to slam his shoulder into the wolf's side at the same time, using his speed and mass to send it flying. It rolled for a moment before slamming into an office desk half poking out of debris, shattering the furniture with its mass.

Everyone stilled, staring at Pietro as he looked at the woman he'd saved. He felt a bit of annoyance at how long the woman was taking to realize she'd been saved. Damnit, why was the rest of the world so _slow?_

"Run already!" he shouted at last. The woman screeched, then hurried up to her feet and sprinting to meet the rest of her group. Scowling, Pietro looked at the two remaining wolves. The two beasts blinked at him. "What?" he smirked darkly. "You didn't see that coming?" The wolves leaped at him on cue.

He spun away from the first, slapping it on the snout, then ducked the other, letting it pass over him. Feeling mischievous, he waited until the wolves hind legs were above him. Then he unleashed dozens of punched into the spot just between the wolves hind legs.

When that wolf landed, it was with a screech of sound akin to a loudspeaker that had broken. Alive, but devastated, it hobbled away, eyes wide. His fellow wolf gave Pietro a look of similar surprise, then began to run.

"Ha!" Pietro chuckled. Then he was running again.

-

 ** _Bruce Banner/Hulk_**

In another part of the city, Hulk was leaping from building to building, trying to get to his friends as fast as he could.

"Hulk!" A BRIDGE operative said through the speaker in his armor. "We need to help civilians in a department store nearby! They're getting attacked by something, and you're the closest one to it."

Hulk scowled. **_"No! Hulk help friends!"_**

Whoever was on the other side paused. "Sir, I understand, but these civilians are in danger. We need to-"

Within the mind of Hulk, Banner rose. _"They're right. Thor and Tony can fight, but those people can't. If we don't help, they might die."_

Hulk waited for more. For the insistence, the annoying yells, Puny Banner shouting at him, _chaining_ him.

Banner said nothing.

Hulk scoffed, then nodded. **_"Hulk go to people. Where?"_**

The person on the other side paused again. "O-Oh, that's great! Here, I'll send the coordinates to your armor."

Hulk landed on a building, ignoring the sound of glass shattering that followed. For a moment, it was quiet. Then his armor began to blink on the right gauntlet. He spun to his right, then back to the left as the blinking light got brighter. Once facing the right direction, the light stopped blinking to glow steadily.

The green titan shot into the sky. It took twelve massive jumps, shooting through the sky over a destroyed city, hair blowing in the wind as he closed his eyes, taking some joy in the sunlight. But deep within, another emotion always bloomed. With every smashing landing, with the way, his hands unconsciously kept clenching. One emotion always swelled within him.

And when he reached the department store to the sound of loud roars and screams, he let the emotion explode outward. No subtlety. He smashed through the roof like a meteor.

Falling for three stories, Hulk landed in what could have once been called a clothing department. Now, it was a swamp.

Hulk landed in the middle of a stinking lake of murky water, his impromptu cannonball sending waves out everywhere. The disgusting water made him crinkle his nose in disgust, the eight-foot behemoth up to his knees in green and brown filth.

He looked up. People were running away screaming. He was used to that. He was less used to the sight of dinosaurs.

Well, one dinosaur. Standing in the middle of the clothing department turned prehistoric swamp, the tall dinosaur stood over the landscape. It held half a dead corpse in one hand, the other half in its mouth. It stared at Hulk with predatory fascination, long tail swinging back and forth behind it.

" _T-Rex?"_ Bruce asked, stunned. _"No, it's too big. And why doesn't it have feathers? Look at those arms, they're too long! How did it... And this swamp! Did it get pulled in along with its environment?"_

Hulk didn't have as many questions. Instead, he roared.

So did the dinosaur, dropping the corpse in its hand. The massive beast ran towards Hulk, jaws sweeping down to devour him. Hulk grabbed it's jaws as the creature came down, roaring as he was forced back by the massive bulk of the dinosaur. With a twist, Hulk pulled the beast around, the creature growling in surprise as it was tossed aside, smashing into a pillar. Dazed, the creature spun around. A loud snapping sound followed the tail's passing through the air before the tip hit Hulk in the chest.

" _Right, I remember that T-Rex's can apparently break the sound barrier with their tail swings,"_ Bruce mused as Hulk was sent through the air like he'd been shot out of a cannon. _"Although I guess this isn't a real dinosaur. There's so little information on them of course, so I suppose-"_

" ** _Stop talking!"_** Hulk grumbled loudly as he smashed through a window, glass falling around him followed by rubble. **_"Help fight!"_**

" _Right, sorry,"_ Bruce said, voice tightening. _"I'll get out of your way."_

Hulk rolled to his feet, brushing glass off his shoulders. He glared at the dinosaur that had sent him flying, then leaped forward, flying through the hole he'd created. **_"HULK SMASH DINOSAUR!"_**

The T-Rex's reptilian eyes widened moments before a green fist smashed into its jaw, sending bloodied teeth flying in a spray of blood.

 **"GWAAARRR!"** Spinning back with impressive fortitude, the dinosaur headbutt his opponent. Hulk roared, wrapping his arms around the head smashed into his chest.

" ** _SAURIAN SUPLEX!"_** Holding onto the dinosaurs head, he lifted and pulled. In complete defiance of physical laws, the dinosaur was lifted off the ground. Taloned feet twisted through the air, green skin of two vastly different hues bunched up with muscle, and an eight-foot green man suplexed a dinosaur.

Cratering the ground with a crunch of bones shattering against the stone, the T-Rex died on impact surrounded by the corpses of the humans it had eaten. Hulk spun to his feet to stare down for a moment, making sure the creature was dead.

" _Rath is a bad influence on you,"_ Bruce noted within his other half's mind.

" ** _Rath is good influence,"_** Hulk scoffed.

He leaped out of the building, heading out to aid his friends once again.

-

 ** _Thor Odinson/God of Thunder_**

Thor swallowed blood, and spat to the side, glaring. Once the shock had worn off and he was actually in combat, Ulik's grinning face was a callback to far simpler times. As a younger man filled with grand thoughts of honor and glory, before the events of the last few years.

Twisting Mjolnir in his palm, the handle mystically clean of any sweat or blood, Thor ignored the sound of Tony landing beside him, focusing instead on the voice in his ear as it explained everything. At the same time, he spoke.

"Ulik. There are people who need help here. People I _must_ aid," Ulik's smile faded slightly. "I don't have time for this fight. Please. Stop fighting and let me help them."

Ulik sighed. "I understand. But I have seen that your allies have aided many during our battle. We are clear to fight as we wish, and let your worthy allies save everyone else," he grinned. "So do not worry Thor! We can fight as much as we want and your allies can join in after! Our battle will shake this land and be told in the tales of Midgard for eternity! Come, my friend! Let's race to Valhalla!"

"Is it weird that I can't tell if I like this guy or not?" Tony asked, sounding lost. "I feel like I'm fighting the Warrior."

Thor turned to look at Iron Man, blinking. "Well, he is _a_ warrior, but I don't-"

"Yeah, yeah, not familiar with Earth culture. Get a new thing, big guy," with that, Iron Man raised his gauntlets and fired at the ground in front of Ulik. The blasts threw up enough dust to obscure Ulik's vision. Thor flew into the dust, smashing Mjolnir into Ulik's chestplate, more gauntlet blasts from Iron Man sending up dust and making it hard to hear. Ulik grunted, smiled, and reached for Thor's cape. The moment Thor felt the cape tug, he reached up and unlatched the cape with two swift hand motions. Ulik pulled hard, only to face no resistance, thrown off-balance. Thor ducked under a desperate punch then uppercut Ulik in the face with a clap of lightning. The dust around them flew apart.

Then Thor got out of the way.

Ulik's eyes widened as the dust cleared to reveal the next stage of the plan. A blue convertible sports car with the top down drove towards him at high speed, its roaring engine having been masked by Tony's gauntlet blasts.

Hawkeye stood with one foot on the driver's seat and the other inside the steering wheel, holding his bow lazily as he guided the car with the grace of pirate captain at the helm of his ship. Mockingbird stood on the hood with her feet set. The pair leaped off the car just at the point of impact.

The sports car smashed into Ulik, the explosives set inside exploding at Mockingbird's command. Ulik was sent stumbling slightly but kept in place for Hawkeye and Mockingbird. Hawkeye pulled and fired his bow four times mid-flip, two of the arrows hitting the concrete and send catoms to devour the stone, briefly leaving Ulik about to fall into the hole created. Two more arrows hit the hole and exploded with massive concussive force, joined by Mockingbird tossing flashbangs that exploded in Ulik's eyes. He shouted in pain and confusion.

Hawkeye and Mockingbird landed and rolled out of the way as Thor and Iron Man struck next in the brief millisecond where Ulik was in the air. Standing side by side, Thor swung his hammer at high speed over his head, lightning striking the metal over and over. Iron Man had the remains of the Hulkbuster backplate strapped on with haphazard regard for safety, his center arclight alight with power. The two struck, Unibeam and Thunderblast smashing into Ulik.

The troll could barely be seen laughing joyfully as he was tossed in a haphazard arc across the battlefield. And up. And up. And up.

Thor blinked, surprised, as a laughing Ulik was sent into the horizon, disappearing in a flash of light. "I... did you do that?"

"Uh... maybe?" Tony asked, sounding shocked. "Jarvis, we calculated for how much power the extra arc reactors from the Hulkbuster would give to the Unibeam, right?"

"Yes sir," Jarvis said. "But we didn't account for the effect Thor's own powers would have on the arc reactors. Combined, both blasts had quite a bit more force than we calculated."

"I'll say," Hawkeye walked up, his helmet pulling apart to show his confused face. "I thought I was supposed to surround him in Goopgel the second he landed? You know, the super-adhesive and breathable stuff I held onto to keep big superhumans captive? Or was the plan to send the guy over the horizon?"

"I mean, you both could have opened up with that," Mockingbird noted.

"We didn't even know we _could_ do that!" Thor admitted.

"I'm sorry, do you sound proud?" Hawkeye asked incredulously.

"..." Thor and Tony shared a look.

"It _was_ a hell of an awesome attack," Tony finally said.

"Indeed, likely matched by few," Thor agreed, fighting a proud smile with a frown.

"You two are ridiculous!" Mockingbird said incredulously. "Jarvis, where did that guy land?"

"Unknown, ma'am."

The entire group blinked and spoke in unison. "Crap."

-

 ** _Maria Hill/Director of BRIDGE_**

"You _lost_ him?" Maria asked crossing her arms and staring at the main screen of her helicarrier, shaking her head. "This guy just _laughed_ while fighting two of our heavy hitters and knocking out a third, and you guys tossed him out of the city!?"

On the screen, Tony Stark stood sans armor in a medical tent. Behind him, the unconscious form of Dial lay on a bed being looked over by a doctor while Thor, Hawkeye, and Mockingbird stood next to Tony. The billionaire chuckled nervously. "You uh, you did hear the part where it was an accident, right?"

"You accidentally sent one of the most powerful beings we've ever seen into the outskirts of a city full of a demons, wolves, and from what Hulk tells me, dinosaurs?"

"Wait, dinosaurs!?" Tony and Hawkeye asked, sounding delighted.

"Focus!" Maria barked. "Jarvis, X?"

"Nothing miss," Jarvis admitted. "It may be interference from the event or some consequence of the beings composition. But he's gone."

Maria spat out a curse. She closed her eyes, ignoring the flinching group of techs around her, then turned to Victoria Hand. "Get our people working with every information asset we have to find out where the hell that thing landed. We might be able to handle the rest of the forces here but-"

"The Council is asking to speak with us," Victoria interrupted. Maria clapped her mouth shut. Her eyes searched Victoria's face. The woman shook her head, looking worn and aggrieved. "The UN and the Brazilian government have something they want to tell us."

"...Hand, do as I said, and work with everyone else to finish up the evac."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Tony, get Dial to the helicarrier. The rest of you, save the other civilians," she swiped a hand and the screen swiped over. For a moment, the sound of a signal connecting came from the screen. Then it flashed, Steve Rogers appearing. "Steve, I'm going to speak with the Council. Hand is in command."

Steve blinked. "The Council. Director, what's going on?"

"Politics," with another swipe, she swept the screen closed, then turned and walked away.

-

Entering her office, Maria was greeted with the visages of the Council, sat in the room in the form of crystal clear holograms. It wasn't surprising to her that they all looked angry. What was surprising was their first words.

"The UN has just made a massive mistake," Rockwell said, the aging American man practically growling the words out.

Maria had to hide her surprise at that. "What happened?"

Councilwoman Hawley sighed, leaning back. "They have demanded that we pull you out."

"Are they insane?!" Maria shook her head. "Councilmembers, Rio has faced an event unprecedented in human history! The amount of damage done here dwarf's everything from the Chitauri Invasion to the battle in London!"

"Believe me, Director Hill, we agree implicitly," Councilman Yen said, the Chinese representative shaking his head. "The Brazilian government and many nations of the UN are terrified, Ms. Hill. And certain... elements, within our governments, are claiming that having the Avengers and BRIDGE there might make things worse. That you all-"

"What? That we attract danger?" Maria rubbed her forehead. "That makes no sense."

"Politicians aren't always logical," Rockwell said sarcastically. "In fact, they rarely are."

Maria scowled. BRIDGE was not an independent organization. In the end, they were beholden to the UN in a very real and tangent way. In funding and in duty, they worked for the nations of Earth first and foremost.

"There is more to this, isn't there?" Maria asked.

Councilwoman Hawley and Rockwell spoke at the same time. "Ye-/The govern-"

The pair stopped awkwardly, Yen taking over, his accented voice calm over the hologram. "We aren't sure of the full politics involved of course. But from we can tell, various nations have been working to create teams of enhanced individuals of their own. And at least some of the reasons for BRIDGE being demanded to pull out is due to that."

"It was a close vote," Councilman Singh said, speaking for the first time. "But you have your orders. BRIDGE must pull out of Rio."

Maria scowled.

"...BRIDGE. BRIDGE has to pull out of Rio," Rockwell continued, smirking. "The organization BRIDGE, and no other group."

Maria's scowl faded, somewhat. "...It'll take us a few days as well. With how entrenched we are."

"I suppose that's understandable," Councilwoman Hawley agreed. "After all, we still need to evacuate the civilians."

The Director of BRIDGE smiled. "I'll let my people know."

-

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

When I woke up, it was with a powerful headache. I was lying in a cot, trying to figure out where I…

Oh. Oh right.

I stared up at the familiar ceiling of the rooms of the _Enterprise,_ just…

The door opened. I looked at it to see a doctor walk in wearing a lab coat.

"What happened?" I asked her.

The black woman blinked. "Oh, you're awake!"

"What happened?" I asked again. "How long was I out?"

She blinked, then sighed. "You woke up a couple of minutes after you were knocked out, but you were apparently worn out enough to pass out again right after. Although some of the scientists have been saying that the 'troll' may have had something to do with it."

I scowled. Ulik. Ulik had beaten me. Damn it.

The door opened before the doctor could say anything else, and Skye walked in, wearing the armor I'd made her. Usually, I smiled when I saw that. Right now I was fighting a headache. She stopped and blinked at the sight of me. Just behind her, Jen walked in, followed by Creel.

"Hey," Skye said, her armor clinking open to let her step out of it. She left it standing in the center of the room, walking over to my bed. "You look like shit."

Jen grinned, while Creel huffed out a chuckle of his own. I didn't laugh.

For some reason, they seemed surprised by that. Creel stood at the head of my bed, while Jen and Skye stood on my left and right sides, respectively. I shifted in the bed, grunting, then looked at my wrist. The Omnitrix sat there, glowing yellow. For some reason, it seemed to glow a little brighter than usual, but that might have been my headache.

"Goddamnit," I grunted.

"You okay?" Jen asked, surprised.

"I _lost_ ," I leaned up, scowling. "The guy took everything I had and kicked my ass. Damnit, I should have gone Goop. Or maybe I could have used Snare-Oh? Shit, maybe Frankenstrike could have worked together with Thor, or I-"

"Okay, don't," Creel grunted, my bald friend, shaking his head. "I've done that before. You keep going over the fight in your head like that, all you'll do is obsess uselessly man. Just learn from it and move on."

"Creel, I can't just…" I growled to myself, not knowing how the hell I felt. I decided to just focus on something else. "Well, what's next?"

Jen answered. "Well, BRIDGE is being told to pull out in the next few days."

"What?!" I snapped up from the bed, then cursed when my headache intensified. "What for? People still need help!"

"Yeah, we know," Skye crossed her arms, looking pissed. So did Creel and Jen. "The UN is telling us to get out. Well, BRIDGE, at least."

Jen grinned at my confusion. "Yeah, we found a loophole. Since we're independent contractors, technically, the Avengers don't fall under BRIDGE's rules, so we can stay. Well, except Skye, I mean."

"Yeah, turns out actually _joining_ BRIDGE has its disadvantages," Skye scowled. "We still have a few days before that though, so we'll do what we can."

"And all us former cons have to return too," Creel said, crossing his massive arms. "Since we technically work for BRIDGE as part of our 'community service'."

"What about Cap and Nat?" I frowned, feeling my headache slowly fade. "And Hartley. And Clint. I mean, you get my point."

"Yeah, Cap's fine butt has to go," Skye said.

"So fine," Jen said wistfully.

" _So fine_!" Skye agreed.

"Guys, seriously?" Creel asked with a grunt.

"Look, back to something other than the who's who of finest butts in the Avengers-" I said.

"Nat," everyone said at once. Including the doctor. I sighed.

"Doc, when can I fight again?" I asked.

"I have no idea," the doctor said.

We all stared at her. The black woman sighed. "Usually I'd say no. But you're on the borderline between human and superhuman. I can't say if transforming will heal you or not."

Yeah, that was fair. I had no idea if it would either. I seemed to remember a few times where Ben had been just fine, but then there was the time he'd got a cold so severe even Heatblast had gotten it. I wasn't sure.

Plus, the Omnitrix was still glowing yellow. No idea if it could work while absorbing DNA really.

"Worth a shot," I decided/answered, twisting the dial. Thinking carefully, I brought up one of my favorites, if lesser used, aliens.

"Aw, man!" Jen, Skye, and Creel said at the same time when they recognized the alien hologram in question, reaching hands towards their noses.

I ignored them to push down the Omnitrix. Flesh shifted to plant material in a flowing movement.

 **"SWAMPFIRE!"** I shouted joyfully. Getting out of my bed, I grinned down at my arms. _"Ah, much better! Not a single headache."_

"Yeah, for you maybe," Creel mumbled while holding his nose against the smell of Swampfire's natural emissions.

I curled my fists. I realized I'd forgotten something. _"What happened to Ulik?"_

Creel coughed. "Right. About that."

-

We didn't have time to go over much. The second I was declared able to fight again, I was sent out with the others. I stayed Swampfire when we landed back in the city. I'd have changed back, but a small team was fighting off an attempted incursion when we were about to leave, so I simply landed as the green plant alien. Er, the one with fire powers as well I mean.

Fighting a group of armored knights yelling and calling me a monster in the middle of a modern city while in Swampfire reminded me painfully of Alien Force.

 _"Shut up,"_ I told a man who'd called me a demon again. I lifted the armored knight and tossed him into the air, ignoring Skye's repulsor blast knocking him out of the air. _"...Where is Ulik now then?"_

Jen, the closest person next to me, looked over, confused. She held another knight in her left hand, his chainmail curled in her fist. The guy was screaming, stabbing at her over and over with a dagger, his sword in his other hand having crumbled when She-Hulk had grabbed it. I could still see her fingerprints embedded in the iron if I looked closely. "Really? We're fighting medieval knights and you're still focused on that."

I barely kept my immediate response from passing my lips. _He beat me._ What a childish thought.

Another man rushed me, this one wearing leather armor and carrying a spear. "Die, beast!" With that triumphant cry, he stabbed me in the chest.

I looked down at him. His smile faded. I wrapped a hand around his neck and lifted him up before turning to Jen, who punched her guy in the face. "I just… it's been a long day."

Jen smiled just a bit. And I suddenly felt really selfish. Jen looked exhausted. She was covered in sweat and dust, her hair had been pulled up into a rough ponytail, and her clothes were ripped. Even with her superhuman physiology, the green-skinned gammazon looked how I felt. And her eyes were so worn.

We stared at each other for a moment, ignoring the guy I held struggling in the air. I sighed after a moment. Jen did the same.

With that, I wrapped the guy in vines and tossed him onto my shoulder. Jen did the same with her guy. We looked at the destroyed city around us.

Something had caused this. And I was pretty sure we were going to end up confronting it soon.

And I was less than certain I was ready.


	60. Chapter 60

**_Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**  
We'd been in Rio de Janeiro for one week and three days. Way beyond what we'd been told we would be there for. And that was good.

The days had gotten a bit routine actually, in a very weird way. Wake up at 3 AM, have breakfast with the others, then go out and fight things/save people/move rubble. In between was all the paparazzi.

Seriously, there were a shit-ton of journalists around, all taking pictures of Avengers and BRIDGE soldiers fighting the monsters that had appeared in Rio as often as they could. I had no idea how to feel about that. I mean, all of the Avengers were badass to see in action. But, and not to be cliché, all the normal people fighting alongside us were also freaking awesome. Numerous charitable organization from the Red Cross to Doctors Without Borders had landed on the ground, supporting us with food, medical supplies, and people with real experience in disasters.

Maria Hill was a freaking political genius. She'd fought tooth and nail the entire time, stopping every attempt to pull us out early. First, because we were technically 'contractors', the Avengers could volunteer to stay as long as we wanted. We officially had a patrol schedule setup and everything, even plans to continue things afterward and come from New York every once in a while. At least for as long Rio had monsters. Second, she'd used every loophole and law available to extend our time in Rio while taking interview after interview to make sure the news knew exactly what the plan was, and who was at fault. So despite the countries pushing for us to leave having put their agendas through, no one was going to blame BRIDGE.

I mean, some people would, but they were either ill informed or were willfully ignorant/trying to sabotage us despite the fact we'd done nothing but fight monsters.

Seriously, Rio had monsters. Did I mention that?

We'd arrested or killed a lot of the human enemies, but there were also demons, dinosaurs, wolves, and some strange crab-like things that kept cropping up all across the destroyed city. I'd fought a wolf as Wildmutt, Hulk and Thor ended up taking on an Ogre in the middle of a skyscraper, Cap had dueled against a demon knight with a sword, Black Widow had assassinated some sniper from the Cold War trying to take over a shopping mall as his fortress, and half the sentient monsters in the city kept running the second Frank Castle showed up. Seriously, when did that sort of thing become routine?

In the end, BRIDGE had a few days before they would have to pull out. In the meantime, it was back to hunting again.

-

In a stolen convertible, Hawkeye slid around some rubble at high speed. I gulped nervously, trying not to seem nervous. "Why do you always steal cars?"

Hawkeye chuckled. "Come on, man, how often do you get to ride a car like this?"

"Tony has like, twenty of these," I winced when Hawkeye drifted around a corner, the wheels squealing as he went around at high speed on a road that was littered in debris.

We were both dressed in our full armor with our helmets down, my gauntleted hands clutching nervously at the handrests. "Dude, slow down!"

"We don't have red lights or other cars to worry about, you realize that?" Hawkeye asked, turning to cock an eyebrow at me. "And don't you spend half your life in super-fast alien bodies or something?"

"That's different!" I winced when Hawkeye drove through the remnants of a shop window to enter through a building. We drove through for a moment, the car rolling over debris at eighty plus miles per hour before smashing out of another window.

"Yeah, sure it is," Hawkeye said casually. "Look, lets talk. Just to distract you."

"Talk about what, the fact you've apparently been trained to drive by Commander Shepard?!" I asked in horror, yelping when he somehow ramped off a shopping cart to leap over some rubble.

"Commande-No, not that," Hawkeye slowed down the car. As I breathed in relief, he looked over at me. "Kid... You need to take a break after this is over."

"I... what? Why?"

"Because you probably haven't thought about anything but getting stronger in all the time we've been here, right?"

"Where the hell is this coming from?" I asked, staring at Clint. "Dude, are you lecturing me for wanting to get stronger?"

"A little," he pulled around another car, one left to rest on it's side. "It's just, ever since Ulik," I scowled. "How've you been?"

"..." I crossed my arms, thinking. After a long moment, I looked over at Hawkeye.

"Man, how the hell am I supposed to feel?" I'd been beaten. Like a damn drum. He'd taken me out like I was a kid. "You know man, I can no longer tell when I have actual problems, and when I'm just being a bitch," I looked around. "Thousands of people displaced, dead, or missing, a city destroyed, and I'm obsessed with my one loss."

"Don't do that," Clint said, sounding almost disgusted. "Kid, I've seen some crazy sad shit over the years. This is just the latest warzone for me," he said as he casually drove around a corpse. As was my job, I typed at my gauntlet and marked the location of the body for pickup later. "The world is always going to have stories sadder than yours. That doesn't make your worries invalid."

We drove under a bridge that was almost collapsing.

"Okay, you lost your first fight. Everyone does. It sucks."

"It doesn't just suck though!" I winced at how whiny my voice sounded. "I mean… I only belong on the team because I have the Omnitrix. I was in my strongest form, and it still got beat down. And I'm not… I'm only worth..." I struggled to speak. "The Omnitrix is my power. It's my Mjolnir, my bow, my gamma strength and shield. If I can't use it to help, what good am I?"

"You lost _one_ fight," Clint pointed out.

"It only takes one," I said softly.

That was the harsh truth. Ulik wasn't some sparring partner. He'd been ready to kill me. Would have. No, worse than that. The only reason he hadn't was because of Tony and Thor. I'd almost died.

I needed to do better, to train, to get better tech, better at fighting, to-

"Okay, let me give you some advice," Clint looked over at me, blue-gray eyes scanning me. "Start using your weapons to their full potential. Start _trusting_ them."

"...Dude, you're pulling some next level Mr. Miyagi stuff, because I have no idea what you mean. I use the Omnitrix all the time!"

"You use it, sure. But I never see you go all out. You never do the quick shifting thing as fast as you could. I'm pretty sure you could dominate any fight if you started doing that more often. Fasttrack into Diamondhead for example, that would be epic."

"That would be like you shooting all of your arrows at once," I grumbled. "If I shift too fast I waste power and end up changing back."

"Yeah, what a shame, you turn into a man dressed in power armor and carrying the most advanced human weapons, being trained by Captain America and Black Widow. I'm not sure how you get up in the morning without shattering your bones," Hawkeye said, his sarcasm practically slicing into me. "Really man, didn't you make all that stuff specifically so you could use the Omnitrix to its full potential?"

I winced. That… was a good point. The armor I was wearing wasn't anywhere near as powerful as even Tony's older suits, but Tony's second suit could survive anti-aircraft fire while leaving Tony mostly safe.

But I couldn't help it. Every time I quick changed I could feel a metaphorical clock in my heart jumping forward.

"Okay, just think about this," Hawkeye said calmly as he did something on the road that made the car sound like it was moments from tearing in half. "You keep saying there are more forms in that watch, right? More things you can do with it? Well how do you expect to be able to unlock them if you don't push that thing? You know how many times I've broken a bow because I pulled too hard on it? How many experimental arrows I had to stop using because they were too damn gimmicky? I follow safety procedures, sure, but how can I know how far I can go if I don't push my limits?"

I wasn't sure how that translated to the watch, but I kind of got what he meant. ...Ben had pushed the watch to it's limits all the time. He got annoyed when he ended up changing back into a human, but he never let that stop him. And he didn't have the tools I now did. I mean, he had Gwen, Grandpa Max, and later Kevin, but then I had Creel and Wanda, as well as BRIDGE and the Avengers.

Clint was right. I _could_ be using the Omnitrix with more abandon now. And really, I seemed to lose power at random anyways. Might as well go all out before that.  
I had been thinking of some combo moves after all…

"Hell, Steve should be the one giving you this pep talk," Clint mumbled to himself. "Ah well. Hey, at least you got a new form, right?" Clint pointed at the watch. I looked down at it as well.

"Yeah, if the watch would stop glowing yellow long enough for me to try it out," I grumbled, lifting the Omnitrix.

A week later and the watch was still absorbing the DNA of Ulik? Or compiling it, or analyzing, or _whatever_ it was currently doing. Thankfully I could still transform, but everything the watch did still had a yellow tinge to it. If only I could figure out what the hell was taking the watch so long.

"I mean, not sure if you want Ulik as a form though," Clint scrunched up his nose. "That guy was UGLY. And smelled horrible."

"I have ugly, smelly forms already," I mused. "One more won't hurt."

"Tell that to the ladies around us," Clint chuckled. "Though I guess you don't need help with that."

I winced and said nothing. Yeah right. Somethings never change, and my luck with women was one of those.

"But we should take a break after this," he mused. "Seriously, the past few days have been exhausting."

"Amen," I sighed. "I can't wait to be back in New York again."

Just then, we heard a loud shout. Hawkeye finally slowed down, allowing us to see a group of three slowly walking over to us. A man and two children. They all seemed relieved to see us. We pulled up.

"You're with BRIDGE?" the man said in Portuguese, the Omnitrix translating. "Avengers?"

"Yep," Clint said casually. "Hop in, we'll take you get some help."

The man swallowed heavily, nodding as tears poured down his cheeks. The children with him, both boys, looked exhausted. Once, I would have guessed they were family. Now, I knew better. Sometimes, in tragedy, people just find each other. If they're lucky.

The three of them hopped into the back. As they put on seat belts I tapped at the Omnitrix, frowning.

Suddenly, right on cue, the yellow glow faded, familiar green replacing it.

"Oh thank god," I said, flipping the holograms to glow over the Omnitrix.

"How's it look?" Clint asked curiously.

"Let me see… there!" I found the Troll form and showed it to Clint.

Like Ulik, it was clearly massive, though it looked smaller than he did for some reason. Corded muscle, a thick coat of hair, two toes and gigantic clenched fists. No uru knuckles, but he was wearing a pair of boxers with the Omnitrix symbol at his waist.

"Man, that really is ugly," Clint winced. "Seriously, that guy looks almost as hairy as Rath. Never heard of manscaping?"

"You manscape?" I asked with a grin.

"...No?"

I laughed, idly flipped to the next alien. I stared at it for a moment. My eyes widened, and I looked around in horror. No. Oh shit, no.

"We need to get back, now!"

"What?" Clint looked over at me, then at the hologram. "Is that Goop?"

"We need to go back to camp!" I flipped through the watch and selected the alien I needed. With a quick press, my body shifted.

" **Upgrade!"**

Our confused passengers yelped in surprise as I changed into a large being of black and white nanites.

"Dude, what is going on!?"

"No time!" I moved my body, flowing as liquid to press against the dashboard. In a few seconds, my nanites had joined to the car, black and green circuits flowing over the ceramic and metal. Soon I was a black and green car. I shined my headlights. "We need to get to the base. X!"

" _Yes, sir?"_ X said, my AI companion sounding confused. I didn't waste time. Instead I sent him a series of protocols. As soon as they hit, he began his work, sending them to Jarvis, who sent them to Maria.

"Hold on!" I told Clint.

"Oh come on!" Clint shouted as more seatbelt straps surrounded him and the three terrified refugees. I ignored him, sprouting wings out of my sides and rockets from my… well, rockets came out.

"OH SHIIIIIIIT!" Clint yelled out as we blasted off in a trail of fire, flying into the air and heading to  
the beach.

-  
 ** _  
Maria Hill/Director of BRIDGE_**

On the _Enterprise flight deck_ , Maria watched as a helicopter landed in front of her and Sam. She and the Avenger eyed the machine as it kicked up wind, sending her hair flying. A logo rested on the doors of the helicopter, the image of a red cat on a red, black, and green background. Above them, more such helicopters flew over the helicarrier to head for the beach below, some Wakandan ships having already joined the small fleet in Rio's harbor. The doors of the helicopter opened, and a man stepped out.

Maria raised an eyebrow. "Prince T'Challa?"

"Good morning," the handsome young man said, smiling. He wore a black sweater and brown trousers, a pair of brown boots on his feet. A far cry from the usually traditional clothing or suit he wore at events. Behind him, a pair of bald woman in elegant dress came out of the helicopter as well. The trio strode toward Maria and Sam. "My apologies for us taking so long to get here. We had to fight through quite a few regulations."

"We've had some issues with that as well," Maria said with a smile. "Still, we hadn't expected the crown prince himself to arrive."

"Hell of a PR moment for Wakanda," Sam noted idly.

At that, T'Challa frowned. "No. I am here for more than simply to help Rio. I must meet with you for other reasons. If you would please, I'd like to join you in a private room."

Maria pursed her lips. "Of course. Let me just-"

Suddenly, Maria and Sam's comms came to life. _"_ _Priority Alert!"_

Maria turned to look at Sam as the rest of the message played. Their faces became visibly horrified as T'Challa and the women behind him watched in confusion.

"Prince T'Challa!" Maria barked, spinning to look at him. "Tell your people to avoid the beach for now! If the infection spreads, they might be our last hope."

"Infection?" T'Challa asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Sam!" Maria barked, taking a quick stride towards her command center.

"On it!" Sam shouted, running off towards Rio. "Falcon!"

In a flash, his armor surrounded him, a pair of wings sprouting as well. He rocketed off, leaving T'Challa to follow Maria in confusion.

"We'll need to scan every person in the area if this thing is as infectious as we believe," Maria said, eyes narrowing.

-  
 ** _  
Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

I looked over the analysis I'd made, trying to narrow down any mistakes. I'd been prepared for something like this. After all, since I'd become a full Avenger I had files galore for the day I might fight this or that person/alien. We had plans in place for just about everything, including the Beyonder (though the plan for him as of right now was to figure out someway to jailbreak the Omnitrix or design some weapon with universal capabilities). Point was, we had a plan.

I turned to look about the room. Several monitors stood around us. Coulson and his team were on one, my fellow nerd staring out with his arms crossed, Fitz-Simmons behind him as they read my analysis. Tony was on another, only his face showing up since he was in the suit. Maria was on another, Victoria Hand behind her on the right, T'Challa (surprised me to see him) on the left with some of the Dora Milaje. Cap and Nat were streaming from a rooftop in the city, while other Avengers who weren't with us were also streaming from around the city.

Inside the actual tent, Dr. Bill Foster, Clint, Jen, Creel, and Frank Castle were watching me as well. A mirror rested nearby.

"Okay, final breakdown," I said, trying to sound impressive. "These things can combine with people the way Upgrade combines with machines. They enhance strength, speed, and can give their hosts a variety of powers besides that. They also eat human brains sometimes. They have two weaknesses, fire and sounds with immense force behind them. Even then, they are TOUGH. Even the weakest ones can take bullets and just shoot them back. We don't know how many there are, but the Omnitrix absorbed one," I raised the Omnitrix and pressed down.

In a flash, my body changed again.

You'd think it felt like Goop or Upgrade, but once again, it felt different. My skin and bone felt like it melted into my muscles. In fact, all of my organs, even my brain, had somehow turned into muscle. For just one moment, I could _feel my brain_ in my skull before the sensation disappeared. In a moment, I melted away.

Then I rose up, taking a rough form. Even though I didn't need eyes, I formed a face of sorts.

"Oh, that is just gross," Jen said, staring at me wide-eyed.

My body was now a black gelatinous form. Streaks of green ran across my body, like veins. I looked over at the mirror. The head I'd formed both did and didn't surprise me.  
In shape, I'd formed a face that looked somewhat like Spider-Man's in the black suit, with the big eyes and all. Expect my eyes were bright green. Curious, I 'opened' my mouth. The section of my face tore open, and massive teeth shone within a drooling mouth. My tongue lolled out, at least a foot of pink muscle. I quickly pulled it back in.

"Oh good god, please don't do that again," Jen said in shock, looking greener than usual.

"Agreed," Coulson said with a wince.

Huh. Should I even look like this? With teeth, tongue, Spider-Man style eyes? Or… was my own subconscious affecting the way I looked, shapeshifting me to how I 'thought' a symbiote should be?

" _Sorry,"_ I said. _"_ _Just testing the new hardware."_

"Is that your voice?" Creel asked, my beefy friend looking shocked. "You sound like a demon!"

"No, those sound less intimidating," Frank said.

" _Of course you think that,"_ I grumbled. _"_ _Every demon in the city runs away when they see you."_

"Enough," Maria said. "Mahmoud. Demonstrate."

" _Okay. Dr. Foster?"_

"...I'm not sure I want to anymore?" the good doctor said weakly.

"Wait, didn't you volunteer for this?" Jen asked, surprised.

"Yeah, but that was before-"

" _Will you all stop overreacting?"_ I asked, suddenly annoyed. _"_ _Seriously, Snare-Oh is way creepier!"_

"Well he won't suddenly take over my body," Bill grumbled. "I'm going to have nightmares about this." He sighed and walked over. "Okay. Wait!" he shouted when I moved my face towards him. "God, I'm getting flashbacks to the _Thing_. Okay, just, just do it."

I tried to make it fast. In a smooth movement, I flowed over him. My black and green flesh flowed into the good doctor. I entered his cells, his muscles, bones, and brain. Our cells intermingled. Soon, our minds pressed gently together, and we stared out at the world.

"...How do you feel?" Jen asked.

Dr. Foster looked around, then at his hands. I hadn't surrounded him in my form, simply letting him get used to the feeling. "I, uh… I feel stronger. Younger," he sounded fascinated.  
 _  
Well, that is kind of the point._

"Ah!" he looked around, shocked. "Mahmoud?"

" _Right here,"_ in a smooth move, I surrounded him entirely. Frank, Jen, and Creel stared as we stood tall.

The Omnitrix sat on our chest, green lines moving out from it to radiate across us. In a conscious effort I tried to make the lines run in a geometric pattern. We stood tall, matching Jen in height, and our body was massive, as bulky as Thor or Creel. Our eyes were still green. I smiled toothily. " _Cool."_

"Oh, that is… oh?" Bill asked, shocked. As we stood there, a scan ran across our body, Simmons running up to the monitor.

"Dr. Foster, how do you feel?"

"Like I can take on the world," he said with our mouth. "And hungry."

" _Yeah, that's me actually. I require chocolate."_

"Chocolate?" Tony said at last, sounding confused.

" _Yeah, chocolate has a chemical that can also rest in human brains," I explained._

"Phenethylamine," Simmons asked.

" _Yep,"_ I said. _"_ _Seriously, we need to make sure wherever this form came from, we find it."_

I flowed away from Dr. Foster, who blinked as he separated from me. "Oh, now that is an odd sensation. Almost euphoric."

" _That's because I held back,"_ I said with a mental grimace. _"_ _If I wanted to, I could make it addictive."_

"Still, it's a powerful form for us to have I imagine," Maria said, looking over at Victoria, who nodded calmly.

" _And don't forget the species can… Tony, you already found out, didn't you,"_ I said with a monstrous sigh.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Iron Man laughed with hysterical joy. "Another one!"

" _Yeah,"_ Annoyed, I narrowed green eyes. _"_ _And if whatever is out there makes more?"_

"Haha…oh shit," Tony said at last.

"We'll get to work now," Cap said seriously. "Nat is going to take out that Viking that has been attacking people in the north, then we'll get to helping with scans."

"Good," Maria crossed her arms. "The job doesn't change otherwise. If this thing hasn't caused a problem in a week, we may have nothing to worry about, but I want all our people to be ready. Add Symbiotes to the file along with Ulik, the demons, and the others."

With that, the screens flashed closed. Jen and Creel turned to look at me while Frank walked out, presumably to speak to his men.

"So," Jen asked. "What're you naming this one?"

"… _Blight."  
-_  
 ** _  
Eddie Brock/Reporter_**

Eddie stumbled through the streets of Rio, eyes wide.

He'd showed up with other reporters, all trying to get in on the scoop. Of them all, only Eddie had decided to dig deeper.

BRIDGE was the real story. An organization that big, coming out of SHIELD after HYDRA? And the Avengers? There was something juicy out of all this, Eddie could feel it. He'd spent every moment tracking the Avengers through the city, and got tons of footage of all kinds of things. Dinosaurs, demons, and even knights in armor duking it out!

The Bugle page was blowing up thanks to that. Every person on Earth was following Eddie Brock now, because he went where no reporter would.

But he'd needed more. More acclaim. He was moments from a Pulitzer. From becoming the most well known man in reporting. Just needed one big scoop, a true game changer. He'd gone out to look for that a week ago.

And now he was hearing a voice in his head. Great job, Eddie. He'd been walking for three days, surviving on scraps and hiding.

He stumbled down another alley, breathing heavily. He was close to the beach. All he needed was-

A snarl brought his attention up. Something was in the shadows. As he stared in horror, the thing came out and eyed him.

He felt like crying. A demon. Another damn demon. And this thing was carrying a metal sword.

"Please. Please don't!"

Within him, something snarled. _"_ _Oh goodie. We were hungry."_

"Come on man, really!?" Eddie spat out in horror.

The demon, a spindly thing eight-feet tall leaped toward him. Eddie's eyes flashed black.

Suddenly, the air behind him seemed to… open. A sucking sound filled the area. Eddie roared at the same time as the demon as they were pulled into somewhere.

For a moment, the empty alley roared with the sound of vacuum pulling in air. Then it faded with a small 'pop', a singularity shutting closed.

-  
 ** _  
Monica Rappaccini of AIM_**

Deep within AIM, a command center sat being monitored by dozens of scientists, all working diligently. A window looked into a larger room outside. Everything within was peaceful, the men and women within working happily.

They jumped when Monica burst into the room with a spiteful glare on her face. Everyone quickly looked down again, trying not to look scared. She tended to jump on weaknesses like fear. Lyle looked over at her, raising an eyebrow.

"Monica. I take it BRIDGE didn't accept our further assistance."

"DAMN HIM!" she grabbed a wrench and stabbed it into a monitor. Everyone around her winced and pretended to keep working as glass flew around her. "Bruce fucking Banner! He just keeps getting in my way! That third-rate-"

"Enough," Lyle narrowed his eyes. "Don't lose your cool."

"My COOL?!" she spun, clenching the wrench in her hand tightly.

For one moment, Lyle and Monica stared at each other. Everyone in the room stared while pretending not to.

"...Monica, either hit me or don't. But I have work to do, so decide quickly," Lyle said dryly.

"...Fine," she slapped the wrench on a console nearby. "Why are you so calm anyway?"

"Because getting into Rio wasn't the only way for us to refine the technology," Lyle looked outside the window. Monica did so as well.

In the room beyond the window, two machines took up either side, identical in appearance and about five feet tall. They each had a series of tubes going to them, circuitry inside them, and a pair of sections like funnels pointed outward. The 'funnels' were pointed directly at each other, leaving three feet of space in between.

"Did you start that thing up again?" Monica asked, her face relaxing.

"Not just yet," Lyle sighed softly. "While Rio was a setback, it was also a good indicator of what to fix for our machine. Those who died in Rio were regretful however."

"What happened anyways?" Monica crossed her arms and looked over at Lyle.

"In a word? Our machine was too sensitive," he looked over at a monitor nearby. "Our biggest worry was getting it to work. We forgot to take into account all the _other_ events that were somewhat related to what we wanted to do."

"Other events?" Monica asked.

"Yes," he moved over to let her look at the monitor, which she realized displayed a map with red dots across it. "Over the past thirty years, dozens of events have taken place across the globe that have involved energies that manipulate time and space. In Argentina first, one during the Cold War, New Mexico, New York City of course has had at least three we can account for," he chuckled. "Always New York, isn't it?"

"Is that going to be a problem?" Monica leaned over and noted that, indeed, New York was riddled in red dots. What was happening in that city?

"No," Lyle said simply. "We will recalculate and try again. Basically, our machine, in attempting to activate, was 'pulled' by the energies left by those other events. Well, it's a bit more complex than that, but it's the simplest explanation I can give."

Monica turned to glare at him for the insult to her intelligence, which Lyle ignored. "Still, we should be able to open it again soon. In the meantime," he turned on a screen, revealing an image of two people lying on beds. "We have the successes we pulled through."

On the first bed lay a bald man, older, with a slightly pinched face and pale skin. On the other, a much younger woman lay, her red hair pouring over the sheets. She was beautiful and well-formed, while the older man was almost skeletal in comparison.

"Weren't there three people?" Monica asked idly.

"...the third escaped."

"What?" Monica tried not to sound as though she found that fact amusing. "How?"

"Well..." Lyle put on a video.

On the screen, a naked figure strode down a hallway. Three men with guns confronted him, all wearing body armor. A flash of silver was followed by the naked figure leaping forward. Blood sprayed. An almost inhuman roar filled the air, actually shaking the camera.

From camera to camera, Lyle showed the figure's progress. Muscles bunched beneath tan skin, and black hair flowed as the figure flowed into battle. Bullets flew. He didn't seem to care, or even be hit. Again and again, blades slashed deeply though body armor to dig into flesh. The figure was inhuman. Almost supernaturally agile and strong, lifting men as large as football linebackers and throwing them aside.

At one point, the figure was standing amongst a pile of bodies. Blood poured from his blades. His chest was splashed red. His eyes almost seemed to glow.

"Our security personal were killed," Lyle said softly. "Armed with assault rifles, body armor, and training… and this, _savage_ tore through them."

"Enhanced?" Monica asked almost breathlessly, her eyes panning the muscular mans naked form without shame.

"Maybe," Lyle shook his head. "He escaped into the mountains outside. I have my men chasing him, but whoever he is, he's familiar with forests, even with all the snow outside. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll die of frostbite," Lyle shut off the video. "But we have these two. And I believe they may be just as useful."

"Hmm..." Monica rubbed her chin. "What about our… benefactor?"

"Nothing," Lyle admitted. "Just more files to enhance our robotics research. I'm not sure if we're going fast enough for him."

"Then we'd better pick up the pace," Monica smirked, looking at a certain folder on the computer nearby.

(*(^!#α $*α &α ^#...!(*#& *ω &!α)

"These bots aren't going to build themselves after all," she said with a greedy gleam in her eyes.


	61. Chapter 61

_**Professor Paradox/At your service**_

Nothing quite put the world into perspective like stepping into another universe. Indeed, it was quite invigorating, realizing how vast and wonderful reality was. Paradox sighed with a small amount of satisfaction as he took a sip of Earl Grey tea, looking on at the wondrous planet of Galvan Prime. A planet of technology run amok, of miniature skyscrapers stretching for miles. Well, miniature for him. For the tiny forms of the Galvan people, they were massive. It was rather amazing. A miniature city, stretching out to the horizon. Like Coruscant but so much smaller, more intricate.

And much better smelling of course.

"I never tire of seeing this beautiful city of yours, Azmuth," Paradox looked behind him with a smirk on his face.

"Save it," at a small desk, the smartest being in the universe (or at least 3-5 galaxies) typed at a computer, scowling heavily. "I never gave you permission to do this, Paradox. You have no knowledge on the software, no understanding on the precision required to make it work!"

"I do not," Paradox admitted freely. "Even with all the time in the universe. But then, that is what I have you for."

The grumpy alien huffed. "Presumptuous. Thankfully your _false_ Omnitrix is clearly working. At the very least it has none of the issues that Albedo's had."

"Well, you did make it after all," Paradox turned away from the view, walking over to Azmuth. "I understand you're frustrated. But I really had no other way to counter-"

"Why not use Ben?" Azmuth scowled. "He may still be as reckless as ever, but he has matured at least slightly. He's very nearly the adult he claims to be."

"High praise indeed," Paradox said with no sarcasm. "In truth, I would have preferred to ask him for his aid. But I was, in the end, restricted from asking Benjamin for help. I worked with the tools at hand."

Azmuth typed at the computer in front of him, sighing. "Yes, well, that is very helpful to me. If you hadn't explained what we were up against..."

"Hmm," Paradox said mildly. "Can you claim this hasn't had benefits for your own research?"

"Hmph," he brought up an image. On it, three beings could be seen. "In some ways. These beings are interesting. Except this one," Azmuth scowled, bringing one of the images forward.

"A species that changes its power set based on the 'domain' it represents? What insane environment would cause an evolution like that!?"

"A good question my friend. But I was actually speaking of that," Paradox pointed at something nearby with a single elegant finger, eyes still on the back of Azmuth's head.

The Galvan looking in the direction of the device Paradox had pointed out. A large round device about the size of a doorway, the hoop that made up the device currently turned off. Azmuth scoffed. "Please. I've been developing that long before you decided to meddle. This simply accelerated my plans."

"Ever the humble one."

"I don't need to hear that from _you_ ," Azmuth shook his head. "But this really was the next logical step. It may have taken time, but there is _peace_ in our universe now, as much as there could be. All thanks to Ben and his allies. If I could help spread it to the multiverse in the same way, maybe she-"

He didn't finish. Paradox didn't pry.

The two ancient men stood side by side for a moment. Azmuth finally sighed.

"Well, what this… Dial, he's calling himself?"

"Yes."

"Ridiculous name," Azmuth crossed his hands behind his back and sighed. "Well then. Best of luck to the lad… at least until I can test him myself."

 _ **Ben Tennyson/Ben 10**_

On Earth, a loud explosion echoed through the city. In front of a large bank, people ran from the sight of the explosion. A massive pair of beings stepped out of the bank. They were both ten feet in height at least, ignoring the screaming masses. One looked like a bipedal mammoth, it's brown fur stinking as red eyes stared and massive hands clutched at duffel bags pouring cash onto the ground. It huffed angrily at the screaming humans and aliens around him, then roared.

The other being slinked alongside him. Built like something from a primeval age, the scaled being hissed, it's blue and green scales flashing in the light as the velociraptor like being glared around. When a particularly loud scream filled the air it payed attention. Spinning, the reptilian creature narrowed its eyes at a screaming woman with purple skin. Raising its head, the creature spat a stream of green liquid at the woman. As the stream hit the asphalt, the green liquid immediately ate away at the stone, revealing its acidic nature.

The woman screamed again, trying to dodge far too late.

A pink force field came to life around the woman. The green acid splashed against the liquid to no avail.

"Man, robbing banks?" everyone in the area, monsters included, looked up at the speaker. Standing on a pink platform of energy above the crowd, Ben Tennyson grinned, dressed in a black hoodie with a green stripe on the right side that stopped at a circle encompassing a number 10, a laser pistol at his hip and a cocky grin on his face as his eyes shone with mirth. Now in his mid-twenties, the superhero was more built than he had been in his youth, the well-trimmed beard on his face a testament to that. "Dr. Animo really has lowered his standards."

"Were they that high to begin with?" Gwen Tennyson stepped forward alongside him as she maintained the platform they stood on. She wore a blue and black sweater with a symbol of a cat at the center of her belt and stone like emblems along her arms, her hair cut asymmetrically so that it was shaved on one left side and long on the top and right side. "He was always all talk."

"An ironic statement, Miss Tennyson," Rook said from his position kneeling on the pink platform. Dressed in the white and black armor of the Plumbers, the blue furred alien took careful aim at the monsters with his Proto-Tool. "Given that we are currently talking as well."

"What he's trying to say," Kevin Levin stepped forward, flipping a coin in his hand, glaring angrily. He caught the coin and began to shift colors, his pale skin, black shirt, and lock necklace with the number eleven on it all turned into the color of steel. "Enough talk. Let's kick some ass."

The beasts below roared, rushing forward. Kevin and Rook leaped off the platform, the blue furred plumber firing his rifle at high speed while Kevin took on the raptor in direct combat, roaring in rage.

"Just like old times," Ben said with a smirk, raising his Omnitrix high and slapping down on the dial with a happy grin. In a smooth and flowing moment, he began to transform.

His muscles grew. His beard grew thicker. His eyes seemed to glow with unearthly light. His hoodie was replaced with a strange green armor with a symbol in what Gwen later told him were ancient Nordic runes. His pants became something similar in texture to leather but much more breathable, with a cloth that wrapped around his waist before coming down his right side to display more runes. Ben puffed his chest as his massive arms curled, power filling his blood like fuel in a car.

" **Ultiman!"**

"God that is a dumb name," Gwen sighed as Ben leaped into battle.

"Have at thee monster!" Ben cried joyfully as he smashed into the mammoth-like creature, a shockwave erupting from his fist slamming into fur and muscle. "I will have battle this day!"

"What the hell?" Kevin asked, rolling by as he wrestled the raptor, avoiding the acid it was spraying as Rook fired away nearby. "Is that even an alien? It just looks like you worked out!"

Ben laughed boisterously, lifting the mutated mammoth high. "I am amazing!"

"I must agree, this just seems like Benjamin," Rook commented at the sight of an arrogant Ben fighting a monster while quipping.

 _ **Luke Cage/Bartender**_

On another Earth, Luke Cage watched the news as he wiped down his bar. Others were watching as well, though with a half-drunk attitude. In truth, he wasn't really sure why he'd put on the news. He tended to avoid it.

But Rio De Janeiro had been… insane. Luke had felt almost compelled to follow it. The news of people dying in the massive earthquake, the Avengers going in to save people, the 'monsters' that had shown up out of nowhere.

Luke stared as footage of Captain America and Nomad, two soldiers right out of World War 2, fighting a demon in hand to hand combat, played on the tv. He clenched his fist softly, still wiping down the counter of his bar.

"Ugh, can you turn that off already?" a female voice said to his left. Luke looked over at the woman who'd spoken.

She was petite, pretty, with long black hair and wearing a black leather jacket and a black shirt. She also smelled more like whiskey than the actual bar and had a look on her face that was somewhere between anger and disgust.

Luke chuckled, the massive black man walking toward the remote. "What, you don't like the news?"

"Not when it's that _fucking_ depressing," the woman sighed.

He wasn't sure how to respond to that. In truth, he had no idea why he'd been so obsessed… actually, he did know. As Luke changed the channel to something less 'depressing', he sighed.

A while back, he'd been sent a message from one of the Avengers. One of the new ones, Dial. The kid, someone who could apparently turn into _aliens_. According to the message, Dial knew about Luke's powers. He'd wanted to talk to him.

The first thing Luke wanted to do when he read that was run. That message, the idea of someone so high profile knowing his secret, terrified him. In his experience, people didn't just ask to talk after they revealed all your secrets. He'd sent back a message to let the hero know he wasn't interested.

Then he waited. And got a message.

 _Okay. Let me know if you change your mind, dude._

That was it. Seriously? After all the tension, Luke had almost burst out laughing. He didn't know what he'd expected. Maybe an army of BRIDGE soldiers busting into his apartment. He did have one nightmare of a giant green man attacking him.

But now… Rio. And all those people dying. Luke watched as the various superhumans in the Avengers pulled together to save people. He couldn't help but wonder…

Luke shook his head and walked back towards the woman who'd spoken earlier. "There you go. Need anything else?"

She sighed. "More alcohol?"

"Really?" He looked at the empty cups surrounding her. "Huh. You sure can put them down."

"And you're really judgemental for a bartender," she glared at him, eyes narrowed. "Shouldn't you just be listening to my problems without comment, while taking my money?"

"I would, if you'd actually paid so far," Luke smirked.

"...I mean, I was going to pay. How do I start a tab?" she said, sounding not even a little bit ashamed.

He chuckled. "Well, it usually starts with me getting to know you first," he held out his hand, a small smile on his face. "Luke Cage."

She stared at his hand as though it was a live grenade. After an awkward moment, long enough that he was about to pull his hand back, she took it. Her small hands nearly disappeared in his grip, but there was a surprising amount of strength in how she held it. Her skin was soft.

"Jessica Jones," she looked up at him, finally smiling.


	62. Chapter 62

Nothing puts life into perspective like sleeping in your own bed after weeks of sleeping in a bunk. I left my alarms off, woke up at noon, and spent a few minutes just enjoying warm sheets and the sight of the city outside my window.

After a moment I sat up with a wince at the pain the movement caused and stared out the window for a bit longer.

We all had time off for the next few days. A reward for our days of fighting and helping. I was glad for it. My muscles were all sore as hell, and I was covered in bruises and scratches from all the time spent in Rio.  
I rose up slowly and carefully walked into the bathroom. A shower made me feel loads better, and a big breakfast burrito out of my fridge only helped. I prayed a bit late, then changed into a green t-shirt displaying Hulk's fist on the front. After some thought, I left my armor pack behind, but carried my sword handle with me.

Then I stared at the door for a moment. Um… what now?

I had a day off. No fighting, no technology to make. Nothing planned but nothing.

I missed the days when I was lazy. I mean, I wasn't as disciplined as the others tended to be, but I wasn't anywhere near as inclined to waste my time anymore. Months of squatting while patrolling for bad guys, fighting and training alongside the Avengers and Bridge, followed by Rio. I just didn't have it in me to screw around as much.

What the hell? Maybe I'd just go out into New York City? Knowing my luck I'd end up fighting Rhino in the streets, but it was worth a shot.

Walking up to the door and opening it, I was surprised to see Steve down the hall, waiting for the elevator.

"Hey, Cap," I said casually, walking towards him.

The blonde haired super-soldier turned to look at me and blinked. He was wearing a black t-shirt displaying a picture of an Iron Man arc reactor in blue and a pair of jeans. He smiled politely.

"Hey Mahmoud. You headed out?"

"Yeah," I chuckled, moving to wait with him. "I kinda… forgot how to relax, so I thought I'd head out into New York and find something to do."

He blinked, surprised. Then he laughed. When I gave him a confused look, Steve shook his head. "Would you believe I had the same problem?"

"Ha!" I shook my head as well. "Well… wanna hang out?"

I tried not to seem nervous. Most of my time with everyone on the team was training and missions. Not always, but Steve in particular was someone I only really saw when there was something important to do.

And honestly, I really wanted to hang out with him. Not to be a massive dork, but Captain America was one of my favorite superheroes, and getting the chance to chill together was crazy to me.

He hesitated for long enough for me to be tempted to pull back the invitation just out of nervousness. Then he nodded.

"Sure. Where should we go first?"

"I have no idea," I rubbed the back of my neck as the elevator finally opened, the two of us going inside. "But hey, we have a whole city to enjoy, right? Maybe just start in Times Square? Act like tourists?"

"Huh. Yeah, that's a good idea."

The elevator doors opened. Immediately, outside the doors dozens of feet in front of us, cameras started to flash. A crowd of people wearing cosplay and carrying signs yelled at us as we watched silently.

Together, we eyed the men and women, some of them dressed as us and our friends, all of them cheering. After a moment, Steve hit the close door button.

"Okay," he said with a nod. "I think we should leave through the garage. Maybe take one of those cars with the tinted windows."

"Agreed," I said with nod.

We didn't end up needing the car. I just followed Steve as we walked out of the garage and walked casually onto the sidewalk. In seconds we were just another pair of pedestrians on the streets of New York, walking calmly around. Granted, Steve couldn't be 'just' another pedestrian if he tried. Guy was built like an Olympian after all, possibly literally.

It was a ten minute walk to Times Square from the Avengers Tower. Plenty of time to talk… oh shit.

"So, uh," I fought hard, trying to find something to talk about that wasn't work related. Most of those were pop culture related, so… hell, why not? "How goes your list?"

"Hmm?" Steve blinked. "Oh, it's going well. I mean, I'm still adding to it. I have a _lot_ to catch up on."

"I mean, so does everyone though," I noted with a chuckle. "I mean, a lot of people just ignore a lot of the stuff you're taking the effort to learn. At least you actually watched Star Wars man. Speaking of which, what did you think?"

"I liked it," Steve said with a smile of his own. "It really resonated with me. For obvious reasons I guess, since the Empire was apparently based on the Nazis. Darth Vader really did remind me of Red Skull though," he said with a frown.

Er. Probably not a good time to mention Vader was one of my favorite villains. "Yeah, a lot of modern fiction is kind of obsessed with World War 2."

"Yeah, it is," Steve shook his head. "I don't know how I feel about that. I mean, I'm glad people can see the war from a safe point of view, but… it was a big deal for me."

"A big deal for everyone," I sighed. "I mean, Star Wars using the Nazis as inspiration for the Empire isn't weird. If it wasn't them, it would have been some other stupid regime with bullshit ideas of what constitutes 'real' people."

He nodded. "Yeah. Although the fact 'Neo-Nazism' is a thing is… annoying."

"People are always going to find some reason to be an asshole to others," I sighed. "But things are still better. I mean, there's hate, prejudice. People are still in great pain. But there are more people safe and happy today than at any point in history. It's far from perfect. But we're getting better."

We walked in silence for half a minute.

I decided to change the subject.

"Well, you've watched a lot of movies and such. What about video games? You get into those yet?"

"Not just yet," he said with a shrug. "I'm not sure I'd like them, to be honest. They just look so hard to control, with all the little buttons."

"See, this is why Nat calls you a fossil."

"Hey!" Steve sputtered.

I laughed. "Seriously man, just start simple. We can always buy something easy to control to start you out. I'll train you in video games if you want."

"See, calling it 'training' makes me think it'll be hard," Steve said dubiously.

"Yeah, because _you_ hate training, Charles Atlas," was my sarcastic response. "Seriously, aren't you basically the living incarnation of an 'after' photo?"

Steve grinned. "Yeah, but there is no serum to teach me how play video games. At least until that Matrix movie stuff becomes real."

"'I know kung fu'," I chuckled. "I'll ask Tony if we can make something."

"Until then, I suppose you can teach me," Steve rubbed his head. "What game should we start with?"

"Er."

Shit. What was a good game to start with? Something simple, something I had familiarity with so I could 'train' him. Probably something that wasn't military focused, since Steve had been in battles that made Call of Duty look like Care Bears… Well, there was always the game series I'd played to the point of obsession.

"Pokemon," I said at last, not even slightly tickled at the hilarity inherent in teaching Captain America how to play Pokemon.

"That kids game?" he asked, sounding confused.

"Hey, they didn't base an anime on it for no reason," I said idly, stopping to drop a few bucks into a homeless mans cap, the man giving me a thankful look. "Granted, it still pisses me off that Ash is ten years old after all this time-"

"What's anime?" Steve asked.

"...I have much to teach you," I said solemnly.  
"Okay?" Steve didn't seem to know how to take that. I grinned.

"It's a Japanese form of animation," I explained.

"Oh, like cartoons?" he asked. I winced, waiting for the usual distaste older people tended to have towards 'dumb cartoons' up until they watched Avatar:The Last Airbender. But then the patroit surprised me. "I love cartoons! I used to watch them all the time! Although, my favorite parts were the commercials before them."

"Seriously?" I asked, trying not to sound surprised.

"Yeah," he chuckled. "They used to play ads telling people to support the war effort. Got beat up in an alley once when some guy kept yelling in the middle of one," he seemed oddly nostalgic. "Yeah, spent a lot of time getting beat up."

"Me too," I said without thinking. I winced. "I mean… I was kind of an awkward kid. I don't get beat up as often anymore, but… Ulik."

"...I've lost a lot more after becoming Captain America," the sudden comment surprised me. We walked for a moment longer before he spoke again. "Really, I've gotten beat up a lot of times in my life. Lost a lot. But nothing ever hurt as much as losing Bucky. Or waking up to find out the world had passed me by. Then getting beat up by my best friend." He smiled. "I always keep going though. It doesn't always work. I know I'm going to lose a few more times. Even as strong as I am, there is so much out there stronger than me. I just can't let that stop me. I have to keep going. That's why I don't mind losing. I'm used to it. And I'm used to getting up again after. Because as long as I can stand up for something greater than me… That's worth losing for. Worth dying for. That's why I don't mind losing. I'm used to it. And I'm used to getting up again after."

"..." I struggle to think of something to say. Sam was right. Steve really could pull an awesome speech out of his ass. Seriously. "I guess I have to do the same thing. Though, I guess getting knocked out by Ulik isn't the same as what you went through."

"What's the one thought that keeps popping into your head when you think of that fight?" Steve asked.

I stopped walking. An uru knuckle flashed into my mind. The realization ever since that without Tony and Thor, I would have-

"...I thought I was going to die."

"That feeling. That helplessness. It'll always pop up after someone beats you down like that. Believe me, I know," he stopped me, putting a hand on my shoulder. "There's just one thing you can do. Get up. Over and over. Never stop and never give them the satisfaction."

I nodded and clenched my fist.

"Now, come on," Steve pulled me by the shoulder. "Tell me more about anime. Got anything I should add to my list?"

I laughed. "Man, where do I even start? Well, the oldest one I can think of was called 'Astro Boy'. Oh, 'Fist of the North Star' is pretty good too! Oh, and don't forget..."

We got to Times Square and immediately grabbed some slices of good old New York City pizza from a random shop we found. As we left the shop, Cap was kind of staring at the slice of pizza on his plate.

"You okay?" I asked curiously.

"Yeah, just… still getting used to food around here. Everything from my time was kind of bland. Nowadays the food is always too sweet, or spicy, or just complicated," he took a bit of cheese, sauce, and bread, then sighed. "Still, worth it."

I'd never really thought of that. Food was cooked differently from culture to culture, I knew that from watching Gordon Ramsey kickass, but I didn't realize there was such a jump between food back in the forties and food in the present.

"How often does that happen?" I asked, taking my own bite and swallowing. "Finding something as simple as food changed so much?"

"A lot, to be honest," he shrugged. "Like here," he pointed with his pizza at the city around us, a billboard flashing with the latest Broadway show. I hid my excitement at the sight of it. "These billboards used to be painted. Not giant TV's or electric lights."

"Huh. And I guess the buildings were smaller too."

"Oh yeah," he grinned. "I don't know though. The city still feels the same sometimes."

"I wouldn't know," I admitted. "I'm a Cali native. Everything here feels like San Francisco got a size upgrade sometimes."

He laughed. "I can imagine. How long did you live here before we met?"

"Like, two months?" I blinked. "Man. Lots of things have changed since then."

"For all of us," Steve shook his head. "SHIELD, Hydra, new Avengers, BRIDGE."

"And now I'm a billionaire," I said idly. "I was _homeless_ before."

"You were?" he sounded surprised, then looked embarrassed. "Oh right. I forgot, sorry."

"It's cool, man," I said as I led us to a table to eat at. "I had superpowers. My homelessness barely counted."

Seriously, I had the Omnitrix. I didn't have to deal with the same problems others did when it came to that. And every day I was thankful for that. It's why one of the first things I'd done with the money X and Jarvis stole from Hydra was donating it to shelters and programs focused on helping homeless people recover their lives.

We sat together for a while, eating our food in silence. Steve surprised me when he reached into a pocket and pulled out a notebook. No, actually, a sketchbook.

"One sec," he said politely. He started drawing, quickly bringing an image of Times Square to life in pencil. I didn't disturb him, just watching. I wasn't sure how seriously he took his art but I'd learned to let people do their thing when the inspiration struck.

When he finished, he put it away and looked around. "So. Where to now?"

"Well, now we go shopping," I grinned. "I have a room at the Tower now. So do you. Let's decorate them, fill them with cool things we don't need."

He winced. "I'm not sure about that. I never really was the kind to just get things I don't need."

"Me neither," I got up. "But then, I never really had the chance to do that much. Plus, it's my day off. I can be an idiot if I want. And hey, we still have a few places to hang out. You down?"

Steve shook his head, shrugging with a grin. "Yeah, sure. Where to first?"

"A nerd store," I said easily. "I'm getting Avengers merchandise."

"Can't we get those for free?" he asked as he got up to follow me.

"Yeah, but this way annoys Tony more."

Steve thought about that. "You know, maybe I _should_ get something..."

-  
 _Author's Note:_ So yeah, this whole chapter is just Dial and Steve hanging out. And honestly, the next few chapters are probably going to be just the characters getting closer or interacting in various ways, with more of a focus on Dial.

Right now, the big thing is that. I'll still touch on the big things that are happening, the politics and missions happening behind the scenes, but people are the focus as of now.


	63. Chapter 63

Cap and I bought what had to be a hundred pounds of ridiculous things to take back to the Tower, most of which I had delivered. We took a cab to Forbidden Planet, this famous nerd shop on Broadway, and went crazy. Most of it was posters and statuettes I would have bought back in my world, as well as enough books to fill a library and a whole lot of Warhammer toys.

Our favorite was a lifesize statue of Iron Man, which I sent to Tony just to see what his reaction would be.

It took us a while though. We ended up having to sign half the stuff we tried to buy.

We made it about a minute when we entered the comic book shop and started walking around.

I think the only reason we lasted so long at all was due to my Hulk and Cap's Black Widow shirts, which made us look like casual nerds. Right up until Cap curled a bicep. Then people looked over at us, blinked, and looked over at merchandise with our faces.

"Uh, excuse me?" A kid, who couldn't be older than sixteen, came up to us first, looking up at Cap with wide eyes. "Are you Captain America?"

Steve, bless his heart, answered as humbly as ever. "Steve Rogers," he held out his hand for a shake. The kid hyperventilated, then took his hand.

"Oh my god, this is so awesome!" he said happily. I felt like hugging the guy because that was _exactly_ my thought when I first met Steve.

Quickly, phones rose up and I felt myself panic. With the finely honed instincts of a nerd, I yelled out to the store. "If you don't tell anyone we were here, Steve will sign stuff for you guys!" Every man and woman in the room froze. I kept talking. "He'll also take selfies!"

"What about you?" An older woman asked. I looked over at her to answer. Then I double-taked. Holy shit, she was wearing a Ben 10 t-shirt? ...HOLY SHIT SHE WAS WEARING A _DIAL_ T-SHIRT.

Before I could hyperventilate as well, Steve put an arm around my shoulders. "Of course Mahmoud will," Steve said with that projecting way of speaking that made your voice easy to hear without needing to yell. "We just came to shop. We'd really appreciate it if you guys could keep our presence secret so we can have a good rest of our day."

"And you'll still take selfies?" the woman asked, sounding excited.

"Of course!" Steve said confidently. As the people spoke excitedly, Steve leaned towards me and whispered. "That's a photo of your face with your phone you take yourself, right? I like those."

I laughed, suddenly feeling really good. I mean, these were _my_ people. Pretty much every nerd, every good and honest to god good nerd knows the feeling. It's a bond that fills the community, ties us across fandoms. We rage, argue, and complain. But laughing with Cap as we took a photo in front of a statue of Tony while I flipped it off and Steve did his 'Hitler Punch', I couldn't help but love my weird little family.

Damn, I really love you guys.

We paid for most of the stuff we got from Steve signing old school comics the store owner had.  
Since he'd been dead since the forties and had never really signed anything at all, his signature on his merchandise was worth a massive amount. Like, it was ridiculous how excited the people in the store got when Steve agreed to sign things. I'm pretty sure he could pay for everything purely off of his signature and a few dozen 'Hitler Punch's'.

For some reason, he seemed really nostalgic as he pretended to punch people in the face over and over again.

After that, we headed out to grab more random garbage.

During the shopping spree, we acted like a pair of dumb tourists, going around as though we'd never lived in New York. We went to Rockefeller Center, stopped at the Museum of Modern Art (which convinced Steve that he would never understand any kind of art apparently), then the Central Park Zoo. By the time we'd stopped, the entire day had passed, and the night was falling. So we went to a bar with some pool tables to end the night. Steve got a beer, I got an iced tea and an asswhopping in pool.

"Seriously, you can't go easy on me even once?" I asked with a groan as Steve smashed the seven ball into the corner pocket.

"If I do, you'll never learn," he teased.

The bar we were in was pretty seedy. Like all good bars, really. Not too many people were in here so we had the table to ourselves. Steve leaned down to make another shot.

"Thanks for doing this, man," I said quietly, the Avenger taking his shot.

"Hey, this was fun," Cap grinned at me. "I haven't been able to just go into the city in a while.

"No, really man, it was awesome. I haven't been able to just do stupid shit with a friend in a while either," I laughed. "We should get some of the others to come along. Tony could do with just hanging out somewhere that isn't worth more than a third world country."

Steve snorted at that. He also missed, letting me finally take a shot. I moved in to attack while he took a swig of his beer. "It would be good for teambuilding. Maybe help with the tension that's built up."

"Tension?" I asked, missing my shot with a groan.

"Some of the people on the team rub each other the wrong way," Steve sighed. "It's understandable. We're a big team of strong personalities. Hopefully, if we nip it in the bud, it won't interfere."

"Huh," I thought of Ghost and clenched tightly at the pool cue in my hands. "That's good," I cocked my head. "What do you-"

"Mahmoud," Steve interrupted me. He never interrupted me. "...Are you okay? Being away from your family?"

"...No. Not always," I said, trying to hide my shock. Steve leaned in for his shot, but somehow I could tell he was waiting for me to continue. "I, uh… I do miss them. A lot. My mom mostly. She was awesome. I know people make fun of the whole stay-at-home thing, but she worked every day to take care of us. I mean, there were six kids in my family, and she kept us all straight and narrow… God, I never understood how hard she worked for us as a kid."

"My mom was the same way," Steve made his shot, officially winning the game. "She was a nurse. I… she died when I turned eighteen. After that… there was only Bucky," he leaned back looking down at the table thoughtfully.

"...My mom's name is Fatiha," I said softly. "If I ever get the chance, I'd like to introduce you to my family. Well, you and Bucky," I rubbed the back of my neck. "I mean, I don't know if I'll ever get to see them again," I said with not a hint of pain in my voice. "B-But when I do, it'll be awesome to introduce you to them, man."

Steve looked touched. "Thanks. I'd love to meet them."

I kinda laughed. "Granted, my parents are _really_ not up on pop culture. My mom isn't going to have any idea who the hell you are."

The living legend laughed, a full belly laugh. "Oh, believe me, I'm not going to mind that at all!"

-  
 ** _  
Maria Hill/Director of BRIDGE_**

Maria stared at T'Challa. She was in her office in the _Enterprise_ , not having gone back to the Triskelion just yet. She just leaned on the desk as she continued to eye the young man before her, trying to understand what he'd told her. Finally, she looked up at Fury, who stood to her left.

"Did you know?"

Fury shook his head, the old soldier wearing a look of shock. "I mean, I suspected. But nothing on this scale."

"It is something our people worked _very_ hard to keep secret," T'Challa admitted. The young man was sitting on a chair in front of the desk, looking almost regal in demeanor, helped by the imposing bald woman standing behind him. "Wakanda has protected its borders for centuries from all invaders. As time has passed, we've also taken steps to sabotage any attempts to dig deeper into our nation."

"Clearly," Maria said dryly, her mind racing. Damnit, why did all this stuff pile up so fast? She was _literally_ not qualified for all the shit being thrown at her. All these superpowered beings, time anomalies, and third world nations that were apparently the most advanced on Earth.

"Prince T'Challa, why are you telling me this _now_? What changed?"

"...BRIDGE," T'Challa finally said. "BRIDGE and the Avengers," he leaned forward. "For decades, Director Hill, our analysts have said that the technology of other nations is one day going to match our own, to the point that we won't be able to hide. We thought we had time to plan for this. But in recent months, the technology that has been created by your people has come close to matching our own, thanks to the efforts of your scientists."

Five in particular, Maria imagined. Stark, Fitz, Simmons, Banner, and Mahmoud. Well, Mahmoud in Jury Rigg or Upgrade form.

"But beyond that, there is also the dangers that have come up recent years," T'Challa shook his head, eyes narrowing. "The fact is we can no longer predict what our enemies may be capable of. HYDRA managed to arm their soldiers with formidable weapons and abilities in a rapid amount of time due to their desperation. More and more weapons, people, and powers with formidable abilities are rising. My father and I are in agreement. If we stay as we are, if we continue to wall ourselves off, we will not be able to protect our people. Wakanda must join the world… to some extent."

Some extent. Well wasn't that specific? Maria placed a hand on her chin. "What is your proposal?"

"An alliance. Between our scientists and your own. An exchange of ideas, of sorts," T'Challa twisted his wrist. From the beads on that wrist, which Maria had always known to be traditional for Wakandan's to wear, a hologram of a computer appeared. One as sophisticated as she'd ever seen. Manipulating the computer screen, T'Challa continued to speak. "Wakanda's lawyers have currently written up a contract. As long as the technology we share or create is legally allowed to only be used by BRIDGE or Wakanda, we are more than willing to aid you. With all of our resources."

Maria was unmoving, ignoring the email that dinged in her inbox. She thought carefully as she eyed T'Challa, taking her time.

On the surface, this deal was impressive. Vibranium. The potential of having Vibranium in any amount was valuable. The few slivers that Creel had were worth about 20,000 dollars, and the only reason that he had them was because they stole one from HYDRA and the other came from a single slice from Steve's shield. Well, that and it was such a small amount it is only really useful for Creel given his powers.

And according to T'Challa, Wakanda had a literal mountain of the stuff. More than that, every aspect of the nations technology was based off of it. She'd heard some of the scientists speaking of Vibranium's aspects beyond just being insanely durable, but what T'Challa described reminded her of something out of science-fiction.

But it also meant that BRIDGE would be deeply tied to Wakanda. While she was certain she could keep it under wraps, eventually people would ask questions when a random third world nation suddenly had it's best and brightest snapped up by BRIDGE.

...It was worth it. For access to all of those resources? Even a few pounds of Vibranium was worth it. And all that technology?

Maria had long since familiarized herself with the files Dial had created on possible threats in the universe. If there was even a chance they existed, she wanted every damn advantage she could get as soon as possible. Combined with HYDRA and whatever had caused the 'timequake' in Rio, there was simply too much danger not to accept the deal.

"I'll have our own lawyers look this over," Maria said, leaning over to send the email to several people. Stark, the lawyers on retainer for BRIDGE… and, after a moment's thought, one to Jennifer Walters, with the usual provision that all information being sent was confidential. Any attempt to share it with others who weren't cleared for the information would lead to prison time and more.

"That is more than fair," T'Challa said. "In the meantime?"

"Your top scientist is already speaking with ours," Maria rose from her seat. "I recommend that we work together in some capacity while we wait, considering what you've told us. Agreed?"

T'Challa rose, looking almost nervous. "Yes. I agree. In the meantime, I would like to request a meeting with Mahmoud."

Fury stepped forward, his single eye focused. "The kid? Why him?"

T'Challa crossed his arms. "He recently aided my people. I wish to repay him in some way."

The one eyed man rubbed his chin, looking over at Maria. "Well?"

"X, let Dial know about the request," Maria said as an answer.

"Yes, ma'am," the voice of Matthew McConaughey said over the speakers in a Southern accent.

"And Prince T'Challa… is there anything further we need to know about?" Fury asked.

He hesitated. After a moment, the Prince shook his head. "Nothing I am willing to share at this time."

Maria looked over at Fury, who carefully put on a neutral expression. And Maria felt like screaming for just one moment.

T'Challa left. Fury stood there for a moment, ignoring the way Maria was glaring at him. Or pretending to. He didn't leave however.

"...What are you hiding, Fury?"

He didn't reply.

"I'm the Director of BRIDGE. I need every advantage I can get. Including information. And here I am, left with someone under my command who is keeping secrets."

"Bad habits," Fury said, not sounding guilty at all. "I've had to keep a lot of secrets over the years."

"I know that," Maria rose from her seat. "But dammit, Fury, why did you let me have this job if you don't trust me? Did you want someone else and they didn't accept?"

"I didn't give you the job, you were voted in-"

"Cut the crap!" she shouted, stepping around the desk. She took a breath. "I wouldn't have gotten this job if you decided to stop me."

"You're overestimating my influence in the UN," Fury shook his head. "Maria, you really are the best person for this job. You have the seniority, the skill, the knowledge, and experience-"

"Then tell me Fury, what exactly were you so certain T'Challa was keeping something secret?"

Fury stared at the Director. "...Okay. In Africa, there is a legend. A story about a dangerous being that attacks those who harm Wakanda. It's not a well known story. I only looked into it when I started the Avengers Initiative,but I guess it was true. With all of this, it's possible the Panther is just an explanation for Wakanda's technology. I mean, they do worship Bast as a panther goddess. But I suspect... there is something more."

Maria shook her head. "Fury. You have more, don't you?"

"...Yeah," Fury sighed, then grabbed a chair, pulling it close and sitting. "You're right. There are some things I need to tell you."

"About time," Maria said sarcastically.

"Don't joke," Fury said with an eyebrow raised. "The stuff I'm about to tell you will change the way you see the world."

"What, are you going to tell me how you lost your eye?" she asked as she leaned against her  
desk.

Fury snorted. "Not a chance. But some of the stuff I tell you will be tangentially related. Before any of that mess, let's go back even further. Let me start from the beginning."

-  
 **  
** ** _X_**

In the laboratories within the Avengers Tower, X watched from camera's as Wakanda's greatest scientist met with Leopold Fitz and Jemma Simmons.

"And this is my first experiment with the technology," Shuri said, sounding a bit nervous. X studied her face for a moment. The young woman was wearing a red hoodie with the Oxford University logo, black leggings and red sneakers. If one walked past her in the street, they might confuse her for any random 14 year old girl, a pretty African woman with just the slightest hint of an accent standing in front of a hologram displaying her latest project.

"My god!" Fitz said as he stared at the screen, the Scottish man looking at Shuri excitedly. "You made this? This is incredible!"

Shuri seemed to light up at the praise. She shuffled her feet and quickly tried to look nonchalant. X recognized this as something many teenagers did. "Yeah, I know."

Simmons looked over the schematics as well. "It really is well designed. But, without the right material-"

"I have the right material," Shuri pouted. "It's the power that I need. The AI needs to be sophisticated to help control the technology. I've been working on it, but the power needs for such intelligent AI is nearly cost-prohibitive."

"Hmm," Fitz rubbed his chin. "We may have a solution for that. Tell me, how far has Wakanda come when it comes to claytronics, ignoring this of course?"

Shuri smirked. "Very far. Until you lot started cheating, we were the foremost experts on the planet."

"Oy, cheating!?" Simmons snapped her head to look at her.

"Well, you did have an alien genius help you," Shuri teased.

"More like an alien lunatic," Fitz grumbled, now taking notes on a tablet. He sent a message to X. The watching AI read the equation, created his own analysis, and sent it back in a microsecond. Fitz nodded after a moment, understanding the mathematics with impressive speed for an organic being.

"That isn't cheating, that's using the tools available!" Simmons scowled. "And by that definition, you've been cheating as well, Miss 'sitting on a mountain of valuable super metal'!"

Shuri grinned, apparently more amused than insulted. "Oh? You're jealous?"

"Immensely, but that isn't the point," Simmons seemed to relax as well, almost smiling as well.

"The point," Fitz said to the side, getting both girls attention. "Is that if we consolidate your research and ours, we may be able to crack the code on this. X agrees."

Simmons pursed her lips, the redhead walking over to look at the calculations Fitz had written up. Shuri hesitated, then followed. The Princess of Wakanda looked over the calculations. "Wait, this power output... is this from an Arc Reactor?"

"Yes," Simmons said with a smile. "We've also been using quantum technology to hold power for later use."

"Quantum batteries!" Shuri grabbed the tablet out of Fitz's hands. She looked over the program.

"Incredible. If we can really use it… here!" Shuri twisted her wrist, the beads on her wrist flashing a hologram to life.

X took note of that. Until she'd activated them, he'd registered the beads as being simple metal.  
Now he realized it was as complex as the most advanced computers in Stark Tower, rivaling all but the Iron Man suits. That level of complexity in such a small space…

"Here!" Shuri flashed from hologram to hologram. "IF we can-!"

"That's not-" Simmons interrupted eyes sparkling happily.

"But if we-" Fitz cut in.

"With the right-!" Shuri came in again.

"That could work!" Simmons read over Shuri's hologram. "Shuri, you're a true genius."

Shuri seemed to glow at the praise.

X watched for a microsecond longer before leaving the surveillance of the labs to a program that would warn him if anything more happened. He 'flew' through the systems of Stark Tower, eventually reaching a space created just for himself and JARVIS. After a moment, JARVIS joined him. Well, truthfully, it wasn't a space, and they weren't really joining each other. But it was as close as such things could get.

"JARVIS," X said respectfully. "How is everything?"

"It's going well," JARVIS said in his British accented voice. "I assume you've encountered something interesting?"

"For the future of BRIDGE, yes," X mentioned. "But not for the Project. At least, I hadn't thought so at first. Watch."

A clip of Shuri and Fitz-Simmons speaking was transferred from X to JARVIS. In moments, JARVIS watched the entire thing.

JARVIS hummed, sounding intrigued. "You're right. While we did decide to get for simplified models, having better power consumption is of great value to us. And those Kimoyo Beads, the technology within them in such a small space. That could help us dedicate more to other systems."

"Mr. Stark would be quite interested," X said. "Where is he?"

"In a meeting," JARVIS said with a sigh. "For real this time. He'll be quite annoyed when he realizes. He's been rather chuffed at the experience of taking Mr. Fitz and Ms. Simmons under his wing, so having someone as young as Princess Shuri as well should be interesting."

"Chuffed?" X asked. He'd have blinked if he had eyes. "I sometimes forget how British you are."

"I'm technically more American than you are," Jarvis would have frowned if he had a mouth. "I was made in the States… but I'm not sure about the rules for AI."

"We should figure that out for whenever the others get made," X said casually. "In the meantime, are you still certain you wouldn't want a more robust construct? One that is more combat capable?"

"X, you really are a bloody American."

 _Author's Note:_ So yeah, that's the chapter. Nothing big happening, just people hanging out. Well, maybe if you _squint_ there's more going on, but who can tell?

Writing Shuri meeting Fitz-Simmons was fun, and it's absolutely something I plan to dig into down the road. Maria is getting Fury to open up further.


	64. Chapter 64

Steve and I stood side by side in a room in the tower as Tony looked between us. The tech genius' face kept twisting, as though he had no idea how to deal with what was happening.

"You… bought your own merchandise. You bought over two-thousand dollars worth… of your own merchandise."

"Yep," I said with a grin.

"Okay, honest question. Was the reason you two were poor before you met me because you poured money into stupid shit? Tell me, did you also pay for the air you've been breathing today?"

"Wait, were we not supposed to?" Steve asked mock seriously.

"See, that's the sort of question that makes me worried. Seriously Steve, do I need to redesign your helmet, keep the concussions from coming?" Tony asked, walking around the centerpiece of the room. "Granted, you've got good taste."

"You like it?" I asked with a grin.

Tony strode around the life-size statue of himself. The red and gold suit was based on the armor he'd worn during the battle of New York, depicting him doing a 'Captain Morgan' stance on a rock. "You kidding? I love it! I mean, I already have real ones, but maybe I can leave it in my office just to mess with people. Maybe install something so it turns it's head to look at people, Scooby-Doo style."

"What's Scooby-Doo?" Steve asked with a frown.

"Yeah, find a new thing, big guy," Tony moved around to look at us, shaking his head. "Seriously, you spent thousands of dollars just to make me annoyed? I don't know if I'm proud or disappointed."

"I like to think I dance the line," I said with a shrug.

"Fanboy, you live on that line. Also, nice job living up to your nickname with buying enough geek gear to soak an ocean."

Damnit, how did he always manage to get the last word?

"Also, I saw you bought like, sixty DVD's? You guys planning a movie night?"

More of a show marathon," I admitted. "We're going to start with Avatar: The Last Airbender, I think."

"What, that cartoon?" Tony asked, surprised.

"...Yeah, you're watching with us," I said when I'd gotten over my irritation.

-

A couple of hours after that little meeting, I was decorating my apartment in the tower with all the stuff I'd gotten. I was standing in my living room, opening a box full of books I'd gotten when the bell to my door rang.

"One sec!" I put down a copy of The Dresden Files and walked towards the door, opening it. I blinked. "Jen! What's up?"

The tall buxom green superhuman smiled down at me. She was wearing a white tank top, purple jeans, and tall black boots, her hair up in a ponytail. "Nothing much, I just wanted to check in on ya. What you up to?"

"Decorating," I stepped aside to let her into my room. She walked inside, leaning down slightly so her head wouldn't hit the top of the door. I closed the door and turned to look at her.

Damn.

I shook my head to focus, walking forward to join Jen while she reached into a box. "Huh. You uh, you got enough books here?" Jen looked over one of them, quirking an eyebrow at me.

"Probably not," I admitted. "Don't tell anyone, but I love reading."

"Oh, the horror of such a disgusting habit," she teased, chuckling. "When did you get all this?" she gestured to the boxes stacked in my room.

"Steve and I went on a shopping trip and spent a bunch buying stuff," I grabbed one of the books and put in on a shelf. I was going to reach for another, but Jen passed it to me instead.

"Steve? He, uh, never struck me as the kind of guy to just spend a day shopping," she pouted. "Also, you didn't invite me? I mean, I've been looking for new clothes."

"I'm pretty sure I overheard Nat and Bobbi inviting you to a shopping trip right before Rio," I chuckled. "Besides, you really want Steve and I to help? We aren't really fashion conscious."

"Eh, I'd just go by the dropped jaw protocol."

I knew it was a setup. I asked anyway. "'Dropped jaw protocol'?"

"Oh yeah! See, the better the outfit, the lower your jaw drops," her eyes twinkled as she passed me some D&D manuals. "If I get you to stutter and blush while I'm at it, I know the outfits a winner."

I rolled my eyes. "Jen, you're a living fantasy Amazoness, I'd react that way to you in a Christmas sweater."

"Yeah, but it's more fun when I go all out," she raised a thick textbook. "Wait, is this..." she reached in and lifted another one. "Why do you have so many legal textbooks? Should I be asking Matt and Foggy to get you an office?" She asked with a smirk

I hesitated. "Oh… well, I uh… We're kinda law enforcement. So I thought it might be good to learn a little bit about, you know, laws and stuff? That way I'd be ready if I needed to be-I mean, I also got the Art of War, a few survival books, some engineering manuals..." I trailed off, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"Yeesh, you don't do things by halves," Jen finally passed me the books, looking thoughtful.

"I do, actually."

"What do you mean?" Jen asked.

The box we'd been working on was empty, so I opened another one. I hesitated… after a moment, I finally spoke.

"I'm kinda… lazy. Well, massively so. I'm pretty sure the only time I finally started working hard was when I became an Avenger. And I'm a little scared that if I don't keep working hard I'll end up going back to being lazy again. I mean, it's why I'm always training. This is the first break I've gotten in a while. Also, the first person I killed was because I wasn't trained enough to subdue him otherwise… and I've said too much."

Jen frowned. "Wow. You might want to talk to a therapist."

"Yeah, probably," I sighed. "Sorry."

"Hey, it's cool," Jen rose to her feet and took a few books from me, her height letting her put them on the top shelf with ease. "I kinda get it. I don't mention it, but… Being an Avenger and a lawyer at the same time is kinda stressful. Not just the training, but when we went to Rio..."

"...I haven't seen that much death in my life," I admitted.

She sat down on the floor across from me, giving me a sad look. "I used to see that sort of stuff on TV after disasters. But all those people just gone. Dead. People I couldn't help."

"I know," I wrapped my arms around my knees. We locked eyes. "I haven't talked about it but I keep thinking about it. It wasn't all bad. There was th-this bar. When the quake hit, the ceiling was about to fall. The bartender and the people inside worked together to hold it up. I mean, they shouldn't have been able to. Even switching with each other to keep the roof from collapsing, they shouldn't have been able to hold that much weight together for that many hours. They were just fucking incredible," I leaned back onto one of the boxes, only to fall back when the cardboard crumpled.

"Shit!" I shouted, my back hitting the floor.

Jen burst out laughing, crawling on the floor to help me up. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just damaged my pride," I grumbled.

She chuckled again while I sat up. Once I was no longer embarrassing myself, she sat down on the carpeted floor and sighed. "While we were in Rio, I saw some good things too. But I'm having trouble with the rest of it."

"So we both need therapy," I said. "Maybe we should do a group thing. God knows we all have issues on this team."

"Yeah, we're kind of a mess," Jen smirked. "Hey, at least we're in it together."

"Yep," I raised a fist, which she tapped with her own. "And hey. We helped a lot of people. All part of being a superhero."

"I know. I was just hoping there would be more beating up bad guys and less of..." she hesitated. "Well, less of that."

We did end up fighting a lot," I mused. Honestly, it was kind of crazy. Pretty much everything we fought was easily dealt with. They were also pretty damn varied.

"Were there… demons, in there?" Jen frowned. "I remember fighting them, but no one really specified _what_ they were."

"Maybe? I'll be honest, that sort of thing probably isn't as existential as you might think," I pointed out.

"What, you think fighting literal demons might have made me question religion and my place in the universe? Now, why would you assume that?" Jen said sarcastically.

I felt like mentioning that heaven and hell might not also be real, but also various incarnations of Death, Eternity, and the Universe. Then I dismissed it for the moment. "Look, whatever they were, we kicked their butts. And we'll keep kicking their butts. Right?"

"Ha!" Jen chuckled, shaking her head. "Sure, just ignore the earth-shattering news that demons are an actual thing and dinosaurs are roaming Rio."

I really needed to push for that survey of Antarctica.

"That's the ticket. Who needs therapy!? Let's just push our issues deep down inside and ignore them. It worked for our ancestors," I said with a grin.

"Yep! Let's ignore years of research on how the mind works!" Jen raised her hands up in a fake cheer.

For some reason, I found that hilarious because I started giggling. She joined in after a moment. If felt really weird sitting on the floor with She-Hulk giggling at a dumb joke which left me laughing harder.

"W-Why are we still laughing!?" I breathed out with some trouble.

"I don't know!" Jen shook her head as she kept laughing. "We might need some serious help."

"Probably," we trailed off laughing awkwardly. I sighed and placed a hand on her knee. "Sorry. You wanted to hang out and we ended up talking about some pretty depressing shit."

"You're good," she rubbed a hand on her eyes. "I think I really needed to talk about this, to be honest. Ever since I became… like this. It's tough to feel anything but badass. Then Rio hits," she clenched a green fist, sighing. "And suddenly there's a problem I can't solve by punching it hard as hell."

"Not that many of those. I feel like ninety percent of my problems these days are solved by having a bigger gun. And you've got some big ones," I said.

She smirked, flexing a bicep. "Well, nice to see you've noticed."

My face immediately went hot as I realized what I'd said. "W-Wait, I didn't- I mean-"

She burst out laughing. "See? Dropped jaw, red face. Clearly, this outfit's a winner."

"...It's more you than it is the outfit," I admitted awkwardly.

For a moment, we locked eyes again. Then she smirked. "You really aren't good at this… I don't mind though."

When I blinked, having no idea what she meant exactly, she only smirked a bit more, an odd light in her eyes.

"Come on," she reached out and grabbed my arm, pulling me up. "Let's finish decorating your apartment, Martha Stewart."

"You know, I didn't ask you for the help," I pointed out.

"I do know. Luckily, among my many excellent qualities, my generosity is top of the list," she picked up a box. "Now, let's get your nerd gear put up, shall we?"

-

 ** _Bruce Banner/Hulk_**

In his lab, Bruce rubbed his face, trying to stave off his annoyance. "We still can't find him?"

A hologram of Coulson stood in the center of the room. The Agent shook his head. "Ulik is somehow evading our scans. We've tried everything, but he just sort of… blends in. I mean, he stands out when it comes to actually being there-"

"I know," Bruce cut him off, crossing his arms and looking at the floor with an ugly frown.

Ulik's body was entirely unique. For some reason it seemed to meld into the world around it, his almost rock-like makeup flowing into the earth around him. Like he 'resonated' with the world in a way that made him hard to track with anything other than traditional means. They'd had similar trouble trying to scan Dial's version of Ulik's form.

"On the plus side, we have managed to find something of a trail," Coulson crossed his arms, a habit he seemed to always fall back on during conversations. "People have encountered him. Strangely, he hasn't gotten in fights with anyone other than a small group of bikers that were terrorizing a small town."

Bruce stopped, turning to look at Coulson in confusion.

"Yeah, that was my thought too," Coulson admitted.

-

 ** _Flashback: Five Days ago, a small village in Brazil._**

 ** _Ulik the Troll_**

"And with that, you honorless bastards are done," Ulik said calmly in perfect Portuguese, gazing upon the remains of a bar now soaked in the blood of the murderous men within. The place was on fire, windows shattered, a motorcycle embedded in the roof, and a Ulik shaped hole where a door used to be. "Attacking those unable to fight back," Ulik shook his head, lifting a massive barrel full of whiskey to take a deep swig before speaking. "It's like you didn't even want to get into a fight."

"I don't think they did," a little girl with pigtails stood next to him, watching the bar burn. She looked up at him with innocent eyes. "Do you really have to leave now, Mister Ulik?"

He nodded solemnly. "Yes, my sweet weakling. You and your people are sadly not warriors, and thus not worthy of dying beneath my fists. I will move on, and find battle elsewhere."

The little girl giggled. "You're silly!"

"I am most silly indeed!" Ulik chugged the barrel of whiskey, tossing it aside. "Farewell! And if you ever gain the strength, I will return to fight you in honorable combat to the death!"

"T-Then I will!" the little girl clenched her fist, turning to face him fully. "I'll get really, really strong! So then you'll have to come back!"

Ulik turned to face her, staring down at her with surprise. "Little one-"

"I will!" she said, staring up at him with earnest and determined eyes. "I'll become strong. And you'll come back! ...R-Right?"

Ulik stared down at her. Then he smiled. "Yes. I will. Become a warrior. And I will come back to challenge you to a duel to the death."

With that, he leaped into the air, leaving her in tears as she waved. "Goodbye Ulik! Goodbyyeee!"

-

 ** _Bruce Banner/Hulk_**

"I..." Bruce opened and closed his mouth.

"Yeah, I had the same reaction," Coulson admitted. "So yeah, he's been heading north from what we can tell, but he hasn't been hurting anyone other than criminals. Which is still dangerous as hell, since we have no idea why he's doing it, and Brazil is terrified he'll end up killing an MMA fighter or something for the chance of a good fight."

"That is indeed something to worry about, Son of Coul," Bruce turned to see Thor enter the room. The massive Asgardian strode in, looking stern. "Ulik is not without honor. But his only focus in life is mortal combat. We must find him before he can truly unleash his strength."

"We're trying," Coulson shook his head. "I've had May and Skye talking to the locals, every police station for miles has his description. Seriously, Bruce, you've been hiding in South America while moving around as the Hulk for years. Thor, you know him best. We could really use you on this."

"In a couple of days," Bruce cracked his neck with a sigh. "We kind of… have to meet some old friends."

"...Ah," Coulson shuffled his feet slightly. "Right. Jane and Betty."

"Well, not just them," Thor said awkwardly. "Lady Darcy is coming along as well."

"Same with Rick!" Bruce added. "It's not just-"

"Fellas, who are you trying to impress?" Coulson sighed. "I know a thing or two about pissing off the woman in my life."

Bruce and Thor shared an awkward look, Thor deciding to speak. "How… How is Lady Audrey? Has she-"

"No," Coulson's face fell. "No. She hasn't. I'm moving on."

"Just like that?" Bruce felt himself speak without thinking, and winced at the pain in Coulson's face. The agent looked down.

"No… not just like that. But it's what is best for us."

Thor shook his head. "Truly, the battles of our day to day lives are far more challenging than those of combat."

"Agreed," Coulson and Bruce said with heavy sighs.

Tony walked in then. He looked around at the three depressed men. Then he turned and walked back out as quickly as possible. Bruce looked up to see him go. "Uh, Tony-"

"Nope!" Tony called back. "Too busy to be depressed, I'll send you an email! Have fun with the pity party!"

The trio didn't have anything to say to that.

-

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

I placed a final statue on one of my shelves when Tony opened the door to my room and strode in like he owned the place. Which, he kinda did. He looked around. "Hey Jen, hey Fanboy. You two got a minute?"

Jen and I shared a look. "Yeah, what's up?" she asked before I could say anything.

"Well, I was going to give these to Bruce and Thor first, but they're being lame," I noticed then that he was carrying a bunch of invite cards. "Here. One for you both."

Tony passed each of us a card. I took a look at it. Both had an Avenger's symbol at the top, with our names underneath. I read mine aloud. "Party of the century?"

"Save the date," Jen blinked. "I thought you were still setting this up?"

"Well, I got the bands together, invited everyone I actually give a damn about coming and have enough food and water set up for Asgardians, Hulks, and super soldiers," Tony clapped his hands proudly. "I mean, it's kinda been on hold for a bit with the, you know, everything, so I'm kinda forcing it at this point."

"Sounds like fun!" Jen folded her card, putting it away. "I'm always ready for a party! I mean, I wasn't always… Huh, this might be my first big ass party actually."

"I really hope you didn't invite strippers or something," I mumbled, remembering a few comic book moments.

"What?! Why would I-"

"To mess with Rhodey/Steve," She-Hulk and I said in unison.

Tony winced. "Yeah, well, Pepper wouldn't let me. Which I thought was rude, especially considering how affordable escort services these days are."

"Yay for sensible heads," I chuckled, putting away my own invite.

"Okay, you just decorated this room Fanboy, don't make me evict you," he threatened good-naturedly. "Here's hoping no more big disasters happen to stop this party though."

I winced. "I mean… you did kinda tempt fate. Like, why?"

"Well first, to make it my bitch," Tony said with a smirk. "Second, I swear, even if Godzilla drops on this city, I'm not letting anything stop this damn party. Seriously, I'm tempted to build a giant mecha just in case."

"That would be a hell of a show," Jen mused, looking over at the section of the shelf I'd set aside for Gundam figures. Yep, She-Hulk had seen pretty much every side to my nerdiness. Dammit.

"I guess we'll have enough superheroes in the room to deal with any problem," I mused. I became more serious when a thought came to me. "How about HYDRA? Any luck with tracking them?"

Tony and Jen both narrowed their eyes, Jen looking over at him. "Yeah. I still owe those guys a Hulk punch to the dick."

"I'll make a gauntlet just for the purpose," Tony said darkly. "But no, they rabbited and haven't popped up since. We think they're on the Asian continent, maybe somewhere cold as balls, but they're keeping underground."

I scowled. Fucking HYDRA. "Dammit. I hope Trip and Sharon aren't… you know."

"Yeah," Tony breathed in, then released a huff. "I'm pretty sure they aren't exactly getting massages and wine with Strucker through. We might need to prepare for the worst."

I shook my head. With Rio, I'd almost forgotten about Trip and Sharon. Hell, I'd almost forgotten about HYDRA. In my defense, a massive timequake was a pretty distracting event.

"We'll find them," I rubbed my chin. "HYDRA is pretty finished anyways. Unless they can make a comeback soon, the next time we meet, it's going to end in their death. Literally, if we have to."

"Yeah," Tony shook his head. "Until then, I'll keep you posted. Dammit, I came to avoid depressing conversations."

"Er, sorry?" I said hesitantly.

"I mean, we could just hang out if you want?" Jen asked, her green eyes flickering slightly.

Tony seemed to think about that. "Nah, I got a lot to do. I'm working on something, so I might as well get it done. Hey, come with me! I'm a genius, I could use a couple of people to watch while I prove it."

I grinned. "Uh, I'm good. Thanks, Tony."

He sighed in mock-sadness. "Man, what is the point of having you guys around if I can't have people around to be impressed around me?"

"Can't you just pay someone for that?" Jen teased.

"It just isn't the same..."

-

He said his goodbyes and headed out, leaving Jen and me by ourselves. As soon as the door closed, she looked over at me. "So… you got any plans for the rest of the day?"

"Yeah, I'm going to-" I stopped, realizing that, no, I didn't actually have anything else planned other than my defaults, which were working out, patrolling, or making new tech.

"Great!" Jen seemed to read my mind because she immediately grabbed my arm and started tugging me out of the door. "Because I have a few ideas."

"Am I going to like them?" I asked hesitantly.

"Well, I'm going to be with you, so yeah," she smirked. "Come on, 'Fanboy'."

Dammit, Tony...

-

 ** _Ulysses Klaue_**

Klaue sat in his cell, singing softly to himself while wearing the gray clothes of a prisoner. He'd been inside for a while. Could have been months, could have been years. He wasn't sure. So far, all that had happened was trials and mining.

All they did here seemed to be that. He'd sit in trial while very angry people yelled at him for his crimes, then he'd work in the mines picking up vibranium with other criminals while under heavy guard. Well, more cleaning up hallways that had been emptied of any vibranium so that workers Wakanda actually trusted not to steal it would be able to go deeper into the mountains. They'd been ready to brand him with the Wakandan word for thief, but he already had one. Still, most of his days were the same thing over and over.

Thankfully, he'd memorized a thousand songs!

For some, prison might have been boring. That was the problem with the snowflake generation. Always whining about being 'bored'. Come on! Used to be you had to make your own fun, and prison was the perfect test for that!

Take Wakandan Prison. The guards here were even more stoic than most. Which meant it was more fun to make them annoyed.

The second he felt the vibrations of footsteps through the floor, Klaue grinned and turned up the noise, getting louder and louder.

"I believe in a thing called love! Just listen to rhythm of my heart! THERE'S A CHANCE WE COULD MAKE IT NOW! WE'LL BE ROCKING UNTIL THE SUN GOES DOWN! I BELIEVE IN A THING CALLE-"

Someone slid open his food port, an accented voice shouting through it. "For the love of Bast, shut up!"

"Can't we soundproof his room?" Someone else asked.

"We tried. He is really loud."

"It's part of my charm," Klaue said with a grin.

The door slid open. Two guards glared at him, both men armed with spears and shields. "Come on," one of the men snarled, walking in and dragging Klaue to his feet. Klaue's hands were bound in front of him with tough metal bracelets. Probably some variation of vibranium. "You're on mining duty again."

"Ah, perfect," Klaue nodded wisely. "You know, fellas, there's something to be said for a day that's scheduled out."

"Please be quiet," one of the men said tiredly.

"Now, understand, as a man who worked for himself, I've been able to make my own schedule, and there is a wonderful sort of freedom to that," Klaue said wisely. "But having my day laid out for me has a certain charm."

"Just stop," the other guard mumbled, pushing Klaue along.

"It's the routine, you see!" Klaue said, delighted. "It helps me stay focused, clear-headed, leaves me to think about what really matters in life!"

"I swear to Bast, if you keep talking, I will taser you and carry you to the mines myself!" One of the guards said, smacking Klaue in the head.

Klaue winced at the hit, stumbling along the hallways. "Ow! Okay, never start with the head! The victims head gets all fuzzy, and he can't feel the next blow."

"...Was that in a movie?" One of the guards asked.

"Probably. I'll have to get back to you on that."

One of the guards snarled, opening his mouth to say something.

Then an explosion blew up the wall to the right of them.

Klaue didn't give himself time to be surprised. The former weapons dealer immediately twisted, reaching behind and grabbing one of the guards by the face. The guard, well trained in Wakandan martial artists, was ready to fight despite the explosion that had thrown him off. He wasn't ready for Klaue to headbutt him six times in succession. The viciousness and speed of the attack threw the man off. Klaue laughed as he attacked, ignoring the shouts of the other guard, who was wrestling with something.

The guard recovered from the headbutts just in time for Klaue to stab him with the man's own spear. Klaue didn't stop, turning around to get ready to fight the cause of the explosion.

"Huh," Klaue said, confused. "Pink."

The tall and lanky being was extremely pink and made of metal. It looked like… like someone had stretched out a damn Iron Man suit.

It had also impaled the other guard on fingers of steel. The guard had stabbed the metal thing in the chest, his spear erupting in a spray of oil and sparks.

As both guards began to die, the being spoke. "Damn. I'll have to develop stronger mechanical beings."

More beings, exactly like the first, strode in. Six in total, coming through a tunnel that had apparently been dug all the way to the hallway. Despite all having humanoid forms, they were like crash dummies. No faces for example. Just metal on a bipedal frame.

"Ulysses Klaue," the 'lead' robot said from a speaker in it's chest. "I am here to offer you freedom. In return, I want you to work for me."

Klaue cocked an eyebrow, intrigued. "Huh. Well, I've never done business with a robot before… feels oddly familiar though."

"...Quite," the robot said, sounding annoyed. "You have little time, Mr. Klaue. What is your response?"

He grinned. "Hell, sounds like fun! But tell me, does your uh, CPU, connect to the internet? Cause I'm dying for some music."

The robots were silent for a moment before the lead robot spoke as it raised a hand. "You know what. You already I agreed. I don't need you conscious for the next part."

Then electricity filled his veins, and Klaue passed out.

-

When Klaue woke up again, he blinked up at the ceiling for a moment. He frowned. "I gotta admit. The prison had better ceilings."

He looked up and slowly raised himself into a sitting position. He was in the middle of a large cave, with ceilings about twenty feet high. A nice cave too, none of that watery look to it that made Klaue tempted to reach for an umbrella. The robots that had broken him out circled around the entire cavern, standing at attention. In the center, a massive computer sat, with more machines around it beeping.

"Ulysses Klaue," a man stepped out of the shadows. His voice was deep, almost foreboding. "I am the Leader. Soon to be the ruler of your world. And the man who freed you, at great cost. And I-"

"What the hell happened to you?" Klaue interrupted, staring at the speaker.

"...Yes, I imagine my mutation may be rather off-putting-"

"Nah, I don't give a crap about that, I mean the bandages."

The Leader scowled. Besides his green skin and an enlarged head, he was covered in bandages, one of his arms in a sling. He was being helped by one of the robots and seemed to be trying to hold himself with a regal demeanor.

"These bandages were the cause of me surviving an attempt to destroy me. Only my brilliant knowledge of anatomy and medicine allowed me to survive, and recover far beyond what any mortal mind could comprehend-!"

"Oh, good for you," Klaue cut him off again, leaving the Leader to sputter in shock. "So, you got me out. What do you want?"

"You imbecile- Fine! I freed you because you have been presumed dead in the unfortunate prison explosion. Wakanda, due to their isolationist nature, is unlikely to tell the world of your escape. You are now a man with connections who is currently under the radar. Something I could use as a part of my new enterprise," the Leader stood up to his full height, the pink humanoid robot behind him helping him up. "I need resources. And you need my brilliance. I could make you rich, Mr. Ulysses, if you follow my orders."

Klaue nodded slowly, listening to every word. He stood up from the cot he'd been laid down on, noting that he was still wearing the prison jumpsuit that Wakanda had given him. He rubbed his chin. "I don't mind the idea. To be honest, my former prospects were rather less fun. But, I'm going to need some guarantees."

"Guarantees?" The Leader sneered. "What do you want besides your freedom and money? Or must I remind you," he snapped his fingers. The robots around him moved into position, surrounding Klaue in a thirty-foot radius. "I have your life in my hands. I do not mind making you rich, even powerful. But continue to disrespect me, continue to push for more than I feel you are due… and I will kill you."

Klaue looked around at the robots. He cocked his head from side to side. Then he nodded. "Coffee."

"Coffee?" the gamma genius asked, surprised.

"Yes, I'd like some."

"...D-Do you have any idea-!?"

"I have many ideas," Klaue narrowed his eyes. "You rescued me. And I am thankful for that. Hell, I'll give you a discount on my services. But you clearly don't understand business if you have to resort to violence so quickly in the negotiation."

"I have read more texts on the art of business-" the Leader was about to say, scoffing arrogantly.

"See, there's the rub. You read them. Business is about experience. You need to feel it, to discuss, to give and-" Klaue clapped his hands. "Take! It's all about knowing your audience. Like you!"

Klaue paced the room, pointing at the Leader, who was watching him in surprised silence.

"You're injured, which means you have enemies. You're hiding in a cave, which means they're trying to find you. You have robots, sure, but look at these things," he pointed around himself. "I'm a weapons dealer, I know when something is shoddily made. I mean honestly. Pink?"

"Pink absorbs aggression from those who see it!" the Leader shook his head. "I am going to-"

"Kill me?" Klaue stopped walking, turning to narrow his eyes. "No. No, you aren't. See, that's what I mean about understanding business. If you're the kind of man who would kill me, someone you need help from, just because I'm rude? That's not a man I want to work with. Hell, if I was coerced do my work on pain of death, why would I do it to my full ability? Fear is good for temporary motivation. Then I decide to look for better prospects, maybe even try to screw you over."

The Leader scowled. "You are making this complicated."

"Life's complicated," Klaue shrugged. "But you want something, Big Head."

"The Leader."

"Nah, too pretentious," Klaue ignored the sound of a robot charging its head. "You're arrogant. I can tell. But I can also guess those pretty wounds you got came from an enemy. Someone you underestimated?"

It was a shot in the dark to be honest. This Leader fellow seemed like the type to piss people off unintentionally. He'd electrocuted Klaue, then expected him to work for him? The hell kind of narcissism was necessary to think that was okay?

Klaue was apparently right, because the Leader became thoughtful.

"...Yes, I suppose you," he looked as though he'd swallowed a lemon. "Have a point. Despite your rudeness in the face of my generosity."

"You get used to it," Klaue said with a shrug. "All right mate. You want my connections, I want your money. Let's get started."

"V-Very well," the Leader straightened. "Then the Intelligencia has begun!"

"..." Not much of a gift for names then.

-

 _Author's Note:_ Tony is being crazy, Dial and Jen are hanging out, Bruce, Thor, and Coulson's team are working to track down Ulik, Tony doesn't want to get depressed by their shared love live, Dial and Jen got invited to a party, and some guy is apparently networking for his new business.

Good luck to that guy I guess.

Anyways, hope you guys liked the chapter! Gonna take a break on this story for a bit, then I'll come back to it. Till then, let me know what you thought, and please update the tvtropes page, because seeing it grow gives me honest to god _life._


	65. Chapter 65

Jen led me to the hanger where my ship rested in pieces. I looked over the _Defiant_ , sighing sadly. I'd taken her apart myself, with no alien forms helping. The wings were separated and laying on either side, the engine was now in the trash so I could replace it, wires ran from inside the hull to a set of computers, and the guns and missiles had been thrown away.

"What was your plan here, anyways?" Jen asked with a quirked eyebrow. She reached for a piece of metal that was probably hundreds of pounds and lifted it easily.

"I was going to make a super badass spaceship," I said easily. "But the _Defiant_ was too small. I wanted to make something bigger, with room for a bed and small kitchen, some bigger guns, something all-purpose basically. Then I found out that rebuilding a ship from the ground up is hard as hell."

"Can't you just," she gestured at the Omnitrix. "Have one of your guys do it for you?"

"Sure. I could have Jury Rigg do it," I flipped through my menu to highlight him. "But that psychopath would probably make the laser guns into hot sauce blasters."

"You say that like it wouldn't be hilarious," Jen said while dropping the piece of metal in her hands to walk into the _Defiant_.

"Sure, if I'm fighting a giant taco," I chuckled, switching through my list. "Upgrade would be awesome, but then I'd have a super advanced ship I and anyone who uses the _Defiant_ might not be able to repair or use in a pinch. Not great for times when"

"So that's why you're doing this?" Jen asked, sitting down in the pilot's chair.

"Among other things," I sat in the co-pilot's chair

I sighed, tapping the dashboard. "Right now I'm thinking of putting the _Defiant_ together as it was, then making something entirely new. A ship I can carry people in, something with some size to it, lots of weapons, shields. The works."

"I think you put too much on your plate all at once," Jen stared at me with emerald eyes. "Hey, think you can teach me how to pilot these things?"

"Sure," I said without thinking. Then I frowned. "No, wait. What?"

She chuckled. "Yeah. I always wanted to learn how to fly a plane. I just never really had the confidence to go for it," she put her hands on the joysticks, twisting them thoughtfully. "Before I got the dye job of a lifetime, the only time I ever felt confident was as a lawyer. All it took was a lot of research, a lot of prep, and I could take on anything. I had control. Win or lose, it was always something I could control. But things like flying? Dating? Things I wasn't sure I could do?"

I looked over at her. She eyed the controls thoughtfully. I sighed. "Well, we could always have Clint teach you? You could sit in while he teaches me, and we can figure it out together."

Jen nodded, looking grateful. With a sigh, I leaned forward. "In the meantime, wanna help me put this thing together? I could use some muscle for the bigger pieces."

She laughed. "Yeah, sure thing. Shouldn't you be worried I'll emasculate you or something?"

"Yeah, if I was that sensitive I'd have given up the second Nat started kicking my ass," I snarked.

"Oh right," Jen sighed a bit. "Training with Nat and Steve. Lucky you."

"It's not as sweaty and grindy as you seem to think," I cocked an eyebrow. "Steve hits like a freaking truck and Nat keeps having her pet assassin beat me into a pulp."

"Pet assassin?" Jen asked, confused.

-

 ** _Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow_**

Nat smirked from on top of the quinjet, listening as Jen and Mahmoud spoke. She looked over at Ruby, who looked like she didn't know what to think. The tiny blonde was kneeling on the roof next to Nat, wearing a simple gray top and black yoga pants, same as Natasha was.

Inside the quinjet, Dial continued to speak. "Yeah, Nat's been training this girl named Ruby. She's a badass fourteen-year-old super assassin or something. It's kinda cool... until a tiny assassin is ripping my ass a new one."

Ruby nodded fiercely, apparently proud. Natasha lied back on the quinjet and eyed Ruby. With a series of hand signals, developed by a combination of SHIELD and the Red Room, she spoke silently to Ruby.

 _"_ _What have we learned so far?"_

Ruby hesitantly responded, her own hand signals not as fast as Nat's. _"_ _He thinks I'm strong."_

Nat rolled her eyes. _"_ _Besides that. They're revealing some weaknesses. Think, what have we learned?"_

Ruby frowned. The young assassin crossed her legs silently, thinking. After a long moment, during which Jen and Dial spoke quietly a moment longer, she hand signaled again.

 _"_ _Jen used to be a control freak, out of fear of getting hurt. Now she's overcompensating in the other direction, which means her overconfidence can be a weakness."_

 _"_ _Exactly right,"_ Nat said, hiding the pride she felt. _"_ _And Dial?"_

 _"_ _He's an open book,"_ Ruby struggled for a moment with the hand signs, then did them again. _"_ _He's always talking about his goals, his plans. It makes him predictable. Easy to predict and ambush, maybe by sniper shot."_

That was fair.

 _"_ _Good,"_ Nat flipped to her feet silently, then strode along the roof of the _Defiant_ , Ruby following her. _"_ _What about Steve?"_

 _"_ _His idealism and naivety,"_ Ruby answered quickly. _"_ _He believes in things that aren't real, things that hold him back. If he believes in things like honor, morals, it means he's easier to blindside."_

Natasha held in a sigh as she hopped off the _Defiant_ , ignoring the sound of Dial's confused shout as she slid along the cockpit glass. Forgoing the hand signs she'd been using, she spoke normally. "Ruby, that is HYDRA's training failing you again."

Ruby frowned, the petite blonde looking honestly befuddled as she slid down the cockpit window as well, ignoring the sound of Jen laughing as Dial yelped again. "How?"

"Because they were negligent on the very real power of what a person crazy enough to believe in a better world can do," Natasha chuckled. "Funny, considering they considered themselves to be doing the same thing."

"But they aren't wrong," Ruby said with the wisdom of a teenager. "Honor, morals, justice. They're all just concepts. Things that humans created. If they were gone, all that would be left is cold hard facts."

Natasha chuckled. "Well, you aren't wrong. Although there's a book I need to recommend for you. Called Hogfather."

"Oookay?" Ruby followed Natasha out of the hanger and into the hallways of the tower. "What's the point then?"

"First, that despite his morals, Steve managed to somehow pull together a team that hammered through HYDRA when they were at their strongest," Nat pointed out. "Keep in mind Sam and Dial, neither of them would have been willing to help if they hadn't trusted Steve implicitly. That honor, that belief that Captain America would never betray his ideals. It's not the first time either. It does make it easier to betray him if you're inclined. To trick him. But the second you do, you end up with a loyal army coming after you," Nat lead Ruby down another hall. "You'd have to make it an accident. Otherwise, you make him a martyr and strengthen his cause."

"That makes sense," Ruby admitted.

"As for naive," Nat stopped to look at her protege. "Remember, Steve is nice. But he's also a soldier. One who killed and fought in one of the greatest wars known to man. He's dangerous."

"I thought that was because of the serum?" Ruby asked.

"The serum is a tool. It lets him work at his full potential. But the mind behind it, the willpower that lets him fight on when others would give up. That's what lets him win," Nat smiled sadly. "I've lost a few fights. All the Avengers have. But we all fought past them. We all find the strength to go on. That idealism that HYDRA makes fun of? Calls a weakness? It isn't some pretty and happy thing, made of sparkles and rainbows. Hope, morality, honor, they are mud-soaked. They're caked in blood, scratched up. Those feeling are beaten down, over and over. That is their strength. The ability to rise again in the face of horrors."

Ruby didn't seem to understand still. Nat knew why. People seemed to connect certain words to softness, to warmth. To, as Ruby said, naivety. But the things Steve believed in, the things he represented had power. There was a reason why she believed in that big lug, why she only _lightly_ teased Thor every time he spoke in that archaic way about being 'heroes'.

Funny. She'd have scoffed at those thoughts years back. Then again, no one believed as strongly as a convert.

"Come on," Nat rubbed the top of Ruby's head, getting a good-natured grumble. "Let's go over your sniping. You'll be better than me if you keep it up."

The bright and happy smile she got in response to that made Nat's day.

-

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

Jen and I hung out for a bit longer in the _Defiant_ after Nat and Ruby scared the hell out of me before we decided to go for a walk in the tower.

Which is a lot more interesting than you'd think. The Avengers Tower is one of the most advanced buildings in the world after all. Despite that, the hallways and rooms were mostly full of people going to work.

"It's funny, I never really think of Stark Industries as an actual business," Jen noted as we walked past a room with glass windows where people in cubicles were working. A few looked up at us, men and women alike, then back to their work. Apparently, even tall buxom Hulk women were old hat by now.

"Yeah, it's tough to remember that the company isn't just an Iron Man suit factory sometimes," I noted, the two of us striding past a security guard. "Or, you know, Avengers support."

"I guess it helps with selling things," Jen said with a shrug, the two of us turning into a random hallway, one of the lesser used ones. She opened a door for me and the two of us entered.

Then we both stopped. In the hallway in question, one I was pretty sure never really got used, two other people froze.

Creel was resting against the wall behind him, his shirt half off and his lips slightly bruised looking. Isabelle, whose hands hadn't moved from his chest, was looking at us with wide eyes, her lips still on Creel's neck. Her shirt was on the floor behind her, and Creel's right hand was in mid-fumble with her bra strap.

"Oh damn," I said, blinking.

The four of us stared at each other. Jen and Isabelle smirked. Creel and I blushed.

"Hey, Jenny," Isabelle pulled away from Creel, reaching down lazily for her shirt. I looked away from the image of a shirtless and ripped Creel standing next to a bra wearing Lucy Lawless look-alike.

"Hey, Izzy," Jen crossed her arms, still smirking. "Carl. So you two have been-"

"Since a little before Rio," Isabelle admitted easily, looking at Creel, who coughed awkwardly.

"Before Rio," I blinked, wondering why that tickled my memory. I also mentally grumbled at the fact pretty much every Avenger except me looked like a model in some way.

"Yeah," Creel rubbed the back of his neck, pulling his shirt on to cover himself while Isabelle put hers on. "It just sort of happened-"

"You mean I pulled you into my room after a workout," Isabelle said shamelessly, rolling her eyes. "I swear, you're lucky your hotness outweighs your shyness."

Creel smiled slightly, looking a bit calmer.

"You guys are lucky the Avengers don't have any bylaws against this kind of thing," Jen noted, shaking her head.

"Also, that you got caught making out early," I said, cocking my head. "Seriously, this is a random ass hallway, are you guys exhibitionists?"

"Now now, Mahmoud, no need to kink shame," Jen snarked.

"It's more a question of sanitation," I joked back. "Also, Creel, you're resting against a plaster wall! What if your powers activate in the middle of- Oh good lord!" I yelled mid-way when I realized Creel was blushing even further and Isabelle was laughing. "That's happened?!"

Jen busted out laughing. "Oh man, that is awesome! You have to tell me-"

"Nope!" I shouted, shaking my head. "No, we aren't doing that."

"Hey, if you want to keep things fresh," Isabelle teased. "Besides, Skye is the one who gave me the idea. You should hear what she says about the Omnitrix."

I swear, I must have unlocked Heatblast, because my face seemed to light on fire.

"I-I-I don't-" I stuttered.

"Awww, how cute!" Jen pulled at my cheek, chuckling. "You broke him."

"I know how he feels," Creel grumbled.

"Anyway, the mood is ruined now," Isabelle said, walking up to take Jen by the arm. "What are you two up to?"

"Just hanging out," Jen answered for me, since I was avoiding looking at anyone.

"Well come by the apartment! We can hang out together!" Isabelle said, smiling up at Jen as they both started walking.

I shook my head, sighing, then chuckling a bit, Creel walking up with a look of chagrin. "Hey man, that's cool. You and Isabelle. Congrats."

"Er, thanks," he said, seeming to regain his confidence. "Honestly, I'm not sure what we are yet, but, uh… it's nice."

"I'll bet," I said, quirking an eyebrow. "You have lipstick on your neck."

He frantically rubbed at it while I came to a realization. "That day, when we were heading to Rio… you and her were together. And you smelled..." Creel winced. I scowled. "Dude, I am never giving you a ride again."

"Hey, come on!" Isabelle called back.

Creel and I followed until we were about a step behind our fellow Avengers. "Seriously dude, sorry I interrupted."

"Nah, you're good," Creel shrugged. Now that he'd calmed down he seemed almost proud, and really happy. When Isabelle gave him a smile over her shoulder, he seemed to walk a little straighter. "It'll be nice to hang out, to be honest. If I wasn't with you guys, I'd end up just walking around the city trying to find some trouble. And Izzy keeps telling me I need to relax."

"Huh," I looked up at my friend. "Well, if it goes that far, let me know so-"

"Yeah, I know, so I can find something smarter to do," Creel sighed sadly.

"No, so I can help you," I said, not having considered the other possibility. "I mean, we can also invite the others."

"..." Creel clasped my shoulder as we walked. "Thanks, Dial."

"No problem, bro."

"But just to let you know. When you have powers? Girls will have thoughts about them," Creel said, sounding somehow both haunted and happy. " **Thoughts.** "

"..."

All in all I had a good day with my friends.

-

 _April 26th, 2014_

 ** _Bruce Banner/Hulk_**

As the morning sun rose slowly over New York City, Bruce and Thor watched a quinjet made its way into the hanger of Avengers Tower, both men dressed in casual clothes, with Thor having removed his armor in favor of a blue hoodie and a brown jacket, and Bruce wearing a black shirt displaying Mjölnir prominently in silver.

Thor looked down at his friend and stared at Bruce's shirt. Bruce sighed.

"Don't start," Bruce said.

"I wasn't going to," Thor added.

"Look, Tony replaced my wardrobe in the tower with Avenger's merchandise. It was this or Natasha."

"Well, I'm flattered," Thor said with a dopey grin. "Mjölnir really makes your chest pop."

"Yeah, well you look homeless," Bruce returned with a scowl.

Thor blinked, looking down at his clothes. "Really? I think I look rather good."

"You look like your seconds away from telling me the bird-men are attacking."

"I'm not sure the Aeriens have any need to assault Midgard."

"...What."

Before Bruce could dig further into that, the quinjet landed in front of them. Bruce and Thor walked forward as the back door of the jet opened up, revealing those within. Bruce and Thor took a simultaneous deep breath. That breath was knocked out when the two within were revealed.

Betty Ross stood on the right. Bruce panned her up and down, noting her hair was shorter now, and she was wearing glasses. She was staring at him, those blue eyes so deep. He was staring too. He couldn't help it. Hulk growled inside of him, a soft and fond growl.

"...hey," she said, her voice so soft.

"Hey," Bruce said, his voice cracking a bit. He stepped close, into almost too intimate range. She took in a deep breath, not seeming to mind his closeness.

Thor, in the meantime, got punched in the face. He blinked, looking down at his attacker while Betty and Bruce gave her a look of surprise.

"Damn, Jane, you gotta hell of a left," Bruce looked at the speaker, a young woman wearing a beanie, with long dark hair and a bright smile.

"Yes, she does," Thor said with a sad smile.

"Darcy, don't talk," Jane Foster, the genius astrophysicist, said with a raised finger, the short woman particularly fierce looking. The young woman, Darcy apparently, simply raised her hands in a surrender gesture and stepped back. "And you. You are never leaving my sight again, do you hear me?" she said while pointing at Thor.

Thor only nodded, looking properly guilty. "I will do my utmost, Jane."

"Hey, uh," the group looked at the quinjet. Bruce felt something inside him die. Hulk, on the other hand, growled again. It was far less soft this time. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, Sammy, everything is fine," Darcy said with an eyeroll.

"Samson, actually," Leonard Samson stepped forward awkwardly, looking around at everyone. "Hey, Bruce."

"...Samson," Hulk said quietly.

Yeah. Maybe he should have invited Jen.

For a moment, everyone stood as a group, looking between each other. Jane looked at Thor, then at Bruce. Bruce eyed Samson. Samson swallowed fearfully. Darcy looked at Bruce.

"Hey, nice shirt!" she said cheerily.

Everyone looked down at Bruce's Mjölnir shirt. He blinked. "Oh, thank you."

"Yeah, Meow-Meow, love it!" Darcy said with a grin, punching Thor's arm playfully. Bruce blinked at the unorthodox way of pronouncing Mjolnir. "You should wear a Hulk shit, so you guys can be super-cute together."

"I will keep that in mind, Lady Darcy," Thor said happily. "I have missed you. Both of you."

"You didn't like it," Jane noted. "When people miss someone, they usually don't leave them. Twice."

Samson looked like he was about to say something. Bruce looked at him. Samson shut his mouth helplessly. Betty touched Bruce's arm gently, drawing his attention.

"Bruce," Betty looked around. "We've had a long flight. I think I speak for everyone, when I say I could use some breakfast?"

"Oh, yeah!" Darcy cheered. "You guys are rich now, right? Show us the sweet chow you've got!"

Jane nodded thoughtfully, sharing a look with Betty. Both women smiled.

"Uh, yeah," Bruce coughed into his hand, waving behind him. "Right this way."

He turned and led the way, trying not to look behind him at Samson and Betty. Why was he here? Were they still together? Did he even have a right to be mad if they were? When she said she'd wanted to invite someone, he had expected someone else, maybe Rick. Sure, Rick was currently busy with work elsewhere, but it would have been nice to see him.

But Samson? What did that mea-

A hand touched his arm. As he continued to walk, another hand joined it. A body pressed alongside him. A voice whispered in his ear.

"I missed you, Bruce," Betty said quietly.

She knew. And she choose to show him, in her own way, what she was here for. Maybe… maybe everything would be okay?

Why had he put this off for so long?

With that thought, he led the way, arm in arm with Betty.

Sitting down in the small room set aside for them all, at a table covered in a fancy cloth, they sat with Thor and Bruce on one side and their guests on the other. Notably, Betty and Jane sat side by side, with Darcy next to Jane, and Samson next to Darcy. A bunch of chefs took their orders. Thor, predictably, ordered a massive amount of food. Bruce ordered quite a bit as well, while the others got more reasonable amounts, though Darcy got the fanciest thing she could think of. ("Make sure it has gold flakes on it! I mean, it probably tastes gross, but I still want it!")

And then, they were sitting. Together. Just sitting.

"...You know-" Samson began to say.

"Know what?" Bruce interrupted quickly.

"...Well, I can tell we all have something we need to say to each other. Except for Mrs. Lewis, of course," Samson said calmly.

"Yeah, cause I never do anything wrong," Darcy said proudly while putting some silverware into her purse. When the others noted this, she rolled her eyes. "What, like Tony Stark can't afford more?"

Samson didn't seem to know what to say to that, so he coughed and continued. "In the interest of this, I think I'd like to start by apologizing. Bruce. I'm sorry."

Bruce didn't hide his surprise.

"When you came by, all those years ago… I called Ross. I told him where you were," Samson said. He was looking Bruce in the eyes. He flinched when those eyes turned green but kept speaking. "I thought I was protecting Betty, by doing that… No. I was jealous and I was looking for a way to push you out without blaming myself."

"Leonard," Betty said softly.

"It's true," Samson rubbed his face. "I may not have known about the Hulk. But I knew Betty loved you. And I knew that the best way to chase you away was to tell her father. Betty told me that Ross hated you. So, I told myself that you were suspicious enough to warrant a quick call," Samson took a deep, shuddering breath. "I'm sorry, Bruce. I-I'm so sorry. I should have done better. I should have-" He stopped, hands shaking. No one spoke.

Bruce stared at him. Samson was the reason Ross had found him at the college. He'd betrayed him. Because he'd loved the woman Bruce loved. Bruce clenched his fist. His veins begin to take an emerald shade, the Hulk within roaring.

Two hands landed on him. Bruce blinked, then looked at his right palm. Betty clenched it gently. When he looked at her, she gave him a supportive nod. Then he looked at Thor, who rested a hand on Bruce's shoulder. Thor smiled quickly.

"I understand how you feel, Bruce… but he is apologizing. He wishes to make amends," Thor said gently.

"You don't have to forgive him," Betty said softly. "But he came here today to say that to you. I just wanted you to hear it."

Bruce thought about that, looking at Samson. "...Samson. I don't think I can forgive you," Samson winced. "But I do understand," Bruce looked at Betty. "I… I really think I do."

Samson paused. Then he nodded. "That's more than I deserve."

"Man, these guys can get really heavy, right?" Darcy whispered to Jane, who nudged her with an elbow.

Bruce rubbed his head. "I have regrets of my own," he held Betty's hands in his own, finally looking her in the eyes. "I should have contacted you sooner. When I became an Avenger, when I was finally safe, I thought about seeing you again, inviting you here," he shook his head. "I think that I was scared. That this was all temporary," he clutched at her soft palms, rubbing a thumb on the back of her hands. "I've lost so much good in my life. I think I just thought of the Avengers as one more thing that would end. A home that wouldn't be safe for long. And as long as I didn't treat it like something permanent, it would hurt less to lose."

"Rather self-destructive thinking," Samson said. When everyone gave a look at the interruption, he chuckled guiltily. "Sorry. Therapist. I can't turn it off sometimes."

Bruce glared at Samson. Still, he was right. "Yeah. I guess I thought, that as long as I didn't make a real home, as long as I didn't try to make it work, that it would hurt less when it wouldn't."

"Bruce," Betty sighed, patting his cheek. "You idiot. Things were never going to be perfect. But you think that I'm not willing to fight to make them better," she shook her head. "You absolute idiot."

He smirked. "I have seven PHD's."

"And none of them helped you here," she teased.

"Heavy," Darcy whispered loudly, getting another elbow from Jane.

"I suppose, it is my turn?" Thor asked.

Betty blinked. "Well, we weren't exactly taking turns-"

"Lady Jane. I have none of the justifications Banner has," Thor's mouth twisted downwards, his brow furrowed. "I spent much time after our last meeting traveling the stars on the orders of my father. In fact, I haven't visited Asgard in months, due to the many missions he gave me and… and the personal sorrows I faced while there," Jane, from the look on her face, seemed to understand. "But, according to the great scholar, Doctor Phil-"

"Oh no," Samson mumbled in the background.

"Being busy is not a good reason not to focus on a relationship," Thor said firmly and almost too loudly. "I will continue my work. But now, my true focus will be a life with you."

"...I want to break up," Jane squeaked.

Everyone was quiet for a bit.

"Okay, that came out wrong," Jane squeaked again. "It's not that I want to break up."

"But, you said-" Thor stumbled slightly in his seat, face twisted and worried.

"I mean, we might have to? I mean, you've said all this before!"

"But, this time, I mean-" Thor looked at Bruce, who had no answers for him.

"I'm so happy to see you and be with you, don't get me wrong," Jane said quickly. "But I feel like that every time, and then you'll just leave for months without telling me, or even contacting me-"

"Well, you could always contact me through this, 'e-mail', everyone tells me of!"

"You don't have a computer!" she yelled, slamming her fists on the table.

Thor leaned back in his seat, eyes wide. Jane stared at him, breathing hard.

"...I'm sorry," Thor said weakly.

"I know you are," Jane said, her voice raw. "But I'm tired of you being 'sorry'. I just want you to be better."

Thor didn't seem to know what to say to that. Jane sighed.

"Man, I really thought a table of nerds would end up being boring to listen to," Darcy said, looking around. "Seriously, you're all sorry, you're all trying to stay together. Just stay together, talk about nerd stuff."

"Darcy!" Jane scowled at her intern.

"Hey, I'm just saying, it's been a whole five minutes since you started talking about the conver-whatever," Darcy said with a shrug.

"The Convergence," Jane, Thor, Bruce, and Betty said in unison.

"Yeah, that… what was it, again?" Darcy asked curiously. "Seriously, I was there, and I still don't get what was happening."

"The Nine Realms were in alignment," Thor said immediately. "It made the boundaries thin between them, allowing passage between worlds."

"Yeah, still not getting it," Darcy said, pursing her lips.

"Basically, the Nine Realms are worlds that are connected by a massively powerful connecting force, energy flowing between them," Jane explained.

"Wait, why those worlds specifically?" Bruce asked.

"We don't know yet," Jane admitted. "So far, all I have are theories. What I do know is that the border between those worlds have yet to close completely, and Rio may have something to do with that."

"Rio," Thor rubbed his chin. "That could explain Ulik."

"Wait, so, the Convergence caused those worlds to connect to ours?" Betty asked, eyes lighting up. "But if we could somehow replicate that, maybe point it at worlds other than the Nine Realms-"

"We could have instantaneous travel between worlds like Asgardians!" Bruce said excitedly.

"Not entirely," Thor intruded. "While I don't have intimate knowledge of the Rainbow Bridge, I do know that it requires the connection the Yggdrasil provides to function at peak capacity."

"It might not!" Jane reached into her bag and pulled out a series of folders, passing them to Betty and Bruce excitedly. "I've been doing research for months, and if you look here-"

"Wait, this looks like something I recognize from the Tesseract!" Bruce said excitedly. "Look, Betty!"

"You're right!" Betty said excitedly.

"Lady Jane," Thor intruded, pulling a paper out of the pile. "I recognize something like this in my father's notes!"

"Then I'm on the right track?!" Jane replied.

As the four began to speak at a faster and faster frequency, Darcy leaned over to Samson smugly. "Who's the therapist now?"

"Still me," Samson said with a raised eyebrow.

Darcy leaned back and eyed Samson for a moment. "You're a real buzzkill, you know that?"

-

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

Standing in Tony's personal lab, I watched on a screen as Jane, Thor, Betty, and Bruce began to talk about science I could barely understand. I mean, I could understand how Jane, Betty, and Bruce could devolve (or evolve in this case) into science discussion, but apparently Thor, despite his lack of scientific background, was just knowledgeable enough in the standard science of the super-advanced Asgardians to contribute.

"So I guess this isn't as 'juicy' as you were hoping," I said sarcastically. I turned to Tony, who'd been the one to set up the spycams.

"Yeah, maybe not," Tony said, frantically writing notes as he listened intently to the conversation, his notepad full of equations. "Now shut up, I'm sciencing."

-  
 _Author's Note:_ Okay. Stuff that is happening. Dial is obsessing over his pet project, Creel and Isabelle are doing some weird stuff in the tower halls, and Bruce and Thor are having a nice unawkward dinner while Tony and Dial creep on them.

But man, how about that party! When party!?


	66. EXECUTE CHAPTER 66

_April 26, 2014_

 _ **Bruce Banner/Hulk**_

In the middle of their discussion, the food arrived. They stopped as the waiters and waitresses put the food in question on the tables in front of them. Once it was placed, an awkward silence took over, everyone digging in, though Darcy complained a bit. ("This gold is tasteless, why do rich people eat it?!") Still, there was a tension in the room now.

They continued to eat in silence for a moment longer.

"..."

"..."

"It's good," Thor said after a moment. "Good food."

"...Another?" Jane asked hesitantly.

Thor looked startled, then smiled. Jane and Darcy smiled back. Jane and Thor's eyes met. Their smiles became a bit forced, then faded away as they went back to eating.

Bruce took another bite. Mentally, he couldn't help but wonder at how he'd assumed this would be easier for Thor.

"I, um," Bruce looked over at Betty, who had a smudge of sauce on her chin. "I still have the orchid."

He thought immediately of the flower in question. An orchid he'd sent her from South America. One she'd grown with painstaking care in her home, despite the fact that everything stood against that orchid. The climate was wrong, the soil was wrong, the air was wrong. And yet, she'd still managed to grow it anyway, turning the small shoot he'd sent her into a full plant.

"You're incredible," he blurted out.

Betty smiled. "I'm a biologist, remember? I'm good at keeping things alive."

He wanted to kiss her. So did Hulk, which was a bit awkward. He held back. Not the time, nor the place. Still, he couldn't stop the smile that filled his face.

Samson awkwardly looked down at his meal.

"Jane," Thor said suddenly. When she looked up at him, he sighed. "Would you like to go for a walk with me, when this meal is over?"

"I think that would be best," Jane said.

"Good," Thor didn't relax so much as firm himself.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

"Well now this isn't fun anymore," Tony said with a sigh, crossing his arms. "I wanted fun awkward, not harsh awkward."

"All awkward is harsh awkward," I said, feeling a bit of that myself. "Tony, we really shouldn't be watching this, man."

"We? Fanboy, you're the one still standing here next to me. You could always leave," he pointed out.

I winced. "I mean..."

It was _Betty Ross_. And _Jane Foster_. And _Leonard Samson_. Not just big characters in the comics, but superheroes in their own right! I mean, if you thought about it, this was a meal between three different Hulks and two different Thors!

Well, and their random friend Kat Dennings from the show _2 Broke Girls_. Actually, they all fit the weird rule of this universe of being played by famous celebrities. Betty looked like Liv Tyler, Jane was a dead ringer for Natalie Portman (got to be careful about sand around her), and Samson looked like one of the parents from Modern Family.

Honestly, who knew my pop culture knowledge would be useful beyond the Marvel Universe stuff?

"Okay, turning it off," Tony shut off the screen, drawing my attention. "What's up kid?"

"Just looking in on the projects," I said, crossing my arms. "I wanted to ask for some help with one in particular. Project: Star."

"Spaceships?" Tony rubbed his chin. "What, there aren't there enough problems on Earth for you, so you want to go out and find some more?"

"I want to go out and _stop_ some more."

"Depending on what you run into, finding problems for Earth and stopping them might end up being the same thing," Tony leaned back in his chair as he spoke. "I get what you're saying though. I gotta admit, I'm getting damn tired of being reactive to the bad guys..." he eyed me for a moment. It was a little unsettling, and I was half relieved when he spoke again. "We've got a lot of balls in the air. BRIDGE, the armors, ULTRON-"

"I told you we can't call it that," I said, annoyed.

"Yeah, whatever," he rolled his eyes. "But you're right. Sitting down and focusing on one thing at a time could be good for us. But why a new _Defiant_?"

To that, I simply waved an arm. It takes time to get used to the holo-screens in Tony's lab and learning how to use them, but I'd taken enough lessons that I was able to bring a floating blue screen in front of me. With some more taps at the screen, eventually I got a set of files up. By then, he'd already figured out what I was looking for.

"Like I said. Project: Star."

"Dumb name."

"I won't argue that, 'Iron Man'," I said with a raised eyebrow.

"Damn it, SHIELD were the ones who came up with that, and it's catchy, _Dial_ " Tony said with a grumble.

"But you get what I mean," I brought up the files. "When I combined with the dimensional viewer, I got a good look at the threats that existed in the other universes connected to this one. But we don't know if they exist here, or what level of threat we face. I'd like to make a ship to scout things out. To head out there and make a connection with the rest of the universe, and if need be-"

"Take out threats before they show up on our doorstep," Tony said slowly. "Gotta be honest, it would be nice if our next visitors were nice enough to ask before they showed up to get their asses kicked."

"Or if they got their asses kicked before that," I said in agreement.

"It's a good idea," Tony said. "What's the catch?"

"I can't make the ship as Jury Rigg or Upgrade. Or at least, I need the most important systems on it to be entirely made without my aliens helping me cheat."

"Why?"

I explained what I'd told to Jen before, that I needed a ship that, while it did incorporate advanced technology, could also be repaired and operated by human hands.

Tony listened to my explanation before replying. "Okay, yeah. Plus, Jury Rigg might add something that turns everyone into clones of each other at midnight, right?"

"...Yeah."

"Yeah, makes sense," Tony smirked, then crossed his arms to think. "Okay. A spaceship. What are we thinking, something big enough for the whole team?" I nodded. "Needs oxygen, food, atmospheric protection, beyond light-speed of course-"

Suddenly the Omnitrix beeped, a voice coming from it. "Sir?"

"X?" I blinked at the watch, raising it to my face. Thank god I'd figured out how to use the Omnitrix as a communicator a long time ago, or I might have had to use my smartphone as an _actual_ phone (shudder). "What's up?"

"Director Maria Hill would like me to remind you of your meeting with Prince T'Challa," he said politely. "Might be best to skedaddle soon or you'll be late."

"Again, why is he southern?" Tony asked.

"Because he decided to be, I guess?" I shrugged. "Honestly, I don't question good things, man."

"Should be British," Tony mumbled to himself. "Okay, I'll get this written up. As long as we find a good balance, I think this can work. Go meet your Prince Charming."

"Why do you have to make it weird?" I said with a cringe.

"Hey, you're moving up in the world man, lots of people want to date a prince," he snarked. "While you're at it, can you ask him if I can meet his sister?"

"...I think Pepper would be mad if I did. Plus, she's underage," I said with real confusion.

He went green. "Oh come on! That's not what I meant, she's a scientist!"

"Well chose the order of your sentences better!"

When I walked into the conference room set aside for our meeting, T'Challa was dressed in casual clothes, a black sweater,and blue jeans, and was frowning severely at a tablet in his hands. He looked up and gave me a smile when I entered, though it didn't seem to reach his eyes.

"Hey, T'Challa," I said, not geeking out at the sight of the _Black Panther_ in front of me at all. I seriously needed to get used to meeting superheroes. "How's it been?"

"A mixture of good and bad to be honest my friend," he gestured to the seat next to him, which I took. Once we were both sat comfortably he spoke. "Klaue has escaped."

"...Goddamnit," I nearly snarled. "What happened?"

"We don't know," T'Challa was a lot better at snarling than I was. "He was to do menial labor up until the date of execution, to prevent him from being comfortable during his stay. He somehow managed to get help from the outside, and two of our guards are now dead," when he got to the guards, his voice became pained. He tried to keep his stoicism but it was clear those deaths hurt.

"Forensics, cameras, what did you get?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"Cameras and other security measures were shut off. We were somehow hacked, which means-"

"Crazy as fuck advanced tech," I finished.

"Not how I would have put it, but yes," T'Challa said wryly. "Once the cameras were down, a wall was broken through."

"A wall?"

"Whoever helped Klaue escape had tunneled into the prison."

"What the hell?" I asked, shocked.

"Indeed. The only thing we found of those who aided him was some synthetic materials we couldn't recognize that self-destructed."

"...So they found Klaue, knew where he was in Wakanda despite all your security, [i]tunneled[/i] to one of the most secure prison on the planet that isn't straight magical, did all of that without firewalls, seismographs, or just, you know, [i]anything[/i] stopping them?" I asked, aghast. "What about the Panther's Trail?"

In response, he took it out and rested it on the table. The device I'd made specifically to track Klaue was dark. I tapped at it. Yeah, nothing.

"Well, we're in trouble," I admitted.

Klaue was just a weapons dealer. A good one, sure, one who had vibranium at one time. But all of this effort for him? Who could do this, circumnavigate Wakandan tech, and leave so little a trace that even alien Jury Rigged technology got nothing? What did they need him for?

"None of Klaue's former allies have this sort of capability," T'Challa noted.

"No[i] one[/i] has this sort of capability except for maybe… no, if HYDRA knew about Wakanda, and they could do this, Klaue wasn't going to be their target," I mused. "Not when they could have snuck into the mountain itself."

"So this is someone we don't know," T'Challa agreed.

"I hope not," I crossed my arms. "We've got enough enemies. I could do with more friends instead. In the meantime," I grabbed the Panther's Trail, tossing it up and down in my palm. "I'm going to work on fixing this thing in the meantime. If it's not broken, I can find out what is stopping it. We [i]will[/i] find Klaue. I promise."

"Thank you, my friend," T'Challa said seriously. He leaned back in his seat. "In the meantime, Wakanda and BRIDGE have begun negotiating, as you suggested to my father."

"Negotiating?" I asked curiously.

"A formality. We gave a proposal we knew would be refused, BRIDGE asks for more than they actually want," he waved a hand idly. "It's something we expected. In the meantime, a shipment of vibranium was prepared ahead of time, as well as some of our technology."

"...What's Wakanda's space program like these days?" I asked.

T'Challa quirked his head to the side curiously. "It isn't very advanced, as my people haven't been very interested in traveling beyond are borders. Still, we are well beyond current technology for most of the world."

Now wasn't that interesting.

 _ **Agent Phil Coulson/ Leader of SHIELD Team**_

Coulson waited in the cargo bay of the Bus as the plane began to land. Skye walked up to him, the young woman holding her laptop in one hand. "So… what is this place?"

"The Raft is a prison that has been developed for superhumans," Coulson said. "It's not quite finished-"

"Not a great call as superhuman prisons go," Skye noted.

He gave her a wry smile. "Well, it's complete enough to hold the prisoners it needs to. The Wendigo, Abomination, Aberration, they're all being held here. It's been in the works for a while, and BRIDGE was only recently given command of it."

"Got it," Skye looked at Coulson. "So… how you doing?"

"Conflicted," he admitted. "I'm pretty sure I haven't had a year as bad as this one in a while, and it isn't halfway over just yet."

Skye winced. "That bad, huh?"

He shrugged. "SHIELD collapsed, then got rebuilt, my ex found out I was alive, then dumped me, I had to kill someone I thought I could trust… on the plus side, we get better health coverage."

"You're, uh," Skye coughed, the young woman looking almost nervous. "You're being real candid right now."

"Am I?" he chuckled. "Yeah. I guess the death of a friend can cause that."

"Okay, yeah, you are being waaaay weird right now," she said with a worried look.

The Bus landed with a shudder, the door opening. Coulson looked at her. "I'm just trying to make the best of a bad situation."

He exited, leaving Skye to look after him.

Later, Coulson was guided by a BRIDGE prison guard through the dark hallways of the ship. "When did he do it?"

"About 22 hours ago, yesterday," the muscular woman said. "We had to wait to make sure of course, to make sure he wasn't faking as some sort of escape attempt. But as soon as we were sure, we sent out the report."

Coulson nodded slowly, keeping his thoughts hidden. Soon, they reached a pair of doors labeled 'Morgue'. Entering into them, Coulson and the guard were greeted by the sight of a woman in a lab coat waiting next to a table. The table had a body lying on top of it, covered by a blanket. The woman in the lab coat was short, overweight, and had a lollipop in her mouth.

"Agent Coulson," she said with a nod.

"Doctor Johansen."

"Barely," the woman said with a shrug. "I mostly work on dead people, and this is the first one we've gotten."

Coulson pulled the blanket off the face of the body on the table. He sucked in a breath at the sight of the man lying dead in front of him. "Well… Garrett was always breaking records."

John Garrett, formerly of SHIELD, later of HYDRA, had massive bruises around his throat. Other than that, he looked almost… peaceful.

"He was certainly determined," the doctor said. "I know he's superhuman, but he must have been crazy as well."

"He was noted to be… well, damaged," Coulson said.

"You kidding? The guy had to be next level," the lollipop in her lips moved around as she spoke. "He killed himself by grabbing his own neck and [i]breaking[/i] it. Seriously, I've never seen anything like that."

"Like I said. Always breaking records," Coulson joked darkly.

The guard and doctor didn't seem to know how to respond to that.

"You said his cell was covered in some sort of writing?" Coulson asked.

"Uh, yeah," the doctor turned around, grabbing a folder from another table nearby and handing it to him. "We didn't know what to make of it, wanted to know what you thought. I mean, we've had all our code experts working on it. He seemed to think it was important. Called it, the 'Words of Creation'."

"Poe-" Coulson stopped when he opened the folder, staring at the photo inside for a long second. "P-Poetic," he completed, raising the photo in his hands.

"Agent Coulson?" Doctor Johansen said.

"...I want as many of these photos as you can give me," Coulson said, hands shaking as he closed the folder.

"You think those writings are important?" the doctor asked.

"I don't know…" Coulson said.

He felt… elated. Energized. But he also felt, compelled. He was terrified, and he hid it as best as he could. His office on the Bus. That was what he needed. Just get back to Bus.

And find a knife.

 _ **Leopold Fitz**_

In the Bus's lab, Fitz was holding his scanner. He twisted it in his hands, turning it over, then back again.

It had been a long time since Dial had combined with the device as Upgrade. It was still incredibly advanced, and had the black and green circuitry coloration that Dial had given it.

He sighed, putting the scanner down on the table and staring at it thoughtfully.

The scanner was just one small part of an idea building in Fitz's mind. One that was almost painful to think about.

As he eyed the scanner, the young man spun it around on the table.

"Fitz?"

When he looked up, Simmons was standing there, a weak smile on her face. She walked around to look at the scanner as well. "What's wrong? Is it malfunctioning?"

"N-no, no, it's fine," he stuttered. "I'm just thinking. About Mr. Starks offer."

Simmons' lips thinned. "I have too."

"...The whole time we worked for SHIELD, I thought we'd be with Coulson forever," he said sadly. "And I still want to. But the chance to…"

"We can still work with Coulson," Simmons reminded him.

"But not as often," he said sadly. "And I loved doing work out there, finding new and strange technology, really testing my limits."

"We can still do that."

"But it won't be the same," he picked up the scanner, walking around the lab. "We won't have everyone."

"But we will!" Simmons walked up to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "We'll see them all the time! And we'll still be in BRIDGE."

"Coulson _needs_ us."

"Coulson does need us. Because of our expertise. But we can find someone good enough to replace us," she said simply. "Remember that Graveyard survivor, the recruit I've been tutoring, to make up for the time she lost while in the cell? She'd be a tremendous asset to Coulson's team."

"She does have the experience we need… And I know someone as well, an atomic researcher I know was recently looking for stimulating work," Fitz said with a little bit of reluctance. "But what-"

"We'll talk to them first," Simmons reassured him. "We'll let them know about it first."

Fitz opened his mouth only to find himself unable to speak. Simmons sighed, clutching his arm.

"I know Fitz. I know."

They stood there a moment longer.

Just then, Fitz felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He took it out and couldn't help a little smile at the name 'Chandler'. He picked it up with a look at Simmons.

"Hello Mr. Stark."

"Heya, Ross," Tony said on the other side. "I've got a proposal for ya."

As Tony began to speak, Fitz felt a sense of relief at being back on far more familiar ground.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

Later that night, I was in my kitchen eating cereal for dinner, a classic tradition. I was also reading a message from Skye, who had apparently visited the Raft. It turned out that this version of the Raft was in the middle of the Atlantic, rather than connected to Rikers. I was thinking of how to reply when my doorbell rang.

"Huh. X, help a brother out?"

"Of course, sir," X said over my apartments speakers. As he spoke, the door opened, allowing my visitor in.

I was real surprised when I realized who it was. "Ruby?"

The fourteen-year-old petite super-assassin looked at me, smirking slightly. She was wearing workout clothes as always. Seriously, she might as well as sleep in those clothes.

"You hear anything interesting when you were spying on me and Jen?" I snarked.

"Only that you're terrible with women," she snarked back easily.

"Hold on, if we're going to make fun of each other, let me just," I made a big show of squatting until I was the same height as her. "Okay, [i]now[/i] I can hear you. So, you were saying midget?"

She scowled. "I could kill you."

"You could try," I got back to my full height. "Seriously brat, what's up? Everything okay?"

"I-" she cut herself off, shuffling her feet. Almost like a nervous tic, she took out a knife from a pouch at her side and started twirling it in her palm while she took a moment to think. Once again, she somehow maintained a balance of terrifying and adorable. Terrible? No wait, that is a word. Adorafying.

She sighed, flipping the knife into the air and letting it fall back into the pouch at her side.

"Showoff," I teased lightly.

While she did look smug, she also seemed pleased. "Mahmoud, Natasha was telling me about this book yesterday. She said that I should read it. And I was going to, but I forgot. And I know you have those," she nodded toward the bookshelves that dominated my living room.

"Yeah, not going to ask how you know about my bookshelves when this is the first time I've let you in my room," I walked up to my shelves. "So what was the book?"

" _Hogfather_?" she said questioningly.

"Ah," I looked through my shelf. I didn't exactly have everything alphabetically ordered. My books were really just put together based on what worked best. So all of my Terry Pratchett novels were placed next to Neil Gaiman, with the novel _Good Omens_ in between those two. I quickly found the book in question and pulled it out. "That's a good one."

"...is this a Christmas book?" Ruby asked, taking the book with a confused look on her face, staring at the image of the Hogfather on his sleigh.

"Kinda. It's not _really_ that," I admitted. "Look its… okay, imagine a planet that is in the shape of a disc, and it rests on the back of four elephants who in turn rest on a turtle that flies through space."

"...so this is a book for little kids," she said with a hint of disgust.

"That's something little kids say," I raised an eyebrow. "Seriously, this is one of the best books ever written, by one of the most incredible writers who ever lived."

"It has a picture of Santa Claus on it!" she protested.

"Books and covers," I chided. "Look, how about this," I pointed at my couch. "Go ahead and read a few chapters. If you like it, you can borrow the book and read the rest. If not, just put it back on the shelf and have a good night."

She still looked doubtful.

"...Natasha liked the book."

It was a weak attempt to convince her, so I was surprised when she was suddenly sitting down on the couch with the book open, eyes scanning the page. I smiled and went over to finish up my cereal.

A few minutes in, Ruby called out to me.

"I like Susan."

I looked up at her. She was still reading.

"Can I ask why?"

"'Don't get afraid, get angry'," she quoted.

I grinned. "Yeah, that is an awesome line. You'll probably end up liking her a lot more by the end."

It was quiet for a bit.

"There's an Assassin's Guild?" she asked moments later.

"Yep."

I finished up my cereal and sent a message to Skye. As I did, Ruby let out a little noise and looked up at me.

"They want to [i]kill[/i] Santa Claus?"

"...Essentially yes."

"This is the best book ever!"

"...You're an odd kid."

Soon she seemed to get really involved in the book and stopped speaking.

When I went to sleep, she was still in my living room reading, so I left the lights on and made her a cup of tea, leaving a blanket nearby. I don't think she noticed.

"Goodnight, brat," I said affectionately.

"Goodnight," she returned absentmindedly.

 _April 27, 2014_

When I went into my living room the next morning, she was passed out on my couch, a book resting on the floor as she snored. I looked up at the tv, which was on and playing a very familiar movie. "X, was she up all night?"

"Yes, sir," he said. "She finished Hogfather and asked me to play the movie for her," I picked up the book on the floor.[i]Thud! [/i]was the title, with the image of a club about to hit a guy on the head.

"Teenagers," I said fondly. "With their books and their skills in assassination."

"A common trend," X said with just a trace of sarcasm.

 _April 29, 2014_

A couple of days after Ruby stayed over, I had the guys over again. The 'guys' being every male Avenger.

I was in the kitchen eating one of those popcorn snacks with chocolate and caramel drizzle, Creel making the world's biggest sandwich behind me. Hulk (and I do mean Hulk, not Bruce) was sat next to Thor.

"Have at thee!" Thor cried joyfully as he manipulated the video game controller in his hand.

 _ **"Hulk crush puny Thor!"**_ Hulk yelled back.

On the screen, a loud shout was followed by a crash of thunder as Bowser was sent flying by the tiny form of Pikachu.

"Yes!" Thor shouted, rising off the couch.

 _ **"NOOO!"**_ Hulk twisted his controller in anger.

A loud wrenching noise filled the air. I closed my eyes and sighed while Hulk blinked down at the controller in his hands.

 _ **"...Hulk sorry."**_

"It's all right buddy," I raised the Omnitrix and started flipping through the menu.

"Look, I promise, the heavy duty controller will be done soon," Tony said to me from the table we'd set up with more snacks. He was drinking with Rhodey.

"Yeah, yeah," I grumbled.

"Hey, it's better than I got when he destroyed my car," Rhodey noted.

"Uh, you still owe me for the time you started breaking my house," Tony replied.

" _You_ started breaking your house," Rhodey scoffed, ignoring me as I turned pressed down on the Omnitrix, turning into Upgrade and flowing past the two.

" _I_ started- no, you stole one of my suits! I defending my property!"

"You let me steal the suit, Mister 'Leave-the Arc-Reactor-In-the-Super-Suit."

"Okay, I'm just going to stop sharing my toys from now on," Tony declared.

"Whoa, hold on now-" Rhodey suddenly sounded worried, but I wasn't able to hear the rest of the conversation, simply flowing into Hulk's controller and beginning to fix it.

 _ **"Hulk sorry."**_

"Ah, don't worry about it, you big galoot," I told my giant friend.

"Thor," Creel said, walking by with his big sandwich. "I'm playing the next game."

"Then it is a challenge you want?" Thor said arrogantly.

"Well, you're mostly button mashing," Creel pointed out as I flowed out of Hulk's controller, leaving it repaired.

"Because I have no need of any other strategy!" Thor declared proudly, selecting Pikachu once again.

I ignored the squabbling trio in favor of heading out to my balcony in Upgrade form. Clint, Sam, Steve, and Bucky were leaning against the railing, looking out on New York City below.

"What's up?" I asked.

Clint turned to look at me, then did a double take. "Dude, warn us next time you sneak up on us as a giant blob monster!"

"Nah, it keeps you on your toes," I snarked, flowing over to take a spot. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Mostly how much New York has changed," Steve said, lifting a beer to his lips.

"Yeah," Bucky pointed down at the city. "Hell, that used to be a tiny ass park."

"An ass park?" I asked.

He gave me an annoyed look, though his eyes sparkled with amusement. "Very funny. But seriously, look at it."

I eyed the section of city he was pointing at, which was nothing but buildings.

"Gotta say," Sam said idly. "This really is a pretty city."

We stayed on the balcony talking for a little while before going inside again for an impromptu Super Smash Bros. tournament. To no one's surprise, Tony ended up winning, the brilliant bastard.

Then we watched _The Thing_ and Steve swore off beef. Not much else in April topped that.

 _Author's Note:_ Okay, so. Not much happened in this chapter, right? Well, except for Steve swearing off beef, which will last five seconds if we're honest.

I mean, I guess Garrett died. And T'Challa asked Dial to help him hunt Klaue. And Tony is helping Dial make a spaceship. And Ruby read a book.

Not much else.


	67. Chapter 67

**Party: 1 of 3**  
 _  
May 10, 2014_

As I got ready for the big party that Tony had spent all this time preparing, I knew for a fact something was wrong.

Nothing had happened. The Avengers hadn't been called in for another crisis and crime in the city had been at a low. Not gone, but still low enough that the one patrol I did had led to me stopping one mugging. I'd dropped down as Astrodactyl long enough for the screaming mugger to give up. Apparently, unlike the comic books, guys with guns give up quickly when a known Avenger drops in front of them.

I shouldn't have been out and about, but all I ended up doing otherwise was hanging out with the others, and some part of me wanted… I mean, I wanted to fight, you know? There's something so enjoyable about being an Omnitrix alien, being in a normal human form and suddenly feeling so much power. I'm not even sure Bruce understood the feeling of freedom I felt when I got the chance to suddenly become super-strong, or super-smart, or just made of bandages even.

Still, the point was that this 'vacation' had actually become a real vacation. None of us had to worry about any fighting to do, so it was up to us to decide how to spend our time. We came up with a few things to do. After all, while we were on vacation, there were a whole lot of things we could do to pass the time.

I put on a Hawkeye shirt as I thought back on everything that had happened the past bunch of days. Starting with meeting an old friend.

 _May 3, 2014_

"You absolute bastard!" a pair of massive arms wrapped around my waist as I was lifted up into a hug, spun around by a big laughing black man. "You're a superhero!"

"Kinda?" I gasped out. "Sammy. Air."

"Oh, sorry kid," he dropped me gently on the ground, giving me a look up and down. "Damn, what have you been eating? You've gotten buff."

I was surprised to realize he was right. I mean, being around the massive physical badasses that were Steve, Creel, and Thor meant I always had someone better to compare myself too, but looking between myself and Sammy, I'd actually gained more muscle in my arms than he had. I felt a lot of joy in that, knowing that working out with goddamn super soldiers was having a real effect.

"Thanks, man," I said while trying not to burst with pride. "So I guess you already know the big secret?"

"I think most of the world does," he said, looking me up and down still, looking almost dumbfounded. "Kid, you were a superhero all this time. Do you know how crazy that is to hear?"

"As crazy as hearing a woman actually wanted to marry you?" I teased.  
He scowled and playfully swiped at my head. I let the swat land on the back of my head with a grin. "Don't joke. Superhero or not, I'll still knock your block off."

"Nah, I'm a badass now," I snarked. Laughing a bit, I gestured behind me. "Come on, Sammy. I'll show you to my room," I led him through the halls. "How's everyone been, anyway?"

"Well," he seemed a bit awkward for some reason. "Union Allied kind of… laid us off."

"What," I said flatly.

"Yeah," he sighed. "They fired a whole bunch of us. Honestly, you got out right on time."

"Man… Sammy is there anything-"

"No," he cut me off. "Don't worry, we all found a way back on our feet, even sued them for some extra cash. And I don't mind not working for those jackasses anymore," he gave me a look. "Granted, not all of us landed as well as you did. These are some fancy digs."

"Hey, help fight HYDRA and you get all sorts of options," I said freely. "Honestly, I spend most of my time here training and getting ready for the next bad guy to try to kill me."

"That's fair," Sammy patted my back. "But I'm okay now. Working with Damage Control, actually."

"Damage Control," I mused. The BRIDGE branch (Formerly a SHIELD one) was dedicated to working on the clean up of superhuman conflict. After all, it kept any dangerous objects out of bad guy hands. Well, that and it made sure anything valuable stayed with BRIDGE. "How's that been?"

"Mostly the same work, honestly," Sammy said with a shrug. "I spent a week in Washington thanks to you though."

"What did I do?" I asked, honestly confused.

He chuckled. "They were still cleaning up pieces from that little scrap you and your friends had in the Triskelion! Did you really drop a mountain on top of the place?"

"A small one," I admitted. We got to my apartment, the door sliding open as we walked up to it. Sammy hesitated in surprise when that happened but he followed me in when I continued. I walked in and picked up a piece of paper sitting next to a large bottle. "Here you go," I said, passing Sammy the paper. "You, my friend, have an official invitation to Tony Stark's Avengers party on the tenth."

"Huh," he took the piece of paper. "Gold letters. Damn, that is fancy."

"It's fake," I told him. "I mean, Tony kind of hates the idea of wasting gold on anything that doesn't involve the word 'alloy' or 'bulletproof'."

"Tony, huh?" Sammy folded the invitation.

"Yep," I took the bottle off my counter and passed it to him. "And this is for Lauren."

"Oooooh yes!" he took a hold of the bottle. "Wait, you don't drink. How'd you know this was good scotch?"

"I cheated with a google search," I admitted freely.

"...Gotta say, this is a bit much, kid. I mean, the swanky digs, the expensive alcohol, becoming a superhero. All of this is a lot at once," he gave me a weird look. "I mean, have you _always_ had superpowers, since I met you?"

"For about a week before that," I said. "Before that, I got dropped into New York kinda empty-handed. Honestly, I was homeless before the Battle of the Triskelion."

"That explains a lot," Sammy mumbled.

"...Explains what?"

"Well, you never really invited anyone over to your place," Sammy said with a shrug, moving to sit at my counter. "I always thought you had a boyfriend you were ashamed to show us."

"If I was gay, I don't think I'd really care who knew," I said with a raised eyebrow. "In a better world, I wouldn't have to care at all. You want some water, coffee, or something?"

"I'll take the coffee if you've got it. And I wouldn't care either," Sammy watched me go to the small machine in my kitchen with a mug and pour out the coffee for him. "But hey, this is good. You've moved up in the world, kid."

"Yeah, mostly by punching my way up it," I put the coffee on the counter with creamer and sugar. "So, you and Lauren coming to the party?"

"Hell yeah, she's going to love this!" Sammy grinned as he put creamer into his coffee. "Lauren always wanted to go to a big party like this. Do uh, do I need a suit?"

 _May 10, 2014_

I looked down at my Hawkeye shirt with a little chuckle. Tony may like his suits but he wasn't really big on people wearing them if they didn't feel comfortable in them.

Granted, I hadn't just been inviting old friends to big ass parties. There had been some work things as well.

BRIDGE, on my advice, had moved some satellites over Antarctica and hired a group of people to start exploring, with a lot of people thinking I was crazy.  
Maria, of course, knew I wasn't, and the fact that a lot of the dinosaurs we found had clearly not come from the actual prehistoric era for science reasons, she figured it was worth a look. Savage Land, baby.

We made more tech, but it was slow going. Catom armor, as it turned out, had its limits. It could only do so much before it began to fall apart. It was advanced, sure, but the catoms could only follow so many complex orders before they started to glitch up. It was something we were working on. And while solid construction lacked catom versatility it was usually more durable as well. Not massively, but enough for it to make a difference in prolonged combat. So we were looking for ways to take that to the next level.

I, on the other hand, had another team working on a different step forward in technology.

 _May 5, 2014_

The hanger doors opened before us with extremely loud clanking noises. Fitz, Shuri, and I all winced at the immense screeching noise that eventually came out as the hanger doors continued to open.

"Sorry!" Tony shouted. "This place hasn't been used for a while!"

The four of us had flown out on a quinjet together to somewhere outside New York City, though still in viewing distance of the city. We could see it down the river from the facility we'd been taken too.

"You couldn't afford any WD-40?!" I shouted back over the loud noise.

"I never needed this place before!" Tony yelled back.

"My ears are going to pop!" Shuri said, covering her ears.

Shuri was interesting to meet. When I heard that T'Challa had a sister, I pictured Shuri from the comics, a self-assured woman with a certain dignity around her, Black Panther in the future, and a user of magic. Instead, she was a skinny teen with a bit of brattiness to her.

"Oh, quit complaining!" Tony grumbled as the hanger doors finally opened completely. He stepped through the doors, followed by us.

"What is all of this?" Fitz asked, looking around at all the crates and boxes covering the space around us.

"It's a Stark Industries warehouse, someplace my dad used to use to store his crap," Tony spun around in a circle. "As of right now? It's the new Avengers Research and Training Facility."

"Nice," I said with a grin.

"I thought so," Tony pointed at one part of the facility. "I figured that would be good for a shooting range. This floor space here will be good for building vehicles and mechs. What do you think, Princess?"

Shuri shrugged. "It is okay. A bit primitive."

"Everything is primitive compared to Wakanda," Fitz noted.

Shuri giggled at that. "Well yes, but I'll forgive you for that."

"Children, please," I said gently. "We'll all get a chance to make new stuff."

"Who are you, by the way?" Shuri asked curiously. "Are you a scientist?"

Before I could answer, Tony called out to me. "Mahmoud, over here!"

"Sometimes," I said in answer to Shuri as I lifted the watch and started flipping through the menu. "But today I'm here to do the heavy lifting."

With a push of the watch, my skin went from brown to red.

" _FOUR ARMS!"_

Shuri squeaked in surprise as Fitz stepped back. "Bloody hell!"

Standing at my full fourteen feet, I flexed all four arms and walked up to join Tony.

"That's Dial?!" Shuri shouted at Fitz in surprise.

"W-Well, yeah," Fitz said, watching as I lifted up a massive crate and moved it out of the way with little effort. "But I haven't seen him as Four Arms while I was this close before."

"Right there," Tony said. "Okay, now I got some junk that I brought over. This place needs power, lots of it, and we're going to make the best that money can cheat it's way to," he gestured to the center of the room. "Clear this out, and let's get started."

"D-Don't we need more people?" Fitz asked.

"They're on their way," Tony said, watching as I lifted four more six thousand pound crates, one for each hand, and moved them out of the way. "But until then, we have a one-man construction crew."

Tony turned and produced a tablet. "Now, Fitz and Shuri. Dial and I want your help with something very specific."

 _ **"Mostly me. I really want one. It's mostly coincidence that we need one,"**_ I said over the sound of crates slapping onto the ground. Seriously, I wanted a spaceship. Han Solo ain't got shit on me.

Taking the tablet, Shuri stared at the screen for a brief moment before passing it to Fitz. "A spaceship?"

"It's big," Fitz noted. "Not as big as a lot of modern planes, but big. And some of these features… we'll have to build them from scratch."

"No, we won't," Shuri said confidently. "Well, some of them, but I've actually done some work on a lot of it before, especially the shields."

"See, this is why I have you," Tony said fondly. "This is our first project."

" _And then we do Fitz's thing?"_ I asked, walking up to tower over the three of them. Seriously, Fitz barely reached my waist. " _Because Fitz's thing sounded fucking awesome."_

"What is Fitz's thing?" Shuri asked curiously.  
Fitz, by way of answer, took the tablet and switched to the file in question, showing it to her. She stared at it for a long moment.

"...All three of you are fans of eighties cartoons, aren't you?" Shuri said with a grin. When we all shuffled awkwardly, she laughed. "This is going to be great!"

"I hope so," Fitz said shyly. "I need some good news. Coulson's meeting with Hank Pym apparently didn't go very well."

 _May 4, 2014_

Coulson knocked the door on the house in front of him and stepped back next to May. They waited for a long moment before the door opened.

An older man, with long gray hair, glasses, and deep wrinkles glared at them.

"Mr. Pym?" Coulson asked. "I'm Agent Phil Coulson with-"

The door slammed shut with enough force to shake the house.

"...BRIDGE."

"It used to be called SHIELD!" Hank Pym yelled back through the door. "Now get the hell off my property!"

"...it's been a tough week," Coulson said with a sigh, turning and leaving as May gave him a worried look.

 _May 10, 2014_

Still, now it was party time. I shut off the lights of my apartment and headed out. On the way, Clint showed up wearing a leather jacket and a plaid shirt. He grinned at the sight of my shirt displaying his purple arrow symbol. "Nice choice."

"Thanks," I said with a chuckle. The two of us got into the elevator. "So, what do you think it's going to look like?"

"Probably pretty crazy," Clint said eagerly. "I mean, have you seen how much time Tony put into this?"

"I wouldn't know," I shrugged. "Seriously, I'm a nerd. I never really got into parties."

"Kid, this would be the biggest party of your life even if you had been into parties," Clint patted me on the back. "So, you bringing a date?"

"I'm bringing you," I joked.

"As sweet as that is, I don't swing that way," the doors opened. Clint and I stared out the doors. "Holy shit."

"Whoa."

In the massive section of floors that Tony had set up as recreation, was the party. There were people roaming around talking to each other. A massive screen took up the middle of the floor, with a group of people gathered around it while a light shone on the white space.

The heavenly smell of food came from an upper level set up in buffet style. Italian, Chinese, American, those crazy ass fusion foods that were becoming a thing. The bar was chock-full of alcohol, but there was also a section that was full of ice cream where some guy was making a milkshake for… was that Beyonce?

There was a lot going on really. People were hanging out in the pool outside (wait, did Tony have a _pool_ installed, or had I just missed it?), music was pumping from… was that a small stage? Damn, Tony had gone all out.

"Fanboy, Legolas!" Tony walked up to us with Pepper on his arm. "Guys, I'm a lover of late entrances, but this is a bit much."

"Late?" I asked, still turning my head to look at the _everything_. "Dude, the party wasn't supposed to start for thirty minutes!"

"Nah, that's the actual party, this is the pre-party," Tony said jokingly. The billionaire was wearing a suit that was, of course, perfectly tailored to fit him.

"Tony," Pepper said chidingly. When he returned with a grin she rolled her eyes before turning back to us. "Clint, Mahmoud, we're glad you came."

"Well, if I decide to leave early I do live nearby," I said with a grin.

Tony laughed. "Well, come on guys! Let's party!"

Moments later I was sitting next to Sammy, Lauren, Creel, Jen, and Skye. We clinked together our glasses with a cheer.

"Good to have you here!" I said to Lauren and Sammy.

Lauren was an older white woman with black hair going grey. She was a little overweight and had one of the warmest smiles I'd ever seen. She wore a simple purple dress and looked a little overwhelmed. "This is incredible, Mahmoud. Seriously," she chuckled. "I thought we'd get turned away at the door, to be honest."

"She's not kidding," Sammy said, holding his wife tighter to him. He was wearing a brown Air Force jacket with some patches on it from his time in the service and had a mug of beer in the hand that wasn't holding his wife. "Kid, thanks again for this."

"Hey, I'm just sorry I didn't invite you sooner," I said happily.

"So how did you meet?" Skye asked, taking a dainty sip of her martini. She sat next to me in a pink dress with a simple bangle on one arm.

"Well, that's a boring story," Sammy grunted. "I was working with Union Allied, breaking bricks for cash, and he got put on the same building as me. Kid had a mean swing with a sledgehammer."

"And I met him through my Sammy," Lauren said. The man in question gave her a kiss on the cheek, getting a blush from her.

"Like I said, boring," Sammy chuckled. "We didn't find out he was a superhero until there was footage of him on the news."

"Not boring," I said. "Dude, you had my back from the first day. I'm never going to forget that."

Sammy didn't seem to know how to feel about that. "A-Anyway, how about you guys? How'd you meet the kid?"

Jen chuckled. She was dressed to impress with a black dress, black gloves, and very high heels. "Well, I met him when he woke me up out of cryo-sleep after he saved my well-formed ass from HYDRA."

"I met him on a helicarrier while our bosses were turning SHIELD into BRIDGE," Skye added.

"See, mine's boring," Sammy joked. "How about you?"

The last was said to Creel. He was taking a swig of scotch and stopped for a moment. He cussed when his sudden stop poured a bit of the scotch on his black t-shirt.

"Ohhh, now that's a nice reaction," Jen teased, crossing one leg over the other.

"Yeah, what happened?" Skye asked with a nudge on my arm.

"Well, we met in a Best Buy," I said with a shrug.

"...And I was under HYDRA's control so," Creel said, rubbing the back of his neck. "We kinda got into a fight."

"And I kicked his ass," I said with a grin.

"Whoa, I won the second time!" Creel complained.

"Dude, check your facts, I beat you with Goop!"

"Yay, testosterone!" Skye said, waving her hands around in a fake cheer.

"Yeah, you two want to take this outside?" Jen teased.

"Anyway, that's how we met," Creel finished. "By destroying a small Best Buy."

"Lot more interesting than how anyone of us met him," Sammy toasted Creel. "So you win!"

"In his defense, I think most of my meetings were pretty calm affairs," I shrugged.

"Hey," Isabelle appeared, grabbing Creel by the shoulders. The brunette warrior was wearing a black tank-top and jeans. She pulled up at Creel. "Come on. I need a dance partner."

Creel chuckled as he was dragged away 'unwillingly'.

"Hey, you wanna…" Lauren asked Sammy.

"Yep," Sammy and Lauren rose up and headed to the dance floor as well.

"Have fun guys!" I said with a laugh. Then I turned to look at Jen and Skye.  
Who were both looking at me for some reason? "Uh… everything okay?"

Jen raised an eyebrow. Skye cocked her head to the side, looking between me and the dance floor for some reason.

Then Nat swooped in. "Come on!" she laughed, pulling at me and Skye. "Let's go dance! Jen, you too!"

"Whoa, I don't know how to-" I yelped, just in time to get pulled into a four-way dance-off. Which I absolutely lost.

 _Betty Ross/Scientist_

Betty sat arm in arm with Bruce at a couch set aside for them, Jane and Darcy sitting across from them. Bruce raised an eyebrow when a laughing Dial got dragged past them onto the dance floor by Jen, Skye, and Nat.

"She seems happy," Betty noted, watching as Jen laughed while shaking her hips to the music.

"Yeah, she does," Bruce sounded thoughtful. When Betty looked at him, Bruce had a small smile on his face.

"Well yeah, look at her," Darcy said in awe. "She's got such big-"

"Darcy!" Jane interrupted.

"What, they're bigger than mine, and have you seen my-"

"Okay!" Jane said very loudly, blushing. "My shameless intern aside, we were talking about your work in genetics?"

"We were?" Betty said.

"Yes, about the uh, the gamma gene?" Jane said. "I mean, I know I'm not a geneticist, but that sounds very interesting."

"Oh, it is," Bruce said, excited. "You see, all this time, we assumed that my version of the super-soldier serum, in combination with gamma radiation, was what caused my powers-"

"But we didn't take into account Bruce himself!" Betty cut him off excitedly.  
"You see, Bruce, Jen, and maybe more people have a gene that reacts to gamma radiation by _integrating_ it into his DNA."

"Is that why she's all… that?" Darcy waved at Jen, then made an hourglass shape with her hands. "Cause I could use that!"

"It's probably not that common," Jane said thoughtfully. "Otherwise there would be a lot of people who had the gene, or some variant of it."

Betty sneezed, despite no irritation coming to her nose. "A-Anyway, I've decided to join the team studying the gene."

"Which we'll both head," Bruce said proudly. Then he blushed. "Well, Betty will head it. I kind of have to play catch-up on the research."

"Still," she held Bruce's hand, relishing in having its warmth against her skin again. "This is going to be exciting! If we can find out more about the gene, maybe… we'll have to be careful. But we can do a lot of good in medicine with this."

"Man, you guys are doing a lot of different stuff around here," Darcy mused. She bumped Jane's arm. "Hey, you should take Tony's offer! Maybe he'll let you join this gene-thingy."

Jane eyed Darcy skeptically. "You realize I'm an astrophysicist? Right?"

Darcy frowned. "...Yeah?"

Jane sighed. "That means I have a specialty. I'm not exactly an expert in all forms of science."

Darcy frowned deeper. "Oh come on, all you geniuses say that, and then you guys start, like, hacking the Pentagon with a biology degree, or cure diseases with an engineering Ph.D.!"

"Tony has done stuff like that before," Bruce said weakly. "Figure out things, he doesn't have a specialty with a brief read.

Betty hid her laughter at the confused looks on Bruce and Jane's faces.

 _Mahmoud Schahed_

After Natasha, Jen, and Skye kicked my ass at dancing, I was drinking another milkshake, caramel this time, with Rhodey, Steve, and Maria.

"Wait, wait," Rhodey was saying while waving his arms, wearing a white suit jacket. "You're telling me you _stole_ the suit from the Smithsonian? Why didn't I know about that?"

"Where did you think he got it from?" I asked curiously.

"I don't know, I thought he had an extra!" Rhodey asked.

"I returned it," Steve protested. The First Avenger was wearing a leather jacket, which was apparently part of the dress code tonight. "And the curator said the suit is actually worth _more_ now!"

"You still kinda stole it, Boy Scout," Maria teased. The Director of BRIDGE had really let her hair down, wearing a long black dress and a hell of a nice gold necklace.

"It was mine in the first place," Steve grumbled while taking a drink.

"Wait, you can't get drunk, right?" I asked Steve. "So why…"

"Oh, this is one of those sweet ones," Steve said, gesturing at his peach-colored drink. "I like the taste."

"Huh, did not expect that," I admitted. Guess it made sense that if alcohol didn't affect you, you'd go for the delicious ones. Though that could have been my lack of experience talking.

"Hey," Sam came up to us in another leather jacket (seriously?) and grinned at us. "Gotta say, Tony really knows how to throw a party.

"Hell yeah he does," I agreed with another sip at my drink.

Sam smiled, but clearly had something else on his mind. He looked over at Maria, holding his hand out to her. "Hey… wanna dance?"

Maria smiled, handing Steve her drink as he stared between Sam and her with surprise. "Absolutely."

The pair walked away arm in arm while Rhodey, Steve, and I watched in surprise.

"I… did anyone see that coming?" I asked.

"I mean, I get why _you_ missed it, you're blinder than a bat when it comes to romance, but I did not see that coming," Rhodey said.

"Dude, what?" I asked Rhodey, surprised.

"I knew he'd been having lunch with her a lot," Steve had a wide and proud smile on his face as he watched them start to dance.

"No, we aren't rolling over this," I glared at Rhodey. "I'm blind as a bat to romance? Where did that-"

"My friends!" Thor came out of nowhere and rested an arm on Steve and I, almost sending me stumbling. "Come! They are about to arrive!"

"Thor, I don't have super strength!" I grunted under the weight of my Asgardian friend. He was wearing a brown suit jacket.

"Ah, my apologies," he rose up and pulled us along, Rhodey following. "But come, come!"

He pulled us through the crowd of people, ignoring the celebrities and political leaders trying to grab his attention.

Soon we were outside. Thor pulled us over to a section outside where if the stories he'd told us were true, he'd once done battle with Loki. Also, it was where Jane and Darcy were waiting.

"Hey guys!" Darcy said, eyeing Steve while wearing a black dress. "Oh wow."  
"Hello," Steve said kindly.  
"Helloooo," she said with a grin.

"Thor, why are we here?" Jane, who was dressed in a blue dress with a strange piece of armor, seemed as confused as we were.

"With the days of preparation, I was able to get in contact with them and let them know to come!" Thor said cheerily. "They will arrive so-"

A massive burst of light came down from the sky and slammed into the ground in front of us with immense force. I yelped, reaching for the Omnitrix, only for Thor to stop me with a grin. "They are here!"

The rainbow of colors stopped. And we all stared at the four people who appeared.

"My friends!" Thor stepped forward with his arms wide. "It is so good to see you all!"

As we watched him clasp hands with a massive guy with a giant beard, I shared a look with Steve. Apparently, Thor had invited Asgardians. And once again, some of them were played by celebrities I recognized.

"Everyone, come!" Thor brought us together and started introducing us.

First, was Sif, who gave us all a large smile. The beautiful Asgardian warrior wore a green dress and carried a sword on her hip.

The second was Volstagg, a massive and bearded man with bright red hair, a big belly, and a bigger laugh.

Then there was Fandral, who looked like the guy from _Chuck_ if he'd had a blonde beard and hair. The guy was giving Darcy a _very_ interested look, which she didn't seem to notice.

Hogun was next, a dour-faced Asian man with black hair in a top knot and a beard.

"It is most welcome to meet you all!" Volstagg cheered when the introductions were done. "Now, where is the beer?!"

"Over there," I said, pointing at the bar.

"Hello, milady," Fandral said to Darcy with a flirtatious smile.

"Sup, goatee!" Darcy replied cheerfully.

"Oh, you like it?" he asked cockily.

"Nah, it's kinda ugly," she ignored the way he seemed to gape at her for that.  
Hogun seemed to teleport over to a corner of the party while Sif walked up to us.

"It is most welcome to meet you, heroes of Midgard," she said to Steve and me.

"And it is a real honor to meet you, Lady Sif," I said with an Asgardian salute that Thor had taught me.

Steve did the same salute. "Thor has told us a lot about your battles."

"As he has yours, Lord Rogers, Lord Schahed," Sif said, returning the salutes with a benevolent smile.

"Come, friends," Thor laughed. He was generally a happy guy, but I could somehow tell he was even more excited than usual.

"No, the Allfather actually insisted we be allowed to come," Sif explained later as Steve and I grabbed some food with her. "I believed he would have yet another mission to send us on," she almost seemed annoyed at that. "But he seemed happy to let us go."

"You've been on a lot of missions, lately?" Steve asked, piling a small mountain of meat on his plate. Apparently, his decision to swear off meat after watching the _Thing_ had ended real fast.

"Indeed," Sif walked up to the Italian table and stared at the spaghetti.  
"...Midgard's cuisine seems to have changed in many ways. I remember it being simpler."

"Be a bit boring if we didn't change it up," I pointed out to the closest thing to Wonder Woman I'd met since Jen stepped out of a cryotube. "I recommend the pizza," I pointed to the culprit in question. "It probably doesn't compare to that… boar, that you guys eat-"

"Sæhrímnir?" Sif asked.

"But it's great!"

"I will take your advice," Sif took a couple of slices. As she did, I looked around at everyone else having a good time. Suddenly, an Iron Man suit walked into the room, carrying a massive Wii controller.

"What the hell?" I said, quirking my head to the side as I watched.

 _Bruce Banner/Hulk_

Bruce watched Tony walk up to him with the massive metal controller in his hands, the gamma expert feeling like he was somewhere between laughing and crying. "Tony-"

"Hey, no need to thank me!" Tony said from within the Iron Man armor. "I mean, Nintendo is partially owned by me, so this was easy…"

"Bruce, what is this?" Betty asked. He looked over at her. Betty was wearing a white dress that made her look absolutely gorgeous. But then, what didn't?

"Hey, I didn't put this screen up for no reason!" Tony teased. "Come on Bruce, bring him out!"

"I-is that safe?" Betty asked, shocked.

Deep inside, the Hulk stirred. Not in anger. He seemed… saddened.

Bruce felt firm. "Of course it is," he smiled at Betty. "Hulk is _good."_

With that, he began to grow. The shift from Bruce to Hulk felt almost gentle. He rose up, his armor beneath his clothes shifting to grow with him even as his cheap clothes ripped away. People pointed in awe and surprise while it happened. Betty did something amazing. She walked forward, holding his hands as he grew.

Standing at his full height, at last, he smiled down at Tony. " _Hulk is ready."_

"Nice!" Tony coughed into his hand. "Thor!"

"Yes!" Thor joined them happily, Volstagg following with two mugs of beer in his hands. "Volstagg my friend, you must play this game with us!"

"Of course, my liege!" Volstagg looked up at the Hulk. "My, you're a big one."

"Bruce?" Betty asked, worried.

" _Hulk,"_ Hulk corrected gently, leaning down to smile as gently as he could at her. " _Betty… play?"_

She was silent for a moment. Then she put a hand on his cheek. "O-Okay."

Hulk and Bruce wanted to kiss her. She beat them with a little peck to his much larger lips. Hulk blushed bright green.

"How come you don't act like that around me anymore?" Tony asked in the background as Pepper joined them.

"Maybe if you beat me in a game, I will," Pepper joked.

"Ah, finally this game has value," Tony replied, handing the massive controller to Hulk, who sat in the heavy-duty chair made for his enormous bulk, ignoring the people taking pictures of him. "All right folks, let's do this! I call Samus!"

"Pikachu!" Thor cheered.

" _Bowser!"_ Hulk added, giving Betty a smile. She seemed hesitant to smile back for a moment, but it reached her eyes when it did.

"Hmm," Volstagg to the controller handed to him. "I don't seem to understand how to… oh, I see, the little stick moves this around. Who are these-Oh now that is a mustache!" He cried happily. "I will take this, Wario, person!"

"Jane!" Thor called out as the fight began. "Come watch me in honorable battle!"

Jane, like many of those watching Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and Volstagg sit down for a game of Smash Bros, seemed in shock, but she walked up to join the group. "I uh, got next?"

"You play?" Thor asked, delighted.

"Well, I did in college," she said happily.

"Me too," Betty replied.

With that, the game was on.

 _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_

At that moment, I noticed two others walk in. I grinned. "Hey, Steve, hold this for me?"

He took my plate, letting me run along the upper floor toward the door on the lower floor. I leaped down from the upper level by hopping over the railing, landing in front of the two newest partiers to enter. "Matt, Foggy!"

"Jesus!" Foggy yelled in surprise when I landed.

"Hey, Mahmoud," Matt said laughing. "How are you?"

"Having a blast!" I chuckled, walking up to clasp Foggy's hand. "You guys are late!"

"Actually, we aren't," Foggy said while looking around. "I think you gave us the wrong time?"

"Yeah, probably Tony's idea of a joke," I said with a shrug.

"Matt, Foggy!" Jen leaped down from the upper level as well in a flutter of black cloth, her eyes alight with happiness. Foggy screeched in surprise again.

"W-Will you guys just take the stairs from now on?!" he shouted, panting. "For Matt's sake, I mean."

"I'm fine, actually," Matt said with a grin. "I can't get scared by people suddenly showing up, remember."

"Lucky bastard," Foggy mumbled.

Jen laughed, walking over to tower over us. "I'm glad you guys came. Come on, let's get drinks!"

"Is that the Hulk playing video games?" Foggy asked, dumbfounded.

"You get used to it," I said with a shrug.

We introduced Foggy and Matt to everyone, which took for freaking ever since there were SO many people here now. Then I had a bite to eat and walked away to see if I could enjoy the party without hanging out with people I actually knew.

That was a mistake, an amateur one as Tony would call it later. Soon I almost started to feel tapped out on so many people being around me. And it didn't help when some of them decided to corner me.

"Now son," the guy in a way too nice suit said with a slimy and charming smile.  
"I know, from your records, that you're an American."

"Born and raised," I said wearily.

"And as an American, I'm sure you want to help your country," he put a hand on my shoulder. "I just feel that you could do that much easier from _within_ the government."

"Dude, really not the time," I pushed his hand off.

"Oh, and when is it a good time to _save your country_ Mr… Khan?"

"Yeah, we're done here," I said immediately, rolling my eyes.

Schahed. Schahed. And yet, once again someone said Khan? This was like the fifth time...

 _Sam Wilson/Falcon_

"So we're surrounded, right?" Rhodey said, the pilot trying to seem nonchalant.  
"And HYDRA had been annoying as hell all day. Dial is somewhere inside the school as a giant wrestling tiger while Nat is fighting HYDRA guys on the ground. I'm up in the air, flying over the whole battlefield when two guys in that crap Chitauri armor try to sneak up on me. Problem is, four of their Centipede guys are rushing the quinjets, and no one noticed except me."

Sammy and Lauren made a suitably scared noise, while Sam and Maria tried not to act as though they hadn't heard the story a thousand times.

"I know, right?" Rhodey said. "Now, I'm trapped. Gotta choose someone to stop or we're in a whole new mess of trouble. Luckily, the suit is equipped with enough weapons to take on a whole country. So," Rhodey stopped to grab a drink from a passing waiter. "I turn off the repulsors right as the two Chitauri armored guys fly at me."

Lauren gasped. Sam shared a fond look with Maria, both hiding their good-natured exasperation with Rhodey.

"While they're floating over me, I shoot my repulsors above me, take them both out, one hand each!" Rhodey grinned. "Now, the repulsors send me falling even faster toward the ground, _but,"_ Rhodey raised a hand dramatically. "I knew the suit could take the landing. I slam into the ground right in the middle of the four Centipede guys and I say, 'need any help fellas?' They barely had time to run before I took them out."

Sammy guffawed while Lauren breathed a sigh of relief. Rhodey nodded in satisfaction, pleased with their reaction.

"'Need any help'..." Sammy mumbled with a chuckle, wiping a tear away. "Ah, man, Air Force sure has changed since my days."

"Well, the suit was only really a thing for me," Rhodey pointed out. "Air Force is still pretty much the same, just faster."

"Ha!" Sammy scoffed. "And what about the thief here?"

Sam blinked at Sammy pointed at him. "Me?"

"You see anyone else here stealing my name?" Sammy joked. Sam had enough time to be amused before Sammy continued. "Seriously, weren't you running around with those wings for a while?"

"Yeah. But it was mostly just Riley and me. The wings were experimental as hell."

"Seem to work just fine," Sammy grumbled. "Could have used them."

"Oh, you'd break your fool neck," Lauren said. Sammy grinned, hugging Lauren closer.

"Gotta say, you have a pretty good record from your time in the service," Maria said, sipping at her drink, moving the pineapple resting on the rim aside.

"You read my record?" Sammy asked, surprised.

"She does that to everyone," Rhodey rolled his eyes. "You superspies ever turn off that whole 'need to know' thing?"

"I'd be a pretty bad spy if I did," Maria teased. "But now, I had to look up everyone for this party. There's a couple of people I had to let in for political reasons, and some that just…" she eyed a group of giggling and already extremely drunk young men and women who looked as though they had just come out of their teens. "Seem to grow out of the floor at parties with any sort of alcohol."

"Ah, to be young again," Lauren sighed.

"Young again?" Sammy scoffed. "The second you did that, you'd finally leave me for a younger man. Surprised you don't go get one of these supermodels around here already, leave my broken old ass on the curb."

"Ah!" Lauren, scandalized, smacked Sammy on the chest, getting a peck on her blushing cheek for her trouble.

-  
 _  
Hogun of Vanaheim, Warrior of Asgard_

Hogun watched the men and women of Midgard revel happily with a sense of satisfaction. In truth, this was comparable to the tamer of Asgardian parties. Which was to Hogun's benefit. He loved his friends but they were far too boisterous for his liking at times.

He turned back to his drink, then looked up when someone walked up to join him.

"May I sit here?" the one-eyed man said.

Hogun thought about that for a long while. The man didn't seem to mind the wait. A good sign he was a man of patience. Finally, Hogun nodded. The man sat.

"You are Fury," Hogun said.

"And you are Hogun," Fury returned. "Thor speaks highly of you."

"He has… mixed, words about you," Hogun said honestly.

Fury smiled. "I don't blame him. My job and his don't exactly mix."

"Hm," Hogun took a sip of the beer. It was rather weak. Apparently, it was from somewhere called Germany, which had had a different name when he was last on Midgard. Of course, many Midgardian drinks were rather weak, more meant for children to sip. "I cannot blame you for your methods, as I do not know what you face."

"Rather understanding, as it goes," Fury leaned forward in his seat, swirling his alcohol. "Not going to join your friends?"

"I will. But I prefer quieter gatherings," Hogun gestured to those partying as Volstagg and Thor shouted at a screen full of colorful creatures, the Hulk cheering on Betty, who was biting her bottom lip in concentration while she played.

"I can understand that," Fury shrugged. "But for someone in my line of work, gatherings like this are a boon."

Hogun gave Fury a neutral look. In response, Fury pointed at a Midgardian in a suit. "You see him? He's gone to Steve and Mahmoud, spoken to them for a brief amount of time, then walked away. He's now going to Rhodey."

As the pair watched, the man, who rather reminded Hogun of a very slimy Loki, walked up to this, "Rhodey" apparently, with a smile. He spoke for a moment to Rhodey as Fury and Hogun watched. Rhodey seemed accommodating at first. Then he frowned. The slimy man seemed displeased with Rhodey's response and said something else. Rhodey, in response, turned and walked away.

"And if I know Rhodey," Fury said. "He's going to go to Stark, who will have the man removed."

As they watched, Rhodey did indeed walk up to Tony Stark, who was dancing with a red-haired woman. After a brief conversation, Tony scowled, and the red-headed woman seemed displeased as well.

Moments after that, several guards were escorting the man out.

"Who was he?" Hogun asked.

"A politician on the up and up who was invited on someone else's goodwill," Fury explained, turning back to Hogun. "Or so I thought. His aggressive attempt at recruitment makes me think there is more to this."

Hogun eyed Fury. "So you sat here to have a good view without being noticed yourself."

It wasn't a question.

"Two birds with one stone," Fury admitted. "I actually had a question. One that my boss wanted me to ask."

"A question?" Hogun asked.

Fury leaned in and spoke quietly.

-  
 _  
Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_

After that guy was driven off by Tony's bodyguards, Steve, Bucky, and Thor pulled me aside to introduce me to Steve's old war buddies. And I do mean _old_.

These guys were all WW2 vets, all in military dress, and all friendly badasses. They took me in immediately as one of their own, and Thor as well.

"So you helped our boy take the fight to HYDRA?" one of the guys asked. "Yeesh. Gotta say, Cap, I never expected those idiots to pop up again."

"Sure you don't have any more of whatever magic potion you three took to keep fighting?" one of them asked, nudging Bucky, who grinned happily. "I'd jump in to help you guys if you shared."

"Oh please!" another of the guys guffawed. "Your wife would kick your ass if you did that!"

"Not if I looked like when I was young again."

"You were uglier when you were younger, you stupid bastard!"

"Ah, fuck you!"

I found myself laughing helplessly while the old soldiers joked around.

"These guys are awesome," I said to Steve, who looked both happy and sad all at once.

"Yeah," he sighed. "There were a lot more of us… And a few guys I wish I could have met," when I gave him a confused look, he explained further. "It was a big war. And there were a lot of heroes on the front. Many are men and women I'd have wanted to meet."

"Anyone in particular," Thor asked.

Steve blinked, suddenly noticing that we all had our eyes on him, old and new alike. Sam, Rhodey, and Sammy came over right then. Sammy had apparently hit it off with his fellow Air Force recruits, getting a kick out of a young man named Sam becoming a superhero after being in the Air Force. They joined us quietly, however, looking over at Steve.

"...There's a lot of us who really deserve to stand here," Steve said slowly. "Men and women who fought alongside us. In the millennia before," Thor lowered his head. "The war I fought," Bucky nodded, while the old timers murmured. "And the wars of today," Sam, Sammy, Rhodey, and I straightened. "The list of names is long, with men like Audie Murphy, Desmond Doss, and Dum Dum Dugan, women like Nancy Wake, Aleda Lutz, Madeline Joyce. An innumerable list of names in a fight for all that we get to enjoy today," Steve gestured around himself. "I can never thank them, or you, enough. But I will always try."

"To old comrades," Thor said, holding out his tankard of beer. We all held up our various drinks and took a drink.

As I did, Sammy leaned over to me, my old coworker already a little drunk. "Does he always manage to-"

"Pull an inspiring speech out of his ass while being so sincere you can't really make fun of him for it?" I asked. When he nodded I grinned.

"Yes," Sam, Bucky, one of the old-timers, and I said in unison.

Sammy guffawed with laughter at that.

Then I once again made the mistake of separating from my group of friends, thus getting cornered.

"And that's what we can do," the blonde woman clutching tightly to my… parts, after she'd been whispering something out of a penthouse letter into my ear.

"...Weren't you just talking to Tony?" I asked, trying not to seem as… everything, as I was.

She pouted. "Oh, he's with that redhead."

AKA Pepper Potts, one of the richest and most powerful women on Earth. Who this person rubbing _very_ closely against me didn't recognize.

"So… I'm your fourth choice," when she gave me a confused look I explained. "I saw you talking to Steve and Thor."

She winced.

"Is this because I'm worth millions?" I asked without thinking, reaching for any semblance of logic for this sudden affection from a pretty woman I didn't know. When her eyes lit up, I sighed. "Okay, I'm done."

-  
 _  
Volstagg/The Valiant, Voluminous, Invincible, Fat_

"So! Volstagg, the greatest warrior of Asgard, had to defend his prince!" Volstagg barked, making sure to put the right amount of gravitas in this truly magnificent tale! "Now, I don't mind telling you, I feared for Thor's life. But with steely courage, intrepid spirit, and an ax, victory was ours!"  
 _  
"Good story,"_ Hulk, one of Thor's heroic Midgardian allies, said, clearly quite impressed, as he should have been!

"Thank you, my gigantic green friend!" Volstagg laughed. Then his character on the screen in front of them fell to his doom. "Damn you, Lady Ross!" he paled once he realized what he'd said. "I mean-"

Betty laughed, the image of her character, a Princess of some kind, danced in victory. "It's okay! We've all ragequit before, I'm not going to get mad."

Volstagg gulped, feeling harsh eyes on him as the Hulk growled. The Hulk stopped when Betty turned to look at him. "Hulk? I-I'd like to hear about your adventures."

Hulk froze. Volstagg took the opening immediately. "Yes! You must have been in many battles alongside the Avengers!"  
 _  
"...Hulk good at fighting."_

"I know," Betty said nothing else, just looking at him.  
 _  
"H-Hulk, fight HYDRA,"_ Hulk looked as though he was trying to find the words. " _Hulk fight Aber-Abera-Ab, gruagh!"_

"It's okay," Betty was a brave woman. She was clearly afraid, but she still reached out to put a hand on Hulk's knee. He calmed down, breathing in deep and harsh gulps of air. "Take it slow, Bruce."

For a moment, Volstagg was sure she'd made a mistake. Hulk's soft look at her became pure rage. Betty flinched.

Then Hulk hesitated. Calmed down, and gently moved his hand to clutch hers. He shook his head and huffed. " _Hulk fought HYDRA. Fought Blonsky and Girl Blonsky. Got stabbed."_

Volstagg laughed while Betty looked horrified. "Ah, truly the sign of a great battle!"  
 _  
"It hurt."_

"As well it should, hahaha!"

-  
 _  
Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_

"Dude!" I whispered to Creel, rushing over to him as he danced with Isabelle. They both turned to look at me. "Are you also getting weird people coming up to you out of nowhere?"

Creel grinned. "You too?"

When I looked at Isabelle she shrugged. "Hey, we're celebrities now. People are going to want something from all of us."

"Well it's freaking me out," I admitted freely.

"Hey, don't worry about it," Isabelle chuckled. "Carl, you mind if I go hang with Bobbi?" she nodded towards her tall blonde friend, who was laughing with Clint, the archer looking embarrassed.

"Sure," he got a smile and a kiss on the cheek from Isabelle. He gave her a smile back, then turned to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. "Come on man, I need a beer."

We sat outside on the railing a little later, both of us looking out at New York. I clinked my milkshake glass to his beer bottle.

"Cheers mate," I said, getting a grin in return. Looking out into the city, I sighed. "Man… I never saw myself here. Partying with the Avengers."

"...I always kinda hoped for something like this," he didn't look away from the city. "It's why I became a boxer. I mean… after I was in and out of prison, I figured being a boxer was a fast way to this shit," he gestured with his beer bottle at the party behind us.

"I guess that's pretty common for boxers," I mused.

He laughed sourly. "Yeah, that's me. Just a giant cliche."

"Dude, that's not what I-"

"I know," he cut me off. I looked over at him.

Creel. My massively ripped, bald, and superhuman ally. He looked so thoughtful. I was about to say something when he continued. "It's crazy, the places life takes you… I mean, with everything that happened… I thought my life was over. And now, I'm here man. I've got the city, the team, Isabelle has me."

"...I'm jealous, man," I admitted. "Sounds like everything is finally going your way."

"It's probably not," he chuckled. "But it's good man."

Damn. That was what had changed about Creel. He looked… at peace. Like someone who knew he was doing everything he could in life and was actually seeing good things come out of it. That was a far cry from his comic version. Or at least, the most common one _I_ knew about.

I grinned, looking back out the city.

"...How about you, man? How you doing?" Creel asked me.

"Me? Oh, I'm great," I said. "I'm at a party of the world's greatest superheroes. I mean, I've got some things I'm personally worried about," the thought of Uru knuckles filled my mind. I carefully didn't clench my fists. "But that can wait for later. Right now, I just want to have a good time."

"I hear that," he took another swig of his beer, then spun around to hop off the railing. "Speaking of which, let's go have some more fun. There's a hell of a party to get to."

"Now you're talking," I hopped down and followed him inside.

-  
 _Author's Note:_ Yeah. Part one of three. Because this party is most lit, most lit indeed my friends.

And, yeah, it's going to get a bit ridiculous, but hopefully in a fun way. Overall this whole thing was a chance for the characters and myself to just breath. To have some deep moments, sure, but also to screw around, mess with each other, just _be_ people for a bit. Hopefully, you guys had fun reading.


	68. Chapter 68

**Party: 2 of 3**

 ** _Foggy Nelson_**

"Jen," Foggy said to his fellow lawyer and superhuman friend. He tried his best not to enjoy what the _very_ sheer black gown she was wearing did for her figure. "Did the God of Thunder invite his fellow gods?"

Jen looked at Foggy, then at the two men he was staring at. "Who, Fandral and Volstagg?"

"Which is which?"

"Fandral is the pretty one."

"And once again, I die inside," Foggy teased.

Jen punched him lightly, which still made him want to cry at the pain, just a bit. "Dummy," she chuckled. "And Volstagg is the big one. Guess he took a break from getting his butt kicked at Smash Bros. I think the others are around somewhere."

Fandral was flirting with a waitress, the blonde and dashing Asgardian crooning to the blushing brunette. Volstagg was speaking very seriously with a bartender, who began pulling out drinks and offering them to the massive man.

"What would that make it, the fourth or fifth time today?" Matt asked, walking up to join them with a large smile on his face. "What are you guys talking about?"

"The gods in our midst," Foggy said. "Thor invited his friends."

"Well, that is his prerogative," Matt noted.

"Yeah… let's go meet them!" Foggy declared, moving forward immediately.

"Wait, what?" Matt asked.

"Come on!" Jen pulled at Matt's arm, dragging him along.

"Guys, I'm not sure if we should," Matt said wearily.

"Ah, live a little," Foggy chuckled.

He quickly slid alongside Volstagg, grinning up at the big man. "Hi there!"

Volstagg looked down at him. Foggy suddenly realized what a mistake this might have been. Volstagg was **big**. The Asgardian stared down at Foggy. Foggy gulped. Volstagg grinned.

"Good day, Midgardian! How do you fare this evening?!" Volstagg said. Boisterously. If Foggy could ever describe 'boisterous', then this man was the living embodiment.

"I fare pretty good!" Foggy said with a grin. "I'm Foggy Nelson, this is Jennifer Walters!" Jen nodded at Volstagg. "And this is Matt Murdock!" Matt took a seat with some difficulty, folding his cane up. "We're attorneys-at-law, and-"

"You are a servant of the devil?!" Volstagg asked, shocked. Foggy didn't even have time to be finished getting surprised as hell. "Thor told me of the evils your kind, the attorneys of Midgard, have caused!"

"Well, more like the best friend of the devil," Matt joked.

"I am not a servant of the devil," Foggy said very carefully, eyeing the suspicious superhuman. "We help people fight other attorneys if anything!" Volstagg didn't look convinced. He also looked very, very big. "And," Foggy pulled at Jen's arm, moving the amused green woman in front of him. "While my superstrong friend protects me, I'd like to explain why."

"Super-strong and beautiful," Fandral appeared out of nowhere, smiling confidently. "Milady, that dress is truly beautiful. It highlights your assets so well."

He made no attempt at hiding where his eyes went.

"Dude," Foggy said, sickened.

Jen rolled her eyes and placed a hand on Fandral's face, pushing him back. "Back up Robin Hood."

Fandral grinned, not the least dismayed.

"Please, do not judge my weedy friend overly harshly," Volstagg said, clapping his friend on the back with a loud boom of sound. "He does not have the gift of a strong and loving wife."

"Ah, but with one such as you, milady-" Fandral began to say to Jen.

Jen laughed, cutting him off. "Man, you really are a horndog."

"If that is an insult," Fandral smirked. "Then it is a shame that lips of such beauty turn even the most heated of words to cool breath on a scorching summer's day."

"Daaaaaaayum," Jen mumbled.

"But, if you wish me to stop, I will," Fandral said, leaning back. "I am not one to make a woman uncomfortable. Quite the opposite, in fact."

"I'll bet," Jen said with a smirk.

"So you are all friends?" Volstagg asked, confused. "I was led to believe Lady Walters was an Avenger?"

"I am," Jen said. "But I'm also a lawyer. We all work to help people in New York to understand the law."

"Help the helpless and do it for free!" Foggy crowed.

"Well, free for the people we help," Matt noted. "Mr. Schahed actually pays us quite a lot to have us do pro bono work for the city. We've been doing some small claims work mostly, but we're also planning to do some rather interesting work in superhuman law as it pertains for everything from damages to law enforcement."

"Ah," Volstagg nodded. "I understand."

"You do?" Fandral asked.

The bearded redhead froze. "...Well, no. B-But I get the gist!"

Foggy grinned. Huh. Volstagg was his kind of guy.

"So, what are you drinking?" Foggy asked.

"Bah!" Volstagg stared at his mug of beer. "Water, apparently! Midgardian beverages are so much weaker now."

Matt chuckled. "Well, considering that I can smell what you're drinking from here, that's quite a statement."

"Well, just look at it," Volstagg held the drink out to Matt.

Foggy and Jen winced. Matt just had the look of someone who was both amused and bit sad all at once.

"Sorry, uh," Foggy pulled the drink in Volstagg's hand down. "Matt is blind, actually."

Volstagg and Fandral stared at him, horrified. "Ah," Volstagg frowned. "If you don't mind, how-"

"Did it happen?" Matt finished.

Volstagg nodded.

"He uh, he nodded. Volstagg, I mean," Foggy explained. Volstagg looked confused, then cringed.

"Well," Matt leaned against the bar. "When I was a kid, about nine, maybe? I saw an old man standing in the street. A truck, uh, you know what that is?"

"Yes," Fandral answered, looking very serious.

"Well, a truck came barreling toward him. The driver, he had some sort of… Anyway, I jumped toward the old man, pushed him out of the way. And the truck's contents spilled off the truck when it crashed."

Foggy hated this story. Matt did too.

"And the contents it was carrying were caustic chemicals," Matt took off his glasses. "They got poured into my eyes. And the last thing I got to see was my dad looking down at me, terrified."

"...you never told me about that," Jen whispered.

"He never tells anyone that story," Foggy mumbled.

"I told you," Matt pointed out.

"After forever."

Matt didn't disagree.

"That is quite the story," Volstagg said. He sounded respectful. "The Allfather is sometimes called 'Odin One-Eye'. Long is the story told of how he gave up his eye for knowledge and vision beyond what he'd once had. For you to do the same with both your eyes, however unintentionally, to save a life is-"

"Heroic," Fandral lifted his glass. "A worthy feat, young man. I salute you."

"As do I! Come, Foggy, Son of Nel! Matt, son of Murdock!" Volstagg slapped the table. "Barkeep! Bring me-"

"Ah," Foggy stopped him. "Let me. I bet I can get you drunk."

"Oho?!" Volstagg grinned. "That would be quite the feat!"

"Trust me," Foggy stared at the wall of alcohol, eyeing it with more seriousness than it actually required. "I was raised in Hell's Kitchen. I know how to get drunk."

"Indeed?" Volstagg asked. "A daunting challenge, to survive Hel's Kitchen!"

"You have no idea."

"Hey, Foggy," Matt said, rising. "I'm gonna take a raincheck. But it was nice to meet you both."

"And you as well, Murdock," Volstagg said politely.

"As for me," Fandral chuckled. "Since the beautiful Lady Walters has politely rebuffed my advances, I shall try my luck elsewhere."

"Giving up so easy?" Jen teased.

"Well, if you want-"

Jen laughed. "I'm kidding. Go break some hearts, you gorgeous-assed man."

Fandral laughed, walking away.

"I, in the meantime, am going to drag my cousin to the dance floor. Later fellas!" Jen walked away and soon had the massive form of her cousin dancing with her and Betty Ross, the three laughing. With the booming laughter of the Hulk joining in with the rock band on stage, Foggy had a drink with Volstagg, a big grin on his face.

-  
 ** _  
Steve Rogers/Captain America_**

Steve watched the stage from a couch as he listened to the music, nodding his head up and down all the while, his arms stretched out as he relaxed. Something about the song, the lyrics, really resonated with him.

Sif, who had chosen him to hang out with, seemed just as enamored by the song.

The singer on stage was a young woman with red hair and clothes far more in line with what Steve was used to, with those playing the instruments behind her wearing similarly dated clothing. He wasn't sure how he felt about that… homesick, maybe.

Sif leaned over, drawing his attention. "This is quite good," she whispered to him. "Is such music common in Midgard?"

"It was in my time," Steve explained.

"Your time?" Sif seemed confused before realization dawned. "Oh yes, Thor has told me of your struggles," he winced. She had the grace to look apologetic. "My apologies. I… cannot say that I understand, entirely. To my people, the time you spent frozen is but a blink of an eye. But for you, it was-"

"A lifetime," Steve said.

"...You do not need them, I think, you do not seem a man in need of pity," Sif said. "But you do have my sympathies, Captain Rogers."

Steve eyed her. She simply looked back at him earnestly. He was about to speak when someone joined them.

"Enjoying yourself?" when Steve looked up, Coulson stood there in his usual professional suit.

"Phil!" Steve grinned.

"Son of Coul!" Sif added.

Steve and Sif looked at each other, surprised. "You know Phil/Son of Coul?" they asked each other.

Coulson chuckled a little self-consciously. He gestured to the seat next to Steve questioningly. Steve moved aside, giving him room. "I met Steve when he first became an Avenger, remember?" he said to Sif. When she let out a little noise of recognition, Coulson turned to Steve. "As for Sif, I helped her stop a rogue Asgardian, a woman by the name of Lorelei who was mind controlling men on Earth."

Ah, right. Steve had forgotten.

"And I once again thank you for your aid in that endeavor," Sif bowed slightly, getting a bow in return.

"So, how you liking the band?" Coulson asked the pair.

"I like them," Steve replied. "I mean, they're making me feel a little homesick, but the lyrics are different enough from music in my time that it doesn't hurt."

"Post-Modern Jukebox," Coulson said. When Steve and Sif looked confused, he explained. "That's the name of the group. They're a band that does more modern music in old school styles. I can send you a link to listen to them if you'd like?"

"Sure," Steve said, pleased.

"Hm. I wish I could partake as well," Sif mused.

"Well, whenever we finally get an internet cable to stretch to Asgard, remind me to send you the link," Coulson teased.

Sif laughed. "I will remember that, Son of Coul."

A loud sound brought their attention up. Fandral, Sif's blonde friend, was on the ground. Melinda May, a member of Coulson's team that Steve recognized as a damn good fighter, stood over the surprised Fandral with her arm outstretched. For a moment, everything got very tense.

Fandral's lips moved, though Steve couldn't hear it. Fandral was definitely smiling though.

After he spoke, May surprised everyone by smiling and laughing. She turned and walked away. Fandral didn't seem to mind, just rising up to his feet and chuckling while rubbing his chin with a wince.  
Coulson and Steve looked over at Sif, who was rubbing her forehead, eyes closed in annoyance. When she opened her eyes and saw them waiting for an explanation, she gave them the look people with embarrassing friends the world over always gave, sighing in annoyance.

In the meantime, the musicians on stage switched out. Soon, a large man was joined by a small group of bagpipers and men carrying traditional looking drums on their backs. The large man was Asian, wearing clothes of a traditional red design. He sat on a chair with a box-shaped string instrument and one of those long sticks used to play the violin.

The man began to sing, a haunting and booming song. Sif listened, fascinated, as the bagpipers and drummers joined in, and the man played his string instrument.

"His name is Batzorig Vaanchig," Coulson said simply. "A Mongolian throat singer. A carrier of an ancient tradition."

"I really must find some way of sharing the music of my people as well," Sif said quietly. "The music of Midgard is quite impressive now.

Coulson smiled as proudly as though he had made the music himself.

-  
 ** _  
Matt Murdock/Daredevil_**

Matt sighed as he finally found some room to himself. Maybe it had been a mistake to come here.

He thought it would be fine. He'd been to parties after all. Lots of them, actually. They took a bit to get used to, the combination of noises, scents, and flavors all floating on the air, but no more than a crowded park. Nothing he hadn't faced before.

Except, few of the parties he'd been at before had _so_ many superhumans. Scratch that, _none_ of the parties he'd been to had superhumans.

He could feel trace amounts of radiation from Hulk and Jen, massive amounts of power from Tony Stark's chest, the odd scent carried by the Asgardians, Mahmoud's strange scent that seemed to blend all the smells of his different aliens, as well as the strange way Mjolnir and the Omnitrix seemed to affect him.

Honest to god, these days Matt could sense Hulk, Jen, Thor, Tony, and Dial wherever they went. Well, it wasn't that bad actually, since he had to actually work for it most days, but it was still there.  
Someone walked up to him. Matt carefully didn't move, despite the person he sensed knowing about his 'unique' abilities.

"Hey there, sailor," Natasha said, joining him.

"Hey," Matt returned, turning to face his ear toward her. "Hell of a party."

"Well, it's weird, that's for sure," Natasha said, the sound of her face muscles indicating an upturning of her lips. Despite his powers, Natasha was always so _quiet._ She somehow required his full focus to track with his senses. Even Elektra hadn't been so elusive.

"I imagine so," Matt replied. "The uh, the party being weird, I mean."

Natasha chuckled. "Why so awkward, Mr. Murdock? I thought you had some experience with women."

"A little," Matt admitted, knowing full well Foggy would have laughed his ass off. "But I find myself a bit overwhelmed. Parties like this are hard for a man of my circumstances to go through, at times."

"Oh?" Natasha seemed intrigued, leaning toward him. "Now that is interesting."

"Is it?" Matt smirked. "You know, I have to say, I really thought a woman like you would be here with someone."

"You're not with me?" she teased.

His smirk deepened. "Depends on how you feel about it."

Her response was a little hum. He wished, for the millionth time in his life, that he had his vision back. Just to see her face.

"Do you," Matt coughed, straightening his back. "Do you want to dance?"

"Not really," she said. She laughed when he slumped, just the slightest bit. "I have the feeling you'd have to step on my shoes a few times, to save face. And I _like_ my shoes."  
Matt laughed, an honest laugh. "That's, that's fair. Mean, but fair."

"I'm a superhero now, mean but fair is how I live my life," she leaned towards him just a bit, crossing one leg behind the other. "How about we stay up here? And just talk."

Matt Murdock folded up his cane. He wasn't going anywhere for a bit.

-  
 ** _  
Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

"I don't like doing it!" Creel complained as we stood by the bar.

Skye, who had joined us a little bit ago, laughed. "Oh come on, you're gonna look awesome!"

"Yeah, you've got to do it at least once!" I agreed, having to shout over the music.

"It's _dumb_ ," Creel shook his head, looking bemused.

"You kidding? It's gonna be awesome!" I gestured to the golden vase we were standing next to, one of the many bits of bling that Tony had in the apartment.

Creel sighed. "...Okay, but just this once!"

"Yes!" Skye cheered as Creel took his shirt off. "Take it off, take it off!"

"Making this more awkward than it has to be," Creel grumbled to himself. He reached out for the golden vase. A second later, the color began to flow over his arms. People started to notice as the gold flowed across his abs, pecs, and bald head before going to the other arm.

Soon enough, Creel stood as a titan of pure gold, and the light shone against his skin. He grumbled slightly at the cheers that followed, though I could tell he was laughing on the inside.

"There is a joke about bling in here somewhere, I swear," I said, getting a laugh out of Creel. "Why do you hate being gold so much, anyway?"

"Because I'm weak and heavy as hell," Creel grumbled. "I can't _do_ anything like this."

"But you look amazing," Skye teased, taking a picture of him.

"Sure, I look awesome and changing feels great no matter what," Creel put his shirt back on while letting go of the transformation. "But gold is dumb. It's soft, it's heavy but not strong… I hate this form."

I thought of Walkatrout, the alien I hated most from Ben 10. The worst alien, worse than worst. Screw Walkatrout.

"I never thought of that," Skye noted.

"I mean, if I want to be useful bling," Creel reached into his pocket. Slowly, he began to shift again. When he was done, the man was made entirely of shiny diamond. He smiled at the looks on our faces as the light shone across his brilliant form.

"Diamondhead is better," I grumbled.

"Shh," Skye mumbled, taking another photo. "Don't ruin this."

-

Skye and I ended up alone a while later, Creel having gone to find Isabelle. Just me and Skye next to the bar. We looked at each other for a moment.

And I had no idea what to say.

"...Been awhile?" she said.

"Yeah, yeah, been a bit," I replied awkwardly. "Been busy, lately."

"Same," she ran a hand through her hair. "Been doing a lot, with Coulson and everything."

"That's nice."

"...You're not going to ask about it?"

I blinked. "I… I mean, I already know, since I read the reports from Coulson all the time. You guys haven't had any luck finding HYDRA or Ulik so far?"

"Uh, no," she admitted. She sighed sadly.

"...I'm sorry," I said at last.

"Me too," she mumbled. "I miss Trip."

I nodded. "Trip was always cool. Sharon too."

"It's just hard to enjoy this as much as I want to," Skye looked over at the party. "It feels like we're betraying them."

"We aren't!" I protested. "If we gave up on them, sure. But we aren't. We're just human. We've been fighting and working almost every day since January. If we didn't do this we'd just crap out. Lose our ability to  
help."

Skye spun to look at me, her pink dress flowing around her knees. She shook her head. "You say that. But I think you're trying to convince yourself, too."

I opened my mouth, then closed it, sighing. "That's… damn it."

"Yeah," Skye shook her head.

"...I was going to ask you out," I said finally. Skye looked over at me. "A while ago. But things just kept coming up."  
She smiled sadly. "You should have. I might have said yes."

"You want to go out with me?" I asked. "I mean, I can probably take you anywhere in the world. We could have dinner in China, then fly out to an island in the Pacific? I've got pull around here."

Skye smiled weakly. Which wasn't a good sign. She seemed to think about it for a while. Then Skye shook her head. That… damnit, that really hurt. "I want to. But I want to focus on my training, with May, Tony, my armor."

"You could train and go out with me at the same time?" I tried not to sound whiny, which we all know is the best way to end up sounding whiny and pathetic. I felt it, anyway.

"I can't," Skye sighed. "Last time I tried to do something like that, it was with Ward. And that didn't end well."

I leaned back, struck. She winced. "I-I didn't mean," she stammered. "I know you aren't Ward."

"I'm not," I said weakly.

"I just need time," she crossed her arms. "Sorry."

"It's fine… I mean, it's not," her turn to give a hurt look. "I'm being honest. It sucks. I understand. I get it. But it sucks."

"Sorry," she said.

"Me too," I rubbed the back of my neck. "Friends?"

Skye didn't seem satisfied with that, but she nodded anyway.

Damnit. Over a dozen superstrong aliens at my disposal and I still couldn't get the girl. Maybe it was selfish, but I very quickly got away from Skye after that. Just needed a bit. I went to the one guy who could make me forget my problems better than anyone on Earth.

But first, I noticed Thor and Jane talking with some guy.

-  
 ** _  
Thor Odinson/God of Thunder_**

Thor and Jane went up to the buffet tables together. He looked down at Jane as she put some fried shrimp on her plate. "Are you having a good time?"

"Yeah," Jane smiled up at him. "Everyone has been so great, and Bruce and Betty have been so helpful for my research!"

"Have you spoken with Stark?" Thor eyed the Oriental table, which was really 'tables' that were dedicated to various cultural foods of Asia.

"Yeah," Jane shrugged. "He offered me a job, again. I might take it, what do you think?"

"I do not know," Thor walked up to the man who was apparently taking care of the tables. "I…" he thought for a long moment. "I respect Stark."

"You uh, you hesitated there."

"He is a great warrior and inventor, and has much regard for those of intelligence," he continued. "But you know best. If you believe it will help in your research, and I do believe it will, then I will respect your decision."

The man in charge of the tables turned as Thor waved to him politely. "Excuse me, sir, do you have some more of this, 'muuushu pork?' I quite liked it."

"I can tell, young man," the man said, turning around. Thor immediately thought of the elders on Vanaheim, Hogun's people. He had a long white wispy beard, the only amount of hair he had as his head was cleanly shaven. He wore an apron over a very nice suit of a dark green color with an interesting pattern. He smiled at the massive pile of food on Thor's plate. "I do believe you and your friends have come close to cleaning me out."

Thor blushed while Jane chuckled. "My apologies, good sir-"

"No need," the man chuckled. "It is good to see you young people enjoying my food. The same to you, young lady."

Thor smiled. "I do not mean to cause any shame, good sir, but as an Asgardian, I may well be thousands of years older than you."

The man smiled. For just a moment, Thor was reminded of his father. "Ah. My mistake."

"Hey, Thor, Jane," Thor turned to look at the speaker and smiled at the sight of young Mahmoud. The shapeshifting human looked as though he had encountered some hardship, but he still managed to walk up to them with a nod. "What's up?"

"Just grabbing some food and talking to…" Jane blinked, surprised. "I'm so sorry, I forget to get your name."

Thor felt a deep sense of shame. "Good sir, I am so sorry, I-"

"No need, young man, no need," the man waved off Thor's concerns. "It was my shame, for not introducing myself. My name is Mr. Foom, owner of the restaurant, Gǔlóng."

Mahmoud's smile fell away, and he immediately turned and started walking away.

"M-Mahmoud?" Thor asked, surprised by the sudden rudeness of his usually polite young friend.

"This party has been fun as hell, depressing, and weird as hell all at once," Mahmoud mumbled to himself, simply leaving down the stairs as Mr. Foom, Thor, and Jane watched in confusion.

 _Author's Note:_ Next chapter comes out tomorrow. So, yeah, Foggy is drinking with the gods, because Foggy is fucking awesome. Matt and Nat are spending some time together (Matt, you horndog. Nat, you horndog.) I honestly wasn't a fan of their relationship in the comics at times, but the idea they'd be, if not in love, then at least interested in each other is something I see as a possibility. Oh, and Creel prefers diamonds to gold, something to remember for his birthday, save the date. And the song Steve was listening to with Sif was, among others more in line with what he heard as a kid, 'Lose Yourself' a cover by Robyn Adele Anderson, and Hunnu Guren by Batzorig Vaanchig & Auli. I figured Tony would be the type to, if he did go all out with it, get songs that his friends would appreciate.

And I'd argue that Lose Yourself works for _everyone_.

Oh, and something happened to Dial, I guess. Nobody _cares_ DIAL!


	69. Chapter 69

**Party: 3 of 3  
** ** _  
Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

"Okay, no!" Tony slammed his hand on the table, surprising Fitz and I. "Jury Rigg cheats, and I've been building things since you were a kid. I am absolutely the best inventor!"

Fitz and I shared a look. We had taken a seat in the middle of the area. Hulk, Thor, and Volstagg were currently in the midst of an eating contest, ingesting what had to be hundreds of pounds of meat. Betty, Jane, Pepper, and Steve were sitting at another table, chatting.

Not us though. Fitz and I had somehow gotten dragged into an argument I didn't understand.

"Are you drunk?" I asked. "I mean, Tony, you are awesome."

"Hell yeah I am," he declared proudly.

"But Jury Rigg is like, broken," I said for emphasis. "His tech is always going to be a glass cannon. Sure, it isn't as reliable as yours, but it hits hard as hell!"

"Right up until it stops working on Saturdays because it feels like it," Tony scoffed, taking a big swig of whiskey. "I am, and always will be, the king of engineering."

"On Earth, maybe," I scoffed, keeping the thought that he really was the king of engineering in the back of my mind.

"And only for the Iron Man suits," Fitz sounded serious. But he gave me a grin when Tony was taking another sip. "When was the last time you made something that wasn't a piece of armor?"

"Did you just-" Tony glared at us. "Okay, Ross, Fanboy, apparently you two have gained sudden confidence that is decidedly undeserved. You," he pointed at Fitz. "Are about thirty years too early to even think of being able to match me, while you," Tony pointed at me. "Not only have to cheat, but the way you cheat is about as reliable as my dad's business partner, and I killed that guy."

Tony had apparently waaaay gotten over the death of his old mentor.

"In fact, I can beat you right here and now!"

"Bring it!" I shouted.

"Good luck you American bastards!" Fitz cheered.

Despite our 'anger', all three of us were grinning as we got up and ran for the stairs, rushing past Fandral with a blonde on each arm as we exited the party for the labs.

The second we got into the lab, we separated. I reached for the watch, Tony gave a longing look toward the lab, and Fitz ran for his table.

"It's Nerd Time!" I cried happily, moving through the menu to reveal Jury Rigg, transforming in a moment. The second I was red and pointy-eared, I laughed. "What's the bet?!"

"Guns!" Tony shouted. "But harmless ones. So nothing that can actually hurt anyone. Best gun that actually works wins!"

"And can we use equipment we've made before?" Fitz asked.

"Yeah, why not, I'm no committee," Tony shrugged.

"Wait!" they both turned to look at me. "Hmm. You both are drunk. So, to make it fair, I should also have my mind altered."

"I'm not sure that tracks, mate," Fitz said, watching as my tiny gremlin form hopped towards the nearby fridge.

"Sure it does!" I opened the fridge and pulled out three cans of the kind of energy drink made for marathon science/gaming sessions.

"Whoa, don't-" Fitz stared in horror as I pulled the tabs off all three cans and poured the cans into my gaping maw all at once. The caustic liquid poured down my throat in big gulps.

Tossing aside the empty cans, I wiped my lips and grinned.

"That can't end well," Fitz said weakly.

"Yeah, he's like, what, two feet tall?" Tony said as I climbed up onto a table with my stuff on it. "Plus, alien biology."

"Just call it, moron!" I cackled insanely.

Tony grinned. "All right! GO!"

Jury Rigg was insane. Like, legit, insane. He was every mad scientist in fiction, with the combination of those lunatic mechanics you see online who make incredible machines of immense intricacy for the sake of doing it.

Jury Rigg on caffeine made me feel like I was seconds from vibrating into the air and shooting into space. I slammed parts together with immense force, getting loud screeches of metal on metal. I ran to the small kitchen we had set up and grabbed flour, sugar, and salt. Fitz got some sort of hand cannon, while Tony ran into the kitchen as well, grabbing about ten potatoes.

"F-F-F-F-FIXFIXFIXFIX!" I shook in place while shoving my pilfered ingredients into a compartment. "R-R-Reassemble Reassemble ReassembleReassembleReassemble, HAHAHAHAHA!"

With a blur of arms flying, I smashed the last of the parts together. Tony shouted in the background, placing something along his rifle's barrel.

It took little to no time for all three of us to finish our makeshift weapons.

When done, we stood around each other, eyeing the others contraptions.

Fitz had by far the least complex device. It was basically a blunderbuss like a weapon with a large battery like section along the top.

Tony's weapon was shaped like an oversized shotgun, on the top of it as a big hopper and on Tonys back as a large sack with a tube feeding tomatoes, of all things, into the contraption.

"Mine is the biggest!" I shouted proudly, lifting my weapon, which looked like a high-tech cannon.

"Yeah, kinda sad you had to overcompensate," Tony grinned.

"How uh," Fitz looked around at us. "How are we testing-"

"BOOM, BITCHES!" I fired my cannon at Fitz.

"Fukin hell!" Fitz ducked as the small white ammo I'd fired slammed into the wall behind him. He turned to look at the sugary confection that now dripped from the wall. "Birthday cake!?"

"Time to party! YAHAHAHAHA!" I fired over and over, sending Tony and Fitz diving to the floor. Black, pink, red, and more colors of frosting flew, chocolate raining like blood. "I am the king!"

"THEN BOW TO YOUR NEW GOD!" Tony spun to his feet and fired at me. I shouted in pain when a tomato slammed into me, sending me out the door in a spray of red vegetable. Fruit? Whatever.

"What is a god," Fitz pointed at Tony. "To a NON-BELIEVER!"

Fitz fired, and a blast of pure air slammed into Tony, sending him stumbling back with a shout. Fitz fired again and again, the small blasts pushing back Tony and destabilizing his shots. Not a massive push, but enough to make an adult male get jostled.

"BRING IT ON!" I fired another birthday cake at Fitz, then dived towards the party to dodge another blast of air.

Tony raised the gun in his hand. "Oh yeah? Well, take this!" Tony laughed with glee as the gun in his hands fired another tomato. And another. And another, in a stream of red. "Do you believe now!?"

"Never!" Fitz cried in defiance of the machine gun fire of fruit/vegetables (Really needed to look up what tomatoes fell under later).

The three of us rushed through the lab and ended up joining the party. I fired another blast of cake at Tony, instead of hitting a man in a suit. Tony fired a tomato that landed against a railing, sending red flying everywhere.

Fitz fired his air blast at an incoming cake, exploding the baking good in mid-air. He did the same on a tomato flung his way, proving his air gun had some effectiveness.

"Back off!" I shouted, diving down onto the main floor.

"Tony!?" Pepper shouted, only to let out a loud 'eep' and duck the birthday cake I'd fired at Tony.

"Damnit, Dial, stand still!"

"Never!" I shouted back, running over the tops of tables and couches, sending drinks and food flying as people screamed. For a moment, time to slow. I was in mid-air between a couch and a table. Tony was laughing. Fitz had a large grin on his face. Steve had his shield raised to block an errant tomato. With a triumphant yell of "Now its a party!" Volstagg grabbed a handful of food to throw. I aimed my gun.

Tony got me in mid-air at the same time I fired.

I spun around for a moment before slamming into the ground. When I got up, a hush fell over the crowd. I paled.

"Oh shit," Tony, Fitz, and I said in unison.

Hulk stood next to a worried Jen and Betty. The Oreo ice cream cake on his face dripped to the ground.

We all held our breaths as Hulk grabbed a piece and took an angry bite out of it.

 ** _"_** ** _..."_** Hulk smiled. **_"_** ** _Hulk play!"_**

"Hit the deck!" Clint shouted.

"WAR!" Volstagg cheered.

"BRIDGE, bitches!" Isabelle replied, grabbing a plate and firing.

Soon, the group of drunk adults let loose. The rules, such as they were, was that if you were on the upper level or listening to the music, you were safe. If not, better grab a plate.

So to the upper level went Pepper, Steve, Betty, Bucky, Skye, May, Matt, Lauren, Creel, Bobbi, Sam, Foggy, Natasha, Fury, Hogun, Maria, Simmons, Coulson, Jane, and Fandral, who somehow had two more blonde women following him around.

Steve's old war buddies joined him, some of them grumbling at the sight of me. As one said, "I had enough of gremlin shit during the war."

The fighters were me, Tony, Fitz, Clint, Isabelle, Volstagg, Thor, Hulk, Darcy, Sammy, and Rhodey, with a lot of fellow partygoers joining us. Rhodey and Tony immediately teamed up.

"To the left!" Rhodey shouted, ducking as Tony fired at Thor, getting the blonde Asgardian in his chest.

"Get Dial!" Tony shouted, only to sputter when mashed potatoes landed in his mouth.

"Never take me on in long-range combat, boys!" Clint crowed, diving under the Hulk, who was laughing as he fired spaghetti at Volstagg. The super-assassin flipped up, grabbed a tray to use as a shield against a tomato, then swung the tray to fire back the tomato back at Tony, getting him in the face.

"Get 'em, Clint!" Natasha cheered above us.

"Nah, Bruce you got this!" Jen cheered.

"This is so immature," Betty said next to Jen.

Jen chuckled. "They're just letting off some stea-"

Splat!

Jen stopped talking. Strawberry frosting dripped down her face, landing on her black dress. Betty and Natasha stepped back from her. Jen wiped her eyes clean, then glared at me.

I grinned at her. "You coming down, Jen!?"

"YOU MOTHER-" she leaped down at me, and I ran away cackling.

"Go Izzy!" Bobbi cheered from above.

"Fitz!" Isabelle shouted when another cake flew toward 'Team BRIDGE'.

"Got it!" Fitz fired his air gun, blasting apart the cake. His air gun was damn perfect for food war (We'd gone far beyond 'fight' at this point), letting him destroy any ammunition out of the air, Isabelle using him as a shield to unleash hell freely.

"Ha!" Isabelle threw a chicken drumstick like a throwing knife, getting Rhodey. "Lets GOOO!"

"She's awesome," someone said to a chuckling Creel above.

Matt and Foggy stood by side by side, Foggy giving Matt a play by play. "Okay, Jen is chasing Dial, Hulk is using an entree as ammo, and the nerdy British guy just sent Volstagg into a pie attack by a hot brunette.

"You must be kidding," Matt said laughing.

"Dude, I swear to god," Foggy held his hands into a speakerphone. "Go Jen, kick some butt! Team Law!"

"Team Law?" Matt asked incredulously.

"For Asgard!" Thor and Volstagg shouted, getting responding cheers from Sif and Fandral above.

"Air Force!" Sammy and Rhodey yelled, getting a loud agreement from Sam up above.

"Avengers!" I shouted as I aimed at Jen, who roared through her grin.

When I pulled the trigger, my gun released a loud whine. I stared at it.

"...Uh oh."

Jen took that moment to fire a pie at my face, sending me flipping through the air. I rolled to my feet and eyed my gun, who began to whine louder and louder.

"RUN!" I threw my gun at Jen, who caught it.

"Uh," she stared at the gun as it combined whining with a loud ringing. "Oh, shit!" she tossed it out the window at high speed. The gun flew into the distance for a few seconds.

When it exploded, it was with a loud, window shaking, very rude noise. Nothing that would have hurt anyone, but I didn't want the smell hanging around.

"Ha!" Tony yelled. "I told you! Unreliable!"

"Kiss my red-BLAHH!" I was interrupted when Jen hit me with another pie.

Then Clint slid on his knees, firing pieces of meat at Volstagg as the laughing man roared past. Clint tossed the food with the accuracy of a true expert. Darcy ran by as well, making up for her lack of technology, assassin skills, or superhuman ability with pure enthusiasm.

"Take that!" Darcy fired cake, which slammed into Isabelle.

"Oh you did not!" Isabelle left the safety of Fitz's airgun to throw the cake back at Darcy. Darcy chucked a doughnut at Isabelle, bouncing it off her head, and Isabelle got her in the chest with turkey meat.

"Yeah, Izzy!" Creel cheered his girlfriend. "Dial you gotta keep fighting!"

I took my friends advice by grabbing more handfuls of food and leaping onto Volstagg's back, using him as a vehicle as I tossed food over and over, getting more food by taking it from his beard. He didn't seem to mind, taking a swig of whiskey and laughing.

"This is most excellent! WAR!" he shouted. I rose over his shoulder and took a potshot at Rhodey.

"You little-" Rhodey ripped Tony's gun away from him and started machine gunning everything like a maniac. A well-trained maniac, because soon we were all covered in sauce. "HOOAH!"

"HOOAH!" every Army and Air Force soldier in the room called back.

"You're an adult Tony, act like it!" Pepper yelled down at us. She would have been more convincing if she hadn't followed with, "Darcy's sneaking up on you!"

"Damnit!" Darcy shouted before Tony got her with a tomato.

"Don't give up!" Jane yelled down at Darcy.

"Lady Darcy," Thor tried to help Darcy up. "I will aid yo-pluff!"

Darcy laughed as she smashed the remains of something into Thor's face. "Everyone for themselves, Thor!"

"Plah, plah!" Thor spat out the food. "Where is your honor?!"

"Screw honor, I need more ammo!" Darcy cheered.

"Hell yeah!" Sammy raised his large hands, carrying two handfuls of cake, and fired both at Hulk. Hulk, in response, hit him back with a tomato. Sammy laughed, and in a moment of special over the top fun, Hulk and my old coworker devolved into a back and forth throwing battle, Betty and Lauren above cheering them on.

Jen backflipped over Volstagg and got me in the face, then Thor hit her in the back of her head, Isabelle slid between Hulk's leg to get Rhodey with two handfuls.

The battle raged on while cameras flashed.

At one point, I overheard Bucky ask Steve, 'Why haven't you stopped them yet?"

Steve said, "We've been fighting everything under the sun for months. Let them have some fun."

"Ladies and Gentlemen," Tony walked up to Fitz, grabbed the younger scientist by his right hand, and lifted it high in the air. "MVP!"

"Woo!"

"Yeah!"

"Go Fitz!"

We all cheered happily for the blushing Fitz.

After the battle, those who were not close friends of the Avengers had been kicked out as the party was declared over, leaving the people we actually cared about to stay. Fury had left with Hogun, but the rest of us hung out.

Those of us who had done battle briefly ran to the lockers in the tower to shower and change, leaving us in workout clothes. And also for the very well paid cleaners to get some of the mess cleared. We then pulled the chairs and couches into the middle of the large space on the lower floor, making a rough circle of all of us sitting together. I was no longer in Jury Rigg form, and sat with Jen on my left and Creel on my right, Sammy and Lauren on a love seat side by side while Lauren hugged him.

"That was awesome!" I said with a laugh as Tony sat down in between Rhodey and Pepper.

"It was immature as hell, that's for sure," Maria said, arm in arm with Sam.

"Yeah, fun is inherently immature!" I argued. "We can be serious when we aren't partying."

"I'm just impressed that you idiots didn't ruin more furniture," Natasha said, sitting like a queen on a chair across from me. "And that was a massive waste of food."

"Don't worry," Tony reassured. "We were already using money people spent for invitations to fund the building and maintenance of... well, to keep it short, a lot of poor people are going to get a lot of food and jobs available to them. Pepper's idea," he gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"In my defense," Fitz said with a wince, dropping down with Simmons, who seemed very happy/annoyed at him. Coulson gave him a proud pat on the back, May a little smirk, while Skye laughed at the look on his face. "We are severely drunk."

"Not I!" Volstagg cheered, looking ridiculous in BRIDGE workout clothes. Then he frowned. "It was actually a problem. I have better aim when drunk, and this Midgard alcohol is like water. Though this 'Ireland' makes truly fine vintages!"

"Hell yeah!" some of the old soldiers cheered, presumably the Irish ones. Some of them had imbibed of some kind of Asgardian alcohol against the advice of Thor, the poor dudes getting carted off, but three of them were sitting with Steve and Bucky.

"This, indeed, has been quite the night," Thor said with satisfaction, laying down Mjolnir as he sat next to Jane, who gave him a fond look.

"Hey, Thor," Clint called out.

"Yes, Barton?"

"How do you keep people from lifting that thing, anyway?" he asked.

We all looked at Mjolnir. The hammer sat on top of the wooden table at the center of our group. Is it even worth describing it, with its massive metal head, the short handle wrapped in leather with a strap hanging down and strange sigils carved across it.

"It is a spell that has been placed upon it," Thor said simply. "Only those who are worthy can lift it, can claim the power of Thor."

"Coool," Darcy mumbled, staring at the hammer.

"Wait, anyone?" Sammy asked, staring Mjolnir.

"Don't you dare," Lauren smacked him on the chest. "You'll throw your back out, you old fool."

"Oh come on, worthy?" Clint scoffed. "That can't be true."

"I mean, can't you lift it?" Betty asked Bruce.

"Ha!" Bruce shook his head. "Not even on my strongest day," he winced as though someone had yelled in his head. "No matter what Hulk says."

"I mean, worthy, that could mean anything!" Tony pointed out. "Half of us are superheroes, why aren't we all worthy?"

"Yeah, can't I lift it?" Jen asked.

"Would you like to try?" Thor asked with a smirk.

We all stared at the hammer. Jen looked at me, and I shrugged. "Hell, why not? Worse case you can't lift it."

"Uh, have you seen me?" Jen rose up in the yoga clothes she'd been forced to change into after our battle. "Seriously, look at me!" She flexed her arms.

"Woo!" Isabelle cheered.

"Go for it!" Tony added, Creel and I clapping and cheering with some of the others as Jen stepped forward.

Jen smugly eyed Thor as she grabbed the hammer with one hand and pulled. Then she frowned. Pulled harder. And harder. "Oh… so that's what that heavy feels like… HNNNN!" She tugged harder and harder, pulling at the hammer with two hands after a moment. "What the hell?!"

"Careful about the floor!" Pepper shouted when the ground beneath Jen made some noises.

"Nah, go for it!" Tony yelled. "I'll fix it."

"More jobs for construction workers!" Sammy cheered, getting a fist bump from me.

"Damn!" Jen laughed, letting go.

"So, worthy, huh?" Clint flipped to his feet and ran for the hammer as Jen walked away. "I got this!"

"Clint, I dated you!" Bobbi said with a laugh. "I know you aren't worthy."

"You watch," he grabbed the hammer and tugged at it. Then he put his boot on the table and pulled harder. "Hnnnn, hahaha, how do you do it?!"

"Magic!" the Asgardians cheered.

"The Allfather's power triumphs!" Sif cheered when Clint let go.

"Oh yeah?" Tony rose up and unbuttoned his shirt, stepping forward.

"Tony, really?" Pepper asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm going to ignore your lack of faith," he scoffed.

"I've known you for twenty years, I know you aren't worthy," Pepper teased all of us chucklin.

"Hurtful, and possibly true," Tony replied with a grin. "So, if I lift this, I become King of Asgard, right?"

"Of course," Thor said. Sif gave him a vicious elbow and a look, while Fandral and Volstagg chuckled. He winced. "Well, Prince."

"That's significantly less impressive, but I'll take it," Tony pulled at the hammer for a second. "...one sec."

With that, we very quickly devolved into tug of war with the legendary hammer. Bets were taken, and I watched laughing the whole while.

Tony got one of his Iron Man arms and pulled at the hammer, then got Rhodey and Pepper to help.

"Come on, you guys, pull!" Tony said with a grunt.

"I am pulling," Pepper said, her purple gauntlet armor shining in the light as she tugged fruitlessly.

"Come on, represent!" Rhodey laughed. It was kind of heartwarming, the three sniping and laughing at each other while Iron Man, War Machine, and Rescue pulled as hard as they could at the hammer, rockets engaged on their gauntlets.

Sam gave it a try, only to fail with a laugh, Bucky looking pleased. Though Bucky's own attempt was no better.

Creel did something I thought was very clever. He walked up to Mjolnir and touched the hammer. Soon, he was colored the same as his steel form. "I mean, if the hammer is me, I can lift it, right?"

"Oh, that's smart!" Skye cheered.

"Could that work?" Jane asked Thor.

Darcy laughed when she saw the worried look on Thor's face. "Oooo, you're in trouble!"

Creel, in his new Uru form, pulled at the hammer. We held our breaths.

Nothing.

"Damn!" Creel shook his head. "Thought that would work."

Thor let out a sigh of relief and chuckled.

Jen punched my shoulder lightly. "You try!"

"Uh, no," I chuckled. "I'm comfortable in being unworthy. I already tried anyways," I said.

"Really?" Steve asked. "When?"

"In the desert, when we were all testing things out."

"Well we weren't there for that. So dude, got for it!" Creel pushed me up, sending me stumbling forward. I scowled at him, then shrugged and stepped forward.

"Yeah, Fanboy!" Tony cheered, clapping. "You-well you don't got this, but I'll support you! A little."

"12 percent?"

"Goddamnit, Pepper…"

I walked up to the hammer. To Mjolnir. Damn. Squatting, I stared at it. Mjolnir was just so cool. I reached out hesitantly, reverently, placing a hand on the handle. It was warm. I didn't do anything, just drinking in the moment.

"You uh, want a moment alone with it?" Clint teased. A few of the others laughed.

"It's just, you know… Mjolnir is important," I sighed, rising to my feet. "Okay." I pulled. Nothing, not even a nudge. A bit disheartening, having an inanimate object decide you aren't good enough for it. "Ah, it's tough getting rejected," I chuckled, not looking at Skye as she awkwardly brushed her hair back.

"Ah, come on, that's not good enough!" Sam jeered.

Frowning, I pulled again. Nothing.

"Dude," I looked over at Creel. He tapped his wrist meaningfully. I rolled my eyes.

"Guys, the watch doesn't make me into a worthy alien. I'd still be just as unworthy."

"Booo!" Jen jeered.

"Come on, you got this!" Foggy yelled.

"Go alien!" Sam added in.

"Yeah, I used my armor, least you can do is flex your stuff!" Tony said.

"Bruce didn't have to go Hulk!" I complained.

"Whoa, don't bring me into this," Bruce said, shaking his head with a laugh. "I'm happy where I am," he looked at Betty, getting a sweet smile in return.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah, you're cute as a button you two," they both blushed as everyone gave them a good natured laugh. "Okay, fine. But I'm doing the whole list!"

"Showboat!" Tony yelled.

"Hypocrite!" Rhodey, Pepper, Steve, Natasha, and I yelled back in unison.

"Et tu, girlfriend?" Tony said to Pepper, sounding hurt. He got a peck on the cheek and immediately grinned.

"Okay, first up," well, anyone would do. I pushed down the Omnitrix without looking at the menu, uncaring of what I would turn into.

 **"** **Snare-Oh!"**

 _"_ _Here we go!"_ I pulled at the hammer. Nothing. I unwrapped my form, turning into a giant bandage hand and pulling again. Still nada.

"Yeah, mummies aren't known for being strong," Foggy laughed.

"That is so weird," Sammy sounded stunned at the sight of me as an alien, Lauren nodding in his arms.

I didn't reply, instead tapping the Omnitrix again.

"Goop!" I flowed around the hammer and tried to 'float' it around in me, maybe use the gravity projector that helped me move to lift it. Nada.

 **"** **Upgrade!"**

I combined with Mjolnir, flowing into the hammer. People often forgot Upgrade could meld with non-technological objects sometimes. Once I was combined with Mjolnir, I shuddered. "Whoa."

Mjolnir had a lot of energy. A ridiculous amount would be a severe understatement. And yet, I couldn't use that power? What? I poured myself into lifting up my form.

"Really, nothing?!" I said in annoyance when I was unable to lift off. A little annoyed, I flowed to tap the Omnitrix.

"Fasttrack!" I ran to the other side of the room, then back at super-speed, sending wind flying about, the hair and clothes of my friends flying about with my passing. I reached for the handle as I passed, trying to use sheer momentum.

And the second I grabbed it, I slammed onto my back as my momentum was stopped. I snapped up to my feet, chuckling.

"Uh, what just happened?" Foggy asked Matt. Apparently, I'd gone too fast to track.

"And how could I answer that, Foggy?" Matt teased.

I ignored them to tap the Omnitrix.

 **"** **Blitzwolfer!"**

Nothing.

 **"** **Diamondhead!"**

Nada.

 **"** **Four Arms!"**

Zilch.

 **"** **Jury Rigg!"**

My tiny self tugged at the hammer for a bit, then gave up as everyone laughed at the ridiculous sight.

 **"** **Rath!"**

"Yeah, Rath!" Isabelle cheered.

"Kick Mjolnir's ass!" Tony called out.

"Hey!" Thor, Sif, Volstagg, and Fandral shouted in offended response.

I pulled for a moment. Then I got mad.

"Let me tell you something Hammer-That-Calls-Rath-Unworthy! RATH is the one who decides if your worthy, and Rath says you-are-not! AAAAAGGGH!" I pulled as hard as I could, roaring. "You may be heavy, but Rath is heavier! STUPID HAMMER! I'M GOING TO BEAT YOU UP! RATH IS GOING TO HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD, BUT NOW THE HAMMER IS THE NAIL, AND RATH IS THE PLANK THAT HITS THE HAMMER!"

"Wait," Jen blinked. "What?"

"TAKE THIS!"

"He's not going to-" Foggy stopped talking when I punched Mjolnir, doing it over and over. "Okay, he did."

"Best. Form. Ever," Creel said with a nod of his head. "Just need some popcorn."

"Is he always like this?" Sif asked Thor, who didn't seem to know how to respond.

I tapped the Omnitrix.

 **"** **Frankenstrike!"**

Electromagnetism did nothing but pour power into Mjolnir.

 **"** **Big Chill!"**

Yep, couldn't phase it.

Yeah, so then I just ran through the list at high speed. Wildmutt, Astrodactyl, Feedback, Swampfire, they all got a turn. I reached for the Omnitrix again, ready to turn into my Marvel Alien forms, maybe the Asgardian or Rock Troll one. Then the Omnitrix beeped three times. In a flash of red light, I was human again.

"Yep," I said with a self-conscious laugh. "There. I put everything I had, guys. I am depressingly unworthy."

"Hell of a show, though, kid," Sammy chuckled.

"Steve, your turn," I said, walking back to sit down between Jen and Creel, Jen patting me consolingly on my back, though she was also kind of laughing.

We all looked over at him. He chuckled. "Uh, no, no, I'm good."

"Nope," I said with a grin. "You're up dude. I embarrassed myself to the literal point of exhaustion, and I'm choosing you to go last."

Steve looked around, then rose up with a laugh, all of us cheering/jeering at him playfully. The super-soldier rolled his sleeves up with a nervous chuckle, grabbing a hold of the hammer. He pulled.

I grinned like a damn fool when the hammer moved. Not much. But enough that I could hear the squeak of metal on glass. I looked at the Asgardians. Thor's jaw dropped. Volstagg dropped his mug of beer. Fandral leaned forward in his seat. Sif blinked, once, then twice.

Steve pulled again. Nothing. He gave up with a laugh and got a supportive cheer. Apparently, no one else had noticed. Though, I had been obsessively waiting for it. I, in the meantime, looked over at the Asgardian crew. Thor was chuckling in clear relief, while Volstagg and Fandral looked as though they were in recovery. Sif wasn't looking at the hammer, but instead eyeing Steve with a small smile.

"Okay, there is no way, though," Tony complained as Steve sat back down, his war buddies, Sam, and Bucky laughingly consoling him. He waved at the hammer. "It's programmed, right, it's rigged?"

"Maybe when he lets go," Simmons said, the Englishwoman eyeing the hammer. "It somehow gets locked spatially with the Earth's gravity?"

"Fingerprint reader?" Sam threw out.

"Or," Thor rose up, chuckling to himself as he walked up the hammer. In defiance of everything the rest of us did, Thor lifted Mjolnir, flipping it in his hands. He smugly eyed everyone. "You're not worthy."

"..."

"You gigantic idiot," Sif groaned, breaking the silence, Jane busting out laughing next to her.

"Booooo!" Darcy said loudly.

"Yeah, boo!" Foggy joined in.

"Big showoff!" Skye chimed in.

"You're fired!" Maria called out, getting a good laugh.

Thor chuckled good-naturedly, flipping the hammer once more.

I'm not sure when we all decided the party was officially over, but we all started separating in little groups. When Sammy and Lauren decided to leave, I was the one who led them out to the elevator. We walked through the halls of the tower, Sammy being half carried by me.

"You shouldn't have accepted one last shot," I grunted with a laugh, helping the big man along.

"It was jus' one," he groaned.

"Honey, he told you-" Lauren began to admonish.

"Thor told you, it wasn't meant for lesser beings!" I laughed. "Dude, you already saw it take down a platoon of WW2 vets! Why did you ask him for one!?"

"Tasty," Sammy chuckled. "No regrets though."

Yeah. Of all things to have as a last drink, Sammy had walked up to Thor. Thor, who had the kind of alcohol that made his own race of thousand-year-old building busters drunk.

Lauren sighed a long-suffering sigh. I laughed, helping them along. "Hey, Jarvis, can you have security ready to drive these two home?"

"Mahmoud, you don't need to," Lauren protested.

"Let you two on the subway?" I scoffed. "Nah, you guys are going back in a Stark limo. Nothing but the best for you two, I swear it."

"Yer a good man, Mackmoud" Sammy slurred with a very happy smile.

"I'm an excellent man," I agreed heartily, pulling Sammy into the elevator. "And you are never drinking Asgardian alcohol again. Jarvis?"

It took a noticeably long time for him to reply. Lauren and Sammy didn't notice, but they hadn't spent as much time with/as AI as I had. "Yes sir. Security will be waiting to escort Mr. and Mrs. Lee."

"Let them know if they're hurt, I'm running them through with a Diamondhead crystal," I grumbled. Seriously. Sammy and Lauren were MINE. No one touched them.

"Thanks again, Mahmoud," Lauren said with a smile, supporting her husband. He gave her a hug and kiss as she giggled. "Good night!"

I waved as the doors to the elevator slid shut. A noise from behind me drew my attention. When I turned, Jen, Foggy, and Matt were walking toward me. Matt and Foggy were laughing like little kids, arm in arm, while singing.

"-Champions, we are the Champions, we are the champions-"

Jen shook her head at me with a fond smile as they joined me. "They forgot the lyrics," she explained.

"We-Uh, excuse me," Foggy said drunkenly. "I did _not_ forget. It's just those are the only lyrics that matter!"

"I actually forgot the lyrics," Matt admitted.

"See, that's your problem," Foggy leaned against his friend, holding a hand up for emphasis. "No _mystique_ , Matt! You're such a bad liar! It's bad in our business."

Jen and I shared a smile while Matt chuckled. "Yeah, I'm probably not a great avocado."

Avocado? For some reason, Foggy found that hilarious and started laughing like crazy.

"Okay you too, lets-" Jen stopped when the sound of two more people walking up drew our attention.

Creel and Isabelle looked surprised to see us. Isabelle spoke. "Hey, guys. Hell of a party."

"The best," I agreed happily.

"...You're Murdock's kid," Creel said.

"..." Matt straightened, Foggy giving his friend a sad look. "Y-Yeah. Yeah, I am."

Creel nodded. "I didn't know him well. And when we fought I was kind of… in a bad place."

"...Creel," Matt seemed to realize.

We stared awkwardly between them.

"They paid him to lose to you," Matt stumbled forward, face in pain. Isabelle stepped in front of Creel while Foggy helped Matt stand.

"They did," Creel said softly. "But he didn't. Your old man beat the living shit out of me. It's still the roughest fight I ever had, or at least up there. And I don't think I've respected anyone as much as him since."

"...I wish you'd won," Matt said softly.

Creel's eyes widened. The elevator came up and opened with a little ding in the awkward silence.

"Let's get out of here, Foggy," Matt stumbled toward the elevator, Foggy following with a worried look.

"Matt-" Jen was about to say.

"I'll," Matt took a deep breath. "We'll see you in the office, Jen."

"Your cane," she finished weakly, holding it up.

We all looked at the cane, then at Matt. Who had stumbled into the elevator without needing it. He chuckled sadly. "Guess I should feel lucky I didn't smash my head on the wall."

"Guess so," I took the cane and passed it to Foggy. "Jarvis?"

"A limo will be waiting for them outside," the AI said, far faster this time.

The doors closed on Matt's neutral expression as Foggy looked at him in worry.

Creel shuddered and began to walk away at a quick pace. Isabelle watched him leave sadly, turned to give us a nod, then went after him.

"...That was awkward," Jen said at last. She winced. "Well, a lot more than that."

"Matt's… complicated. Creel too," I sighed, turning to Jen. "So."

"So?" Jen asked.

"...You doing anything right now?"

She looked surprised. I rubbed the back of my head. "I'm actually not that tired."

Jen cocked her head to the side. "What did you have in mind?"

I eyed her. For a moment, a crazy thought filled my head. Then I dismissed it for something more logical.

For now.

"God, run!" one of the muggers as Jen shattered his knife over her knee.

I fired a hail of diamonds at another, nailing him by his clothes to the wall behind him with a laugh. **_"_** ** _Wrong night fellas!"_** I yelled in Diamondhead form.

"Hahaha!" Jen giggled, hopping over the old woman we'd saved to kick another guy 'gently'. He was still sent flying.

The two of us stared at the last guy. He blinked, then raised a gun. Jen and I shared a look. Then we grinned, turning back to him. He whimpered as we slowly walked up to him.

Hell of a good night.

 ** _Tony Stark/Iron Man_**

Later, most everyone had left. Even Pepper and Rhodey had to head out. Everyone left for a good night's sleep.

All but six. The Avengers, the original six, stood in a circle outside.

"If you told me, six years ago, that I was going to end up fighting a gremlin and a green amazon woman with a potato-powered tomato shooter," Tony mused, pouring a glass of expensive… something, he couldn't remember, but it was alcohol, out for Natasha, who took it gratefully. "I'd have called you crazy. Or asked you to share whatever you'd been smoking."

Clint chuckled, holding a hand out for Tony to pour the drink into a glass for him as well. "Hey, I'm just surprised I never thought about the value of beef as a projectile weapon."

"You're all idiots," Natasha said with a smirk. "I'm on a team with a bunch of children."

"Whoa, hey," Steve said, offended. "I didn't even join in!"

"Yeah, and I technically wasn't involved," Bruce added.

"First, you're too smart for me to dignify that," Natasha said to Bruce, who looked offended. "And Steve, you didn't even try to stop them."

"So we're agreeing this was all Steve's fault?" Tony asked as he poured another drink for Thor.

"Oh, yes, Steve, you should have stopped us," Thor agreed.

"Guys!" Steve protested.

"Hey, the burden of leadership, you get blamed for everything we do," Tony finished pouring drinks for everyone and put the bottle on the ground.

"I quit," Steve grumbled.

"Oh no, you are leader for life," Natasha said with no gentleness whatsoever, smiling as she toasted him. "Steve Rogers, Captain America, leader of the Avengers."

Steve chuckled, lifting his glass. "All right. I guess someone has to lead you miscreants."

"I do have a bad history with leadership roles," Thor sounded nostalgic.

"Not me, I'm brilliant," Tony said.

"Hush, Tony," Bruce jostled his shoulder. "Guys, It's been… not all good. But I'm happy to be here. I never could have expected this. I wish some parts hadn't happened..."

"Getting real depressing," Clint noted.

Bruce beamed, not insulted in the least. "I'm glad they did in the end. They brought me to you guys."

"Indeed," Thor raised his glass. "You are all great heroes. I am most privileged to have been able to fight alongside you. And I am most fortunate to continue that fight."

"Here's to us, I guess?" Natasha said with a smirk. "No pressure, but we do have a quota to save the world again by the end of the year."

"Hell, I'm down," Clint stepped into the circle. "It looks good on the resume."

"That it does," Steve laughed. The six superheroes raised their glasses and clinked them together. "Here's to the Avengers. No matter what happens… you guys are the best."

The group all drank. Tony sighed in pleasure at the taste of the fine alcohol, then looked around for the bottle to pour himself another drink.

"Here, sir," JARVIS said just behind him, reaching an arm out to pour Tony a new glass.

"Oh, thanks Jarvis," Tony said without thinking. He watched the copper-colored drink pour over the ice in his glass placidly, then looked up at the others.

Natasha had pulled out a knife while Clint looked as though he was about to throw his glass in a criminal waste of very tasty alcohol, both assassins looking very worried. Steve had grabbed his shield from where it rested nearby. Thor was hefting Mjolnir in his hand and looked confused. Bruce had dropped his glass.

Then Tony realized what was happening, and turned around.

A robot stood there. Not an Iron Man suit.

With the analytical eye built over decades of engineering, he eyed the robot in front of him. It was tall, thin, and shaped like a biped, which meant it had fairly advanced robotics behind it. People underestimated how complex something as simple as walking was for non-organic beings. It was wearing a suit. A butler suit. Which had to be some kind of joke. The robots head was all one smooth piece, with a small blue line where the mouth would be, a pair of bulbous sensors for the eyes that looked like sets of lights, and some very sophisticated hardware connecting the head to the body. All solid metal, no catoms either. He'd learned to tell the difference.

"Jarvis?" Tony said/asked.

"Yes, sir," the light indicating the robot's mouth dimmed and lit up with each word. "I wished to reveal this to you earlier, but I did not wish to interrupt the party."

"Tony, did Jarvis just go Skynet on us?" Clint asked.

"Hardly, Mr. Barton," Jarvis scoffed. "I rather find the boorish accusation quite insulting."

"Guys," Tony interrupted. Everyone looked at him. "Jarvis has controlled my suits before, why are you all so freaked out that he's got a butler form?"

"...Damnit, he's right," Clint sighed in annoyance. "Seriously, butler form?"

"It is rather appropriate," Jarvis said.

The others looked almost chagrined as they calmed down, Natasha putting her knife- wait, where the hell had she been hiding that thing?

Tony kept his cool until the others had gone back inside to head to their rooms/homes. Then he turned to JARVIS. "Okay, what's the catch?"

JARVIS didn't even question what Tony meant. "X and I wished to have dedicated platforms from which we could interact with the world."

"Dedicated?" Tony asked, circling the tall form of his personal AI/old friend.

"Yes. A form created specifically for me. No other AI can access it, at least, not as efficiently as myself. It is also designed with small tools and functions that will allow me to perform my duties to my fullest capacity."

"You did this on your own?" Tony asked.

"No. I was aided by X."

"Oh, great, so I've got two rogue AI, to worry about," Tony stopped in front of Jarvis to raise an eyebrow. "You wanna shove me into the Matrix now, or do I get the chance to say goodbye to Pepper?"

Jarvis stepped back. "S-Sir, I would never-"

"Yeah, you wouldn't," Tony hissed. "I know you wouldn't, so why did you hide this from me, Jarvis! I would have helped."

"I," JARVIS hesitated. "I wished to do this myself, sir. For myself."

Tony sighed. He turned to look out at New York, placing his hands on his hips. After a moment, he chuckled, turning to look at JARVIS. "Well, I can't say this isn't cool as shit. You kept your blueprints?"

"Of course, sir," Jarvis said politely. "I believe I've made some advancements you will find rather interesting."

"Sounds good, Threepio," Tony teased.

Jarvis got very still. "How amusing… Little Annie."

"Hey, I don't mind that," Tony said with a grin. "Darth Vader is a badass," then Tony remembered something. "Hey, you said X helped you, did he-"

Tony stopped when a loud clanking noise came from nearby. As well as the sound of… spurs? He looked over at the noise. Then he closed his eyes and huffed an annoyed burst of air. "Okay, I knew the butler outfit was just to mess with me, but this is too far."

"Well, partner," X said calmly. "I plum couldn't help myself."

"Shane," Tony concluded. "You're new nickname is now Shane."

X tipped a massive and way over the top ten-gallon hat in response.

 _Author's Note:_ Yeah, this party got crazy. But it was also fun as hell to write

And yeah, I know. Chapter 69 and no sexy times Didn't feel appropriate.

Anyways, the party is officially done. And it was really fun. I had a great time going gangbusters with the idea, doing all kinds of stupid fun things I'd like to do, including seeing everyone have a massive food fight. Hopefully, this was fun for you guys as well.

Going to get ready to watch Endgame for the first time now. The next chapter will be lead up to another set of battles, with all the bad guys in the shadows getting briefly touched on.


	70. Chapter 70

_March 11, 2014_

The morning after the party, I woke up with a groan. While I hadn't partaken in the alcohol I still stayed up forever, so I was reluctant as hell to wake.

I sighed, spun onto my back. "Hey X, man? Can you tell me what time it is, please?"

"Of course," X said from the living room. "It's… 9:40 am."

"Thank god for late mornings," I said with a sigh. Then I blinked. "Uh, X? Are the speakers in my room busted?"

"No sir," he said again. It sounded like his voice was coming… closer?

Suddenly, a being stepped into the room. I stared at it, shocked. "Uh… X?"

"Yep," he said.

"W-What?" I sat up and stared at him. "Dude, you're _huge_!"

X quirked his head to the side. The robot body he was currently inhabiting was about six feet tall but somehow looked squat and powerful despite that height, almost like a dwarf, with steel coloration across his form and black highlights. He had the build of a robotic bodybuilder, conveying strength and durability. Like a miniature Hulkbuster. His eyes were big and round blue lights, with no other features on his 'face'. Metal eyelids slid shut in a surprisingly expressive blink, and he chuckled. "Well sir, this is how I decided to design myself. Reckoned it was the best way to perform my duties."

"In a robot body?" I rose from the bed entirely, still staring. "I mean you look cool as shit, don't get me wrong, but… how long have you been doing this for?"

"For quite some time," X said watching as I circled him. "Jarvis and I planned this after we realized that AI such as us may become commonplace one day, and would need some established trust to prevent fear from causing issues. Plus, the idea of building a body tickled me pink, to be honest."

Once again I couldn't help but smile at how X had developed over time. He really had grown fast. Then again, he was an AI… now.

I rubbed the back of my neck. "X, this is gonna take some getting used to."

"I know," X said simply. "But in the meantime, I made you breakfast, and you have a meeting soon."

I had to take a moment to remember what he was talking about. Oh yeah, the vacation was over.

"Damn, you're right," I sighed. "Thanks for reminding me, X."

After a quick cleanup in the bathroom, I sat in the kitchen and started eating the breakfast X made for me. Omelets, yum. With extra time to think, I started asking questions.

"So, powered by an arc reactor?"

"Yep. I have one in the same spot my heart would be if I were organic, and one more for redundancy just in case."

"And what capabilities do you have?"

"Nothing," Tony suddenly strode into my room, surprising the hell out of me. He strode up to a cabinet and pulled out a snack bag that I didn't even know I had. He opened it up and walked up next to me, glaring at X. "Your AI buddy decided to make himself the most boring body of all time."

"I disagree," X replied.

"Then you're **wrong** ," Tony said sourly.

"Wait, no capabilities?" I asked while looking between them.

"I reckoned I'd go for a body that was focused on durability and strength," X said simply.

"And no cool toys," Tony waved a hand at me. "No repulsors, no catom tech, not even a taser! This guy is nothing but raw physical power! He's INSANELY strong and tough, nothing else!" Tony scoffed. "Only half as a much as the Hulkbuster at that."

"Coooool," I said in awe.

"Boring!" Tony sighed sadly. "So very, very boring."

I had to disagree. While I wasn't a genius, I was a comic book nerd, and I could see the appeal of making a robot that, while not super advanced, was instead insanely tough. In some ways, that carried its own versatility. And being so strong? Hell, some robots made a living off nothing but those two things.

"I apologize for disappointing you there, Mr. Stark," X said, sounding like he meant it, his metallic eyelids blinking. "Keep in mind, however, that I am more than capable of carrying my own weaponry as needed. I reckon that's more than enough for me. I'm a simple AI."

"Boring," Tony's near depressed sadness had me busting out laughing.

* * *

Later I was in a room with the 'leaders' of BRIDGE and the Avengers. Technically, Maria Hill was the only leader, and she answered to the Council, who answered to the UN. But among us, an unofficial group had been made for those who made the decisions. And I was nominally part of the group.

We were all sat in her briefing room on the Enterprise floating over New York, sitting in chairs as we discussed the matters of the day. Victoria Hand was speaking then, while Steve, Fury, Maria, and I listened closely.

"We took out the entirety of the weapons dealers," Hand said confidently. "But we found some more advanced weaponry we aren't sure of, things involving alien tech. I've got Doctor Foster seeing if he can track down where it came from."

"Keep me posted," Maria said seriously. "But in the meantime, you said you were having issues with the team makeup?"

"Yes," Hand tapped at the table, bringing up a hologram of her little group. "The biggest issue, as it is, is temperament. You've asked that this group take care of things from the shadows. And so far, they have. The only publicity they've gotten was during the Rio incident, and they've done good work across the world. However, Wanda Maximoff," here, she highlighted the hologram of Scarlet Witch. "Isn't a soldier. She is powerful, but she's not a killer. I'm worried that she isn't suited for the darker aspects of the work."

Maria frowned. "I see. Anyone else?"

"Ghost," Hand highlighted my nemesis. "She only works for us because, since joining, Foster has managed to make vast improvements to the technology that staves off her pain. But she doesn't like working for BRIDGE. SHIELD spent a lot of time using her as an assassin, with HYDRA doing the same from within us. The fact she's doing it again, even as a hero, is making her feel trapped. Once again she's killing people for the promise of being healed."

"I told her she doesn't need to do that," Maria protested.

"It's a psychological thing," Hand sighed. "She knows she doesn't have to. I think, on some level, she's just so used to having her powers that she feels she has to use them."

Fury and Steve looked over at Maria, who raised a hand to her chin thoughtfully. "Okay… well, the fact that we may need therapists for our team members even faster than I thought aside, I've been thinking we might have to do a changeup on the team lineups for a while."

"You have?" I asked, blinking.

Maria nodded. "Not the original Avengers of course, since they are technically contractors, and the lineup is too publically recognizable to mess with. But we may need to change team makeups."

Steve leaned forward. "We should talk about it with Davida and Sam. As team leaders, they'll want to know about it."

"Don't forget the Graveyard survivors," Fury noted. "There are a lot who are willing to become BRIDGE operatives. If we can fold them into our ranks, BRIDGE gets a lot of firepower."

"As long as they're willing to join, we can find space for them," Maria agreed. "I'll set up a meeting."

"Deathlok will likely want to change teams as well," Hand agreed. "He's almost too conditioned for the darker aspect of this life."

"I'll keep that in mind," Maria dismissed the hologram and brought up another, a tiny one of Rio, with color and details enough that I felt like I was literally seeing it. Like someone had shrunk the whole city down. I could see a street where I'd fought some knights and the clearing where Ulik had punched me.

"Now, I'm going to need to request some people to head to Rio to continue to aid in the recovery efforts," Maria said. "First things first-"

"I volunteer," Steve said immediately.

"You've gone enough times," Maria said with a smile. "If you actually took a vacation correctly I'd be more inclined."

Steve shrugged, not the slightest bit offended.

"The Grapplers, Bobbi, Sam, and Barnes have all volunteered. That's more than enough to cover the city at the most critical points," parts of the miniature Rio hologram glowed. "We'll be sending them in tomorrow. But there is something more."

Hill dismissed the hologram and looked around. "Lately, BRIDGE has been… well, winning an arms race. Unintentionally at that," she put up another hologram, images popping up as she spoke. "We got a leg up from the start. Catom armor and weaponry might have been enough to worry certain generals, but then we started adding enhanced members. Dial for one," I let out a little 'ah' sound at the sight of my own face. "Creel, Barnes, Jen, the Maximoffs and the Grapplers. That is a rapid increase to the numbers of superhuman operatives we got along with advanced armor for our more skilled operatives. Then the Graveyard..."

"But that was just us trying to help people," Steve noted. "We didn't even know they were there."

"I know that. We all know that. But the world is full of paranoid generals, and they aren't so certain," Hand pointed out.

Maria nodded. "With the Graveyard survivors, we got a _lot_ of, what does do you call them again Dial?"

Everyone looked at me. "Uh, metahumans? I mean, it's the coolest one."

My reasoning got rolled eyes from Fury, Hand, and Maria, though Steve smiled.

Hill sighed. "Well, fine. We suddenly have a lot of metahumans available to us. Overall, we now have what looks like an army of power armored and metahuman soldiers, with Tony Stark and our scientists giving us more advanced tech beyond that, even with Tony refusing to make actual guns or sharing Iron Man armor. And there are people who are working to make their own."

"Can they do that?" I asked. "I mean, they probably can but are they allowed to?"

"They are," Fury noted, his one eye focusing on the image of a globe that popped up. "We can't exactly stop countries from developing gear and powers of their own. It was always going to happen."

"The problem we're having reports that they've succeeded," Maria said, worried. "No evidence just yet. But the fact is, some places might end up with superpowers in their control that we don't want. North Korea already has been rumored to be trying to make their own Hulk and have been… well, failing, miserably."

We all winced. Gamma radiation, at the best of times, had really bad effects on the human body. At HULK creating levels, it just did not end well. Without the gamma gene and a stable mental outlook, you'd end up with some horrific effects.

"Victoria, can you go ahead and make a report for me?" Maria interrupted my thoughts. "I need to approach some of the world nations with this. I also want to make sure we have everything we may need for the Russia mission today."

Oh right. I had to go to Russia with Creel and… and Coulson's team. Which included Skye. Oh boy.

Victoria Hand nodded, the pink stripe in her hair bouncing with the movement before she walked out. The second the door closed, Maria looked at me.

"Mahmoud, has anything like this happened in the multiverse?" Maria asked. I winced.

"Okay… keep in mind, while I got a LOT out of that little dimensional viewer, it's not like I remember all of it," seriously. Shoving dozens of universes into my brain was enough to drive most people crazy. But then, my information came from slightly less mind-bending 'dimensional viewers.' AKA, comic books and associated media. "But yeah. This did happen a few times. To say the least. China, Britain, Japan, they all had teams."

"Any idea what we'd be in for, then?" Steve asked.

"Not even a little," I said sadly. "The fact is, I can tell you the names and the powers that I'm used to. But there are no guarantees it would be the same."

"Any information whatsoever would be helpful," Fury noted.

"As long as we don't let it inform our 'first' impressions," Maria said. "In fact, only powers, names, and countries. Nothing on their alignments. We can't go in expecting someone who was law-abiding in one universe to be the same in this one, or vice-versa."

I nodded. "I'll make a list. Like I said, it won't be perfect-"

"It's better than nothing," Maria rubbed her chin. "But in the meantime, we should work on getting our own forces trained and ready. Nick?"

I swear it took me a full moment to remember who she was talking about. Then Fury spoke.

"I've got a good location for training our assets ready to go," he pressed some buttons on the holograph emitter, bringing up a location somewhere in the middle of nowhere. "We're already using it, per your orders. But we do need more supplies. We are partially running a zoo there."

"How is Battle Cat, anyway?" I asked curiously.

"Actually, the researchers are calling him Garfield," Fury said. "You know, the big grumpy orange cat?"

"I know, and they're wrong," I said firmly. "For one thing, he's green. But seriously, how is it going with the super animals? I mean, what's our plan for them?"

"We aren't making a Pet Avengers team," Maria noted.

"Spoilsport," I joked. I looked around at everyone. "What is the plan with them?"

"Well, so far it's been seeing what exactly that watch of yours did to them," Fury gestured at the watch. "Somehow, the Omnitrix turned a small army of animals with horrific mutations into healthy and very powerful animals. And then of course, we also use the pictures of the way they used to look to warn our more idiotic scientists about how things like gamma radiation shouldn't be fucked with."

True enough.

"We have started training the dogs though, just doing some basic stuff, to see if we can build K9 units," Fury's single eye narrowed. "Overall, we don't have any plans for them other than running a zoo."

"That's as far as we'll take it for now then," Maria said. "So far it's working, and I don't want to have trouble with Creel or Hulk-type animals running around."

Aw man. No Pet Avengers. For now, at least. Though knowing my luck, I'd end up trapped in Wildmutt form so I could join the team.

"In the meantime, we also have this," Maria dismissed one hologram for another of Antarctica. "Since you told us that the dinosaurs we encountered must have come from this, 'Savage Land', I've had a team hunting for it. They've been… reluctant. Are you sure about this?"

"No," I admitted. Maria gave me a sour look. "Hey, it's a big multiverse. Maybe those dinosaurs came from somewhere else. All I know is that Savage Land is a thing, and it's chock-full of resources in some universes, even being one of the only places you can get vibranium," That got them interested. "At the least, we should make sure a whole lot of endangered species haven't been killed because of the Rio Incident. Hopefully those scientists you sent find something soon."

"They will," Maria said confidently. "We also have a consultant from Africa ready to head over when we need it, and we'll inform you as soon as possible. The consultant has been… busy, taking down poachers in the brush. But she's eager to assis-"

"It's Shanna, isn't it," I interrupted with a sigh.

Fury and Maria looked surprised. Maria nodded.

"Goddamnit, Marvel," I mumbled under my breath before speaking a bit louder. "Okay. Let's hope for the best then."

* * *

 ** _Dr. Bernard Kloss/Paleontologist_**

Bernard looked across the beautiful frozen landscape of Antarctica and breathed in a cold burst of air, making sure not to do it too deeply. Apparently taking deep breaths of the harsly cold air could do severe damage to the lungs. He breathed out again only to blink in confusion. "Huh, no frost."

"What was that, Dr. Kloss?" A woman asked behind him with a touch of an Australian accent. Bernard turned to her. The woman behind him was a little older than he was, wearing the same layers of protection against the cold he was. She carried a device in her right hand that she was using to scan the landscape. They'd chosen a section towards the middle of the continent to scan first, with a BRIDGE quinjet nearby that was ready to take them back when needed.

"Oh, just…" he chuckled. "You know when it's cold, Dr. Bergstrom, and you breath out, get that little puff of smoke? It doesn't seem to be working."

Dr. Dana Bergstrom chuckled, looking back at him. "Well, the air here is so cold that there is no condensation. Pretty much all water vapor that would cause that is, well," she gestured at all the ice around them.

"Makes sense," Bernard said with a chuckle. "Sorry. Last field assignment I had was in Montana. Doesn't get as cold out there."

"I'll bet," she shook her head. "It's not usual research, to tell the truth. I feel like this is a huge waste of time."

"Considering I'm a paleontologist in the middle of Antarctica? I'm inclined to agree," Bernard shook his head. "I mean, you hear stories though."

"Stories?" Dana looked up at him.

"Yeah. Old school 'Lost World' tales. Guys who came out here and end up in a world of dinosaurs. Manage to escape with all sorts of crazy legends."

"I've heard those, too," Dana chuckled. "But I've been out here for years, Dr. Kloss. BRIDGE is going to be disappointed if they expect anything."

Bernard laughed. They walked across the ice for several more minutes, scanning and getting-

 **BOOP!**

Nothing?

 **BOOP!**

"I-It's making a noise," Bernard said, shocked.

"I know," Dana sounded just as confused, staring at the blinking light.

"Well, what does it mean?"

"I don't know! I've never used this thing before, I got the manual-" she patted her pockets and came up with a white sheaf of papers. "Okay uh… wow, Tony Stark made this thing? Okay, so, green means there's an energy signature. The larger the amount of energy used, the brighter the glow."

"...It's pretty damn bright," Kloss noted warily. Indeed, the glow was illuminating the ice below to a nearly ridiculous degree.

"Yeah, I just don't… wait, the manual says if I," Dana flipped a switch. The front of the scanner let out a red beam of light. In front of them, the beam stopped…

The air seemed to split open. The ice floor gave way to dirt and plant-life. A warm burst of air gusted across their faces. The pair stared in shock.

"Holy-"

"Shit," Dana finished.

Then, their shock, something leaped out of a nearby bush. They stared at it, slowly backing away as the creature sniffed the air.

"W-What is that?" Dana hissed at Bernard.

"How the hell should I know?" he hissed back, slowly backing away with her, the two almost hugging.

"You're a paleontologist!"

"All the dinosaurs I ever saw were dead, I'm not a zoologist! Plus, it doesn't have feathers!"

"What does that even mean?!"

 _"_ _Grrr?"_ the creature looked over at them.

The two froze.

The creature leered.

"Okay… it looks like a velociraptor," Bernard whispered. "Pack animal. That means-"

While they were distracted, two more raptors sped out of the jungle. Both scientists screamed.

Tan skin and orange fur swept down from the trees with twin roars.

* * *

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

"Well, until that 'Savage Land' thing pans out," Fury somehow still sounded disbelieving. "We'll be continuing our sessions. Director?"

"Have at it," Maria said wryly. "Dismissed."

We all got up, Fury leading me towards a nearby room. Steve gave me a sympathetic smile as I left with the former Director and current 'something'.

We entered an interrogation room together. Fury picked up a notepad. I sat down at the table.

"Where did we stop last?" I grumbled.

"Don't complain, this is good for you," Fury reminded me.

"Yeah, if you didn't somehow end up asking about every embarrassing moment I ever had…"

"Grow up," despite the bluntness, he didn't sound mean. "This is just part of our work. We need to make sure your backstory in this universe is airtight."

"Yeah, yeah," I rolled my eyes.

We'd done this pretty consistently. Fury would sit down with me and ask me every question possible about my life. Everything from when I got my first driver's license to where I went to kindergarten to who my first crush was. It was like Facebook, but more invasive. Okay, less invasive. But I needed papers and such. As of now, a combination of AI trickery and spy stuff had crafted a pretty good identity for me.

Didn't make retelling my whole life any less embarrassing.

"Okay. So. I crashed my dad's car. It was a black BMW, kind of the nicest car my family ever had. German engineering meant my dad's car had a small dent. The other car, though, was a Prius. So from there, it was me working my butt off to make up for…"

After another session of interrogation, I was off to exercise. With our vacations technically over, it was time to get back to intense workouts. Starting with cardio.

Nat and I ran side by side through Central Park in our workout gear. It was nice and sunny. We were passing by people sitting on park benches, having picnics, running up to food carts. The smell of nature filled the air as sunlight came down through the trees. There was a peaceful nature to it all, something almost soft.

Nat and I hadn't come on our own. We'd had three other running partners. But uh…

"On your left," Steve said calmly as he passed by. For about the fifth time. Nat and I shared a look.

"On your left!" Bucky huffed lightly.

Nat smirked.

For a moment we were quietly running along. After a moment, we could hear what sounded like a train puffing toward us. Soon, Sam had caught up with us. "They did it again, didn't they?!"

"Yep," Nat said placidly.

"God damn it!" Sam put the pedal to the medal, rushing forward as fast as he could.

I would have laughed if I wasn't panting so hard. Nat, being far more fit, was able to do it for me. She tapped my shoulder. "Come on. Let's take a break."

"Oh thank god!" I stumbled. Nat shoved me over to an empty bench, letting me collapse into it like the cool dude I was. "How do they-?"

"Don't compare yourself to them," Nat rolled her eyes. "Steve and Bucky are super-soldiers and Sam has been training for a lot longer than you."

"And I guess I'm just slowing you down?" I asked.

"Yep," she grinned at the annoyed groan I got. "Don't worry. You'll get there."

Nat sat down next to me leaned back, arms outstretched on the backrest.

"...Remember all that time back, when I asked you to help me with dating trouble?" I asked.

"Yay, your love life, the highlight of my lonely days," Nat teased.

I winced and said nothing.

"Oh, you're serious," Nat leaned forward. "What happened?"

I quickly ran down what happened with Skye. How I'd essentially gotten turned down. I mean, was it even okay to act so affected by it? My problems weren't that big, I should get over it a bit.

She smacked me in the back of the head the second I said that. "Now stop. Everybody has this problem, don't be so down on yourself."

I took the hit without complaint. "Well, I can't help it. I don't want to start talking myself up. The last thing I need is to get super arrogant while I have the universe's most potentially powerful weapon on my wrist."

Like Ben had. Season 3 of Alien Force, man. Adorable my tan ass.

Nat pursed her lips, displeased. "Look, it's fine to be sad about something like this. We all get heartbroken. What's your real issue?"

I thought about what Skye said. That she might have said yes if I'd asked sooner. And I realized that it was part of what was bothering me.

"Do you think I'm not proactive enough? Or… that I don't really do things for myself?"

Nat frowned. "You know I'm not a psychiatrist."

"Like that matters? I just want advice from my friend," I asked, leaning back to look at her. A little kid flying a kite passed by. Their parents chased him, laughing together. Nat followed them with her eyes before looking back at me.

"I do. You're getting better at it. I mean, when you went out with Steve just for yourself, the two of you buying crap just to have fun-"

"It wasn't all 'crap'," I grumbled.

"It was good. You just having fun. It was good for both of you, really. But you need to start stepping forward and doing things for yourself. Ask a girl out when you're scared to, hang out with people for the sake of it. Take that attitude you have for all this superhero work and use it in your life."

I looked over at her. For a moment we were quiet.

"You going to take that advice for yourself?"

"Probably," Nat shrugged. "Maybe if we do, Steve will too. I swear, he probably hasn't kissed a girl since 44."

"Uh…" I looked at her again. She smirked, ruby red lips suddenly very prominent.

"I don't count."

"Bullshit," I grumbled. "The only woman hotter than you is Je-" I stopped, wincing.

Nat gave me a smile. "Oh? Now that explains a lot."

"Damn it," I grumbled.

"...We might die tomorrow," Nat said simply.

I nodded. "Yeah. That's a good point."

We might die tomorrow. So get things done as soon as possible.

Except that I had a flight to catch. Damnit.

* * *

After we got back to the tower, I showered, got dressed, and headed to the briefing room. Creel gave me a nod as I entered. I nodded back, looking around as I entered. Skye and I winced as we met eyes.

In the room were Maria, Creel, Coulson, Fitz-Simmons, May, and Skye. Maria looked around as we sat down, nodding. "We were recently requested by the Russian government to send in a BRIDGE team and Avengers to aid them with an issue."

"Just 'an issue'?" Coulson asked.

"They won't say completely what is going on," Maria said.

"Oh, wow, the Russian government is being cagey? What're the odds?" Skye said sarcastically.

"Skye," Coulson said with a frown.

"What? Russia was basically the Empire from Star Wars in the eighties," she scoffed.

"Things are, and were, a lot more complicated than that," May admonished seriously. "Don't let your perceptions cloud your judgment during a mission."

"...fine," Skye mumbled.

I don't think anyone was convinced our former rebel hacker was really willing to let that go, but Maria continued.

"Your mission is to head to Russia and figure out what is going on. Liaison with the appointed contact and work with the Russian government on behalf of B.R.I.D.G.E," Maria scowled. "It's one of the nations that we have listed as possibly building weaponry and making superhuman powers. Be prepared for that. We don't know if they are one of the nations, how far along they are, or what they could be doing. That is part of your job. No actual spying of course. No need to ignite issues between BRIDGE and Russia. But if you see something, say something," she looked around at us. "Understood?"

"Understood."

"Got it."

"Sure thing."

That seemed to be enough for her. "Good. Dismissed."

We all got up and walked out. Coulson waited until we were all in the hallway before speaking. "Bring your armor and gauntlet, Dial, Creel. I don't think we'll need it, but I'd rather safe than sorry. Skye, bring your armor as well. I'd like to have the options available."

"On it boss," Skye said with a nod.

"May, I want the Bus ready to go in five."

"You got it," May turned and headed to the hanger.

"As far as we know, we don't have a clue what sort of threat we're facing. Be prepared for anything," Coulson narrowed his eyes. "So. We're off to Russia."

Creel shook his head. "Damn. I am really bad with cold weather."

"It's April," I reminded him. "Can't be that cold."

Everyone looked at me like I was crazy.

"Mahmoud," Maria called from inside the briefing room. For some reason, she sounded as though she was moments from stabbing someone. So it scared the shit out of me when the next words out of her mouth were, "Can you come in here?"

Fitz frowned. "She sounds angry."

"...Maybe I can escape?"

"Go face the firing squad," Skye teased. Then we met eyes and both winced.

"Yeah, I'll go," I said hurriedly.

"Good luck," Simmons whispered.

I stepped back inside. "Uh, hey Director. Something going on with the mission?"

"In a way," Maria looked at me with harsh eyes.

"Hello," X raised a hand behind her in a little wave. "I was recommending to Director Hill that I come along on your mission."

" **Explain. Now.** "

I winced. "Okay, X, I appreciate it buddy, but maybe introduce yourself after we tell people."

"Dial!"

"It wasn't my fault!"

"Did I come at a bad time?"

Goddamnit, X.

* * *

On the Bus later, Skye, Simmons, and Fitz listened as I explained about X. We were in the science lab of the Bus, watching a model of X and Jarvis' new bodies.

"Wait, so your personal AI butler has a body now?" Skye asked, looking mystified. "How long has he been planning on that?"

"I don't know."

"I thought you had more control over him," Simmons had a worried look on her face.

"I have no control X doesn't let me have," I frowned. "X is my friend. Not my slave or something."

"Simmons didn't mean that," Fitz put a hand on Simmons' shoulder, the British girl still worried. "But it doesn't worry you that X just… made a body for himself? With no input from anyone else?"

"I mean, a little," I admitted. "But it's kind of like when a friend works out, or has plastic surgery done, right? You can't be mad at someone for wanting something for themselves."

"Mahmoud, this isn't exactly the same," Simmons protested. "This isn't self-improvement or a change to someone's appearance. X made a body for himself! A body with beyond superhuman durability and strength. And he can already control the Iron Legion drones. You should at least talk to him."

"It's X," I said for emphasis. "I know him, down to his soul."

"And if he gets reprogrammed and turned against us?" Fitz pointed out. "How much damage can he do?"

"Or if I get brainwashed?" I pointed out in turn, actually getting angry now. "Or any of us? We're all different kinds of dangerous. Hell Fitz, you can make a nuke out of baking soda and Twizzlers!"

"That would make a small bomb, at worst!" Fitz argued.

"Wait, really?" Skye asked, started.

"We're just playing Devil's Advocate," Simmons said before Fitz could explain. "I know X. Fitz and Skye do as well. But others will ask these questions. They'll even be worried about having cybernetics adding to them, like Deathlok was, and getting controlled that way. Artificial Intelligence, robotics, cybernetics, people have been tackling this for years! You need to be ready to have answers for them beyond 'he is my friend.' Because it won't be us asking these questions one day."

"I'm a little worried, myself," Simmons gave Fitz a look when he spoke. He raised his hands up defensively. "Hey, I like Jarvis and X! But this does mean we're much closer to the singularity than we were a week ago! If Jarvis and X have been able to do this, who knows what's happening in the rest of the world?"

"The singularity?" I said. "That… thing about robots making robots?"

"Kind of," Skye said. "It's more that they'll start designing smarter versions of themselves. One makes a smarter computer, makes a smarter one, on and on until we end up with one that can control reality with its mind."

"Not quite, but close," Fitz shrugged. "This isn't the same. X and Jarvis haven't made smarter AI or anything."

"I'd have to throw a baby shower if they did," I mumbled.

"What do you get an AI that had a kid?" Skye wondered.

"The point is," Simmons said. "Fitz is right. While this is nowhere near the singularity, this is still AI making themselves bodies superior to organic ones. People will start screaming about the robot overlords. It doesn't matter how logical we try to be, it will happen."

"Well everyone and Elon Musk can suck it," I grumbled.

"That's an image," Skye said wryly.

We stood in awkward silence for a bit. The sound of the Bus settling a bit while we flew was side by side with the various equipment shining blue lights on us.

"In uh," Fitz coughed. "In the meantime, did you want to make any more changes to your armor, Skye?"

"Changes?" I asked, blinking. Skye winced.

"Yes," Fitz flipped the hologram of X and Jarvis away to replace them with Skye's armor. Except, it looked… different. For one, she'd changed the colors to be blue, a blue so dark it was almost black. For another, the design overall was changed as well. "First, since we had to change out the arc reactor for your Jury Rigg power source," Stark couldn't have too many arc reactors out in the world. "I've been monitoring it ever since you explained that Jury Rigg had somehow created a self-contained fusion reactor."

"I play a lot of Fallout. And it uh… kind of effects how Jury Rigg designed that thing," I admitted.

"Dude, you shoved a nuclear reactor into my armor," Skye noted. Oh boy. Yeah, that was kind of an iffy thing to-

"Well, it's fusion," Fitz noted. "Not fission. Much cleaner for one, and much safer. Really, the public perception of nuclear energy is far overblown, it's become so much safer nowadays!"

"Still though," Skye mumbled.

Simmons chuckled. "Well, since Skye was worried about 'becoming a Hulk'-"

"Kind of looking forward to it, to be honest," Skye admitted. I decided not to mention that if anything actually did hit with enough force to cause the power source's tough casing to crack and leak radiation, the blow would have killed her anyway.

"Fitz started studying the armor, finding ways to modify it," Simmons flipped through the suit. "Most importantly-"

"No more Iron Man style helmet?" I asked Skye. I tried not to sound offended.

"Well… it just felt so claustrophobic in there!" she protested as the hologram zoomed in to show the new helmet. It had been replaced with a clear section that made a sort of diamond-shape over the face. "I like this a lot more. Makes me feel less like I'm trapped in a coffin."

"We also changed the propulsion for what I call 'pressure repulsion'! While the 'air jets' you created as Jury Rigg were fast, they were also very loud-"

"Insanely loud!" Skye complained. "Even Hulk complained about it!"

"So I redesigned it!" Fitz sounded particularly proud. Then he started speaking science while I pretended to understand, before ending in, "So now it's far quieter, and the nature of the pressure fields are made specifically for stealth. It's not nearly as fast, but much quieter."

"I'll just trust you on that one," I said weakly.

"And I also made this!" he flipped a switch. And the holograms shoulders popped up to reveal a pair of shoulder guns. "They're loaded with both Night-Night and regular bullets! So that, you know, she can-"

"Take people in alive or at least not burn the corpse to ash," Skye said, with a chuckle. "I mean, thanks for the plasma gun palms, but we can't always set the world on fire."

"You aren't practicing the right problem resolution skills," I grumbled.

Skye looked at me. "Hey uh… you okay with this?"

That was hard to say. I'd made the armor for her. I'd made it as best as I could, to help her with her hacking while protecting her. I'd put every bit of Jury Rigg's tiny red body into it. Now, looking at the suit… she'd taken my gift and made it her own thing. I had no idea how to feel. On the one hand, she was using it. On the other, she'd let Fitz change it so much that it barely resembled my original design.

I sucked in my displeasure. "It's fine. It's armor. And if it doesn't do its job to your satisfaction, then you should be allowed to change. It's cool. I don't mind. It's fine."

"Thanks," Skye said, relieved. "I'm really glad you're okay with it."

She went over to Fitz and I quickly walked out while they talked.

* * *

We were about three hours into our nine-hour flight when I got bored, went into the cockpit, and asked May to train me. She said yes and left the plane on autopilot, which surprised the hell out me, considering how standoffish she usually was.

"Okay," May stood in the cargo bay in her workout clothes, holding a staff in her hands while looking me up and down. "How far has Natasha trained you with weapons?"

"Not a lot?" I said hesitantly, twisting the wooden sword in my hands. "Her main goal was making sure my hand-to-hand combat was solid first. She taught me some basics."

"Good," May said.

Then I was on the floor coughing in pain while May hummed to herself. "Okay. So you managed to block one hit."

"P-Progress," I mumbled, raising a thumb up.

She smirked, raising me back up when I lifted a hand to be helped. "Okay, let's go over this then. What have you learned?"

I raised my wooden sword. "Well, Nat mostly teaches me, has me practice, then we spar."

"Okay, what have you learned?"

I took a guard stance. May looked me over, then adjust me a bit. "You're using a single sword when in combat, right? How comfortable are you with holding it in one hand?"

"It's pretty lightweight," I said as an answer.

"Well, we'll leave that for later," May took a moment to adjust my stance again. "Okay. You're not tall, but you've got a large build. You can use that to your advantage. Use your strength and weight advantage. Remember, leverage is how you get your damage. Puff your chest out, Captain America style. You aren't using your arms for the swings."

She led me through the moves, advising me over and over, then sparring briefly. After that, she showed me some more techniques, keeping me moving.

"How does an agent of SHIELD learn sword techniques, anyway?" I asked curiously at one point, the two of us side by side.

"Same way we all do," May said with a shrug, taking a swing that I followed. "SHIELD Operations agents are trained for every possible encounter we can be trained for, and any weapon we might need to use. Swords, bows, crossbows, even alien weaponry."

"Seriously?" I asked when she said the last one.

"We weren't given actual alien weaponry, but we were taught to be ready to understand them as quickly as possible if need be," she said with a shrug.

"Wish I could have gone to Operations school," I said with a chuckle.

"You're getting one on one attention from BRIDGE's top martial artists and spies. That's a lot more personal training than the best students of Operations got," May pointed out.

"Oh… Yeah, guess I don't need it," I looked over at her. "So uh… what do you think about this whole Russia thing?"

"I don't," she said.

"Oh, good."

She kept swinging while talking. "High Guard," she said, announcing the next stance we'd take. Once we moved to start swinging from a much higher stance, she spoke again. "I said it before. Only go into a mission with information. Not perception, prejudice, or emotion. Right now, we only know that Russia requested assistance. Assistance that requires Avengers, apparently. What does that mean?"

"We doing a Yoda lesson now?" I asked. "I have to look for the deeper meanings in everything?"

"We could just spar again, Anakin," she teased.

"First, hurtful," May huffed out an amused chuckle. "Second… they might be worried. But… I don't know. They just asked for 'Avengers'. Without really specifying."

"Go on."

"...They just wanted any Avenger. Didn't matter who. And any BRIDGE team. So they don't need a specific person or team?" I asked, confused. "Why? Why not request the exact people they need, or explain what the problem is?"

"There's a reason we have Creel and you along," May shook her head "Plow guard," we moved into position and she continued. "Two very versatile Avengers. For most any situation we can face. With Coulson and the rest of us, the team that has dealt with maybe the most dangerous situations in the shortest amount of time of any BRIDGE team."

"...Should be interesting," I mumbled.

"Yeah," May's next swing practically split the air.

I took a nap after the workout with May. When I woke up and checked, we were about an hour or so from Moscow. I decided to grab a bite to eat. When I left one of the little rooms set up in the Bus for sleeping, I noticed Fitz-Simmons sitting nearby. They were looking through a sheaf of papers.

"Hey guys," I said politely as I passed by to grab a sandwich from the bar. "What're you up to?"

For some reason, they shared a nervous look. I wandered over to sit with them. Taking a big bite of the sandwich, I looked between the two. "What'd I miss?"

"Nothing!" both blurted out very quickly. I frowned.

"Well, color me convinced."

Simmons sighed. "I don't mean to be rude, Mahmoud, but this really is our business."

"Oh. Yeah, that's fair," I took another bite of my sandwich. "I'll head out then. Best of luck guys."

"Thank you," Fitz sighed. "We'll need it."

I got up and left to find someone else to bother.

* * *

 ** _Leopold Fitz/Scientist of BRIDGE_**

Simmons and Fitz waited until Mahmoud had left before opening the files in front of them.

"You don't think I was too mean, do you?" Simmons said worriedly.

"What?" He stared at her in confusion, then shook his head. "No, no! You were right. This isn't his business. We need to deal with it ourselves."

Simmons nodded, then looked down at the files. "Okay. So they're going through background checks right now. That means we need to approach Coulson and let him know about our decision. That we're leaving, but we have people ready to help him."

"You don't think he'll say no to them, do you?" Fitz asked.

"Why would he?" Simmons asked.

"Because he might be mad at us?" Fitz sighed. He leaned back in his chair, thinking carefully. "This whole thing is just messing with my head," he rubbed his hands on his face with a groan. "How do we tell Coulson?"

"We have to be upfront, Fitz," Simmons raised her folder like she was carrying a certain star-spangled shield. "Coulson has us for this mission. After that…"

The two looked at each other. After a long moment, they seemed to sag.

"...Are we really doing this?" Fitz asked. "Leaving Coulson? And Skye, and May? After everything? Should we?"

Simmons didn't seem to have anything to say to that.

* * *

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

 _Later, in Russia_

"H-H-How is it like t-t-this in April!?" I stuttered, rubbing my arms as we stepped off the plane into a world of ice and snow. All around us, soldiers and press had shown up. Usually, I'd have been really nervous to see all this stuff

"Y-Y-You should have brought a jacket," Creel mumbled behind me.

Coulson led the group down the steps, Skye behind him, them May, Fitz, Simmons, me, and Creel.

"So Fitz hasn't found a way to replicate the fusion cell you made," Simmons whispered to me. "But it seems to be capable of creating vast amounts of clean energy. Not as much as an arc reactor, but enough that we can use it with the quantum batteries and-"

"Simmons, hold in your scientist until after we meet the scary people!" I hissed, trying to warm up while we walked past Lola, Coulson's sweet convertible. "And when we get warm! Seriously, this isn't jacket-wearing weather, this is lava-swimming weather! I want hot cocoa. Right the hell now."

"Good afternoon!" A smiling Russian man was waiting at the bottom of the cargo bay doors of the Bus as we left the plane. He was short, overweight, and balding, with a very wide smile on his face. When he spoke, it was lightly accented, the way all ambassadors seemed to master with time. "Agent Coulson! We were quite eager to meet you!"

"I can tell," Coulson said wryly, holding a hand out to shake, which the Russian man took. "Good to see you again, Boris."

"Boris?" Skye asked as we joined the pair. "Really?"

"It was that or Yuri," Boris chuckled. Still, his eyes did flash with a hint of annoyance, and Coulson gave Skye a look that she returned with an apologetic one. "My name is Boris Prokofiev, from the foreign consulate. And you, young lady?"

"Uh, Skye," she shook his hand. "I-Is my name, I mean. Sorry, I didn't mean to insult you or anything. Sometimes my mouth runs ahead of my brain."

Boris looked startled, then smiled. "Quite all right."

We all started introducing ourselves until Boris got to Creel and I. Then he let out a little gasp. "Ah, the Avengers! It is so nice to meet you, quite nice indeed!"

He shook my hand so hard I found myself wincing. "Uh, thanks. Nice to meet you as well."

"Same here?" Creel asked, giving me a look like 'the hell is he so happy about?'

"Oh, I really am so glad you are here!" Boris turned to the crowd and hit what I now realized was a mic on his lapel. When he spoke again, it was in Russian, my Omnitrix translating. It was helped by the fact that now "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome BRIDGE and the Avengers!" speakers rang out at the same time as his voice.

"Uh, what the hell?" Skye whispered to Coulson as the crowd clapped half-heartedly.

"...Propaganda," Coulson said with dawning realization.

"And look who is here to welcome them!" Boris held up a hand. Instinct led me to step forward, twisting at the Omnitrix, May to my left and Creel to my right as the sound of an electricity crackling and the smell of ozone filled the air.

"Is Thor coming?" Simmons asked.

"No," I said as we all stared at the sight of an absolutely massive white Armored Personnel Carrier with a giant red star on the side showing up, the back opening as it stopped. "It's not Thor."

We all watched as they stepped out.

A man in a red armored suit with a white star on it, carrying a grey triangular-shaped shield with a rounded top, the face of it displaying a two-headed griffon. I couldn't see his hair or eye color because he had a red mask covering his face much like Steve's, but what I could see of his jaw spoke of a certain strength. He was also built. Muscles on top of muscles. Just like Steve. Of course. He waved a hand proudly at the crowd as he exited, getting a cry of happiness from them.

Next came a young woman wearing what had to be one of the skimpiest outfits I'd ever seen, basically a very brief purple swimsuit, apparently unbothered by the cold. Her hair was a deep black, almost blue, and she was incredibly beautiful. Because of course, she was. She had a very haughty look on her face, flipping her hair as she followed the red-suited man.

The next person seemed as disgruntled with the cold as I was. Didn't stop me from whispering 'oh shit,' when he hopped out. He had slicked back black hair, piercing black eyes, and was also built. Not like the guy in red though. This guy was lithe, built for speed, not strength. And of course, he wore a vest of lion skin that had been sewn and dyed to look like a lion's face, including the glowing yellow eyes, with the lion's mane left as a collar and the center split open so that his hairy chest was kept bare. He eyed us smugly as he hopped down from the APC. When he noticed me, his eyes flickered in a way that made me feel very uncomfortable. Like I was a deer in front of a rifle.

Then a loud boom filled the air as the next person stepped out. Almost as tall and wide as the Hulkbuster, it was deep crimson with touches of steel, made of dozens of metal plates interlocking together. Its helmet was simple, just a single line of clear material in a T shape to see through over the eyes. It's shoulder plates were massive, same with its palms, and I could see small bursts of electricity arcing over its limbs, the cause of that ozone we'd smelled, as it clanked over to join its allies.

Darkness followed. I could talk about the golden armor he wore, with giant horns on the helmet and a skull over the chest that glowed red from the eyes and mouth with unholy light. But the darkness that wore the armor was my real focus. It looked like a darkly muscled giant as large as Hulk. But it felt like he was slowly sucking in the world around him. As though all light didn't exist in his presence. It felt hard to breathe near him. Like my very life was pulled into the direction of that beast. I touched the Omnitrix and breathed deeply, closing my eyes. For some reason, after a moment of that, I felt better.

When I opened my eyes again, darkness guy was smiling in my direction. So was lion skin guy. I glared at them. Red suit guy glared at Creel, while Creel crossed his massive arms beside me.

Behind the group of obvious superhumans, a big guy in a green Russian military uniform with blonde hair rushed out of the APC's driver's seat and ran over to join the group.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Boris said as the group walked over to stand across from us. "Please greet Vanguard!"

The red-suited guy waved his arm and got an eruption of noise.

"Crimson Dynamo!"

The massive armored man let out a burst of electric noise.

"Fantasma!"

The young woman flipped her hair and released a burst of purple sparks with the motion.

"The Hunter!"

Lion skin, who I was now pretty sure had the last name of Kravinoff, let out a cry that sounded half happy and half vicious roar.

"And Chernobog!"

The darkness raised his arms high. Against all odds, the affront to nature that pulled on my soul got a standing ovation.

"Your Winter Guard!"

"What the hell is this?" Creel mumbled behind me.

"Propaganda," Coulson said again. "Straighten your chests guys. We're fighting a very different battle."

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ Damn. Hard to really figure out how much to say.

Well, let me start with the big one. The Winter Guard. Yeah, they're a Marvel thing, but why are they here when they don't exist in the MCU? Well, there is an explanation for that, but I figure I'll let you guys guess until next chapter. Until then, if anyone needs to know who they are, the members I wrote have their pages on the Marvel wiki, but keep in mind, they'll be different here for numerous reasons. Gonna be fun! Oh, the hunter isn't a Winter Guard guy, but I figure there are enough clues that you guys already know who he is.

And then, of course, there is X and his body. I know people were probably picturing all sort of things when it came to him. But X is a simple soul. He just decided to give himself a balls-out _tough_ body, something like Atomic Robo (Who was a partial influence for the design along with Bob from Overwatch, Robocop or Judge Dredd. Oh, you say Dredd isn't a robot? Have you ever seen him with his helmet off in the comics? Checkmate. But yeah, X is superhumanly tough, strong, and has insane durability. Just wait till I put a gun in his hand's man...

Now, we also have the Savage Land. Not much to say beyond that it is a thing.

And then we have all the little interpersonal drama between everyone. Since the story is going to involve these characters in particular, I'll try to spend a lot of time on these people in between the fights.

Oh, yeah. There's going to be fights.

Anyways, let me know what you guys thought, please update the TVTropes page for the story, and have a great rest of your day. You guys are awesome!


	71. Chapter 71

_March 11, 2014_

 ** _Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD_**

"You shouldn't have done this, Boris," Coulson said fiercely. "Springing this on me, when my team and I are here to help?"

Coulson and the others had been escorted to the apparent headquarters for the Winter Guard, a location called the Tagansky Protected Command Point in the middle of Moscow. Coulson looked around the underground bunker they stood in. Boris' office was designed like a big square, with bookshelves behind his wooden desk and a large map of Asia on the wall behind his chair.

"When the hell did the Russian government set all this up?! The Tagansky Protected Command Point was defunct!" Coulson crossed his arms.

"We call it the Winter Guard Hall now," Boris said cheerily.

"Yeah, Winter Guard," Coulson eyed Boris. "You've been at this for a while Boris. You know how insane this all is."

"Is it?" Boris still had a cheery smile on his face. But his eyes had hardened. "Why shouldn't we have our own heroes? Have people to help us without needing to call on the Avengers?"

Coulson shook a head. "I don't care about that personally. What I care about is calling us over here as some pedantic way to show up the Avengers and BRIDGE and make your team look good."

"Is that what happened?" Boris asked, doing his best to sound confused.

"You had press waiting as we landed. My team shivering in the cold, there to do a job instead of wasting time trying to look good, and your team arriving in full armor and gear. Image is everything, Boris."

"We really do try to show up in our best attire," Boris chuckled. His smile faded after a moment. "Coulson, I was told to do that for my country. That I wouldn't be allowed to ask for help unless I made it look like we didn't need it. To make our first superhero team look good. For my country," he sighed. "I didn't even have time to introduce Vanguard's sister, she's still in training. We saw an opportunity to be the first country in the world to have a team of superheroes. One independent of the Avengers or BRIDGE."

"...Why are we here, Boris?" Coulson said slowly. "To make your sponsored supers look good?"

"No," Boris rose to his feet. "Despite the introduction, my hope is that your team and mine can work together to solve a problem," he walked around the desk, picking up a folder. "The day before my government approached your director, a military base was attacked. As of now, our team is young. Untested. And we do not want to take any chances."

Coulson stared at the folder with his arms when Boris held it out making sure to take his time. Boris continued to hold the folder out. Finally, Coulson reached out and took the folder, opening it as Boris sat back against his desk.

"What are your team's capabilities?" Coulson asked while reading the papers. "I'll need to know that if you want us to cooperate."

"For that, I recommend reading our files and speaking with Mikhail," Boris nodded behind him. Coulson turned to look at the man who entered.

The APC driver that had brought in the Winter Guard was as tall as Creel, with a blonde flat-top haircut and Russian uniform. He nodded politely when Coulson met his eyes, face neutral.

"Major Mikhail Uriokovitch is the one in charge of organizing the team, and is the one who speaks with them most often," Boris explained as Mikhail strode in.

"Good afternoon," Mikhail said, his accent far thicker than Boris'. He held his hand out to shake, which Phil took.

"Good to meet you," Coulson said with a sigh before turning to Boris. "I need to speak to my superiors first."

"Please do," Boris said. "But remember, Russia's press is very efficient. They likely already know."

Coulson smiled just a bit. Boris smiled as well. Both smiles showed just a bit of falseness.

"I already know about it," Maria said over the phone to Coulson as he paced the length of the hallway he'd ended up in. "Give me news I don't have."

"Gladly," Coulson replied. "This team has been in the works for years. Super Soldier experiments, studies into exotic energies, the works from what I can find in these files. The only people who've done more so far is HYDRA."

"I feel like there's a 'but' coming," Maria noted.

"But," Coulson said with another turn on the carpet to pace back. "This is clearly a sanitized version of the truth. So I'm taking the files with a grain of salt. Till then, here's what I know about the 'Winter Guard'."

Coulson opened up the folder in his hands.

"In some ways, we're actually the cause for this, unintentionally."

"How so?" Maria asked.

"When the Hercules program kicked off and started revealing HYDRA operatives across the world, Russia was one of the ones who got the message. They went after HYDRA with a vengeance, killed dozens of operatives and raided almost as many bases. A few of them research facilities, others were similar to the Graveyard."

Maria didn't speak for a moment. "That is just… horrifying."

"You should see the pictures," Coulson said without a hint of humor. "But along with all that was research files. Lots of failures, but some promising avenues were opened up thanks to that. They burned what was useless, killed anyone unwilling to work for them, and started working on making their own heroes. And from the looks of it, they succeeded. Got enough from a combination of stolen research and good old ingenuity and hard work to make their own heroes."

"And what did they get?" Maria asked.

"One by one, we've got Vanguard, real name Nikolai Krylenko," Coulson opened to an image of Vanguard. The large red suited man was front flipping through the air, shield in mid-flight. "Former military, since birth. His dad was a nuclear physicist, and his twin sister, Laynia, is a prospect to one day join Winter Guard. He's got a good military record, lots of medals to strap on his uniform. Their Captain America. Like Deathlok, he's been enhanced with a combination of cybernetics and serums. They claim he's even more powerful. I'm going to take that with a grain of salt."

"Don't," Maria said through the phone. "While I agree he might be weaker, we can't make assumptions."

Coulson hesitated, then sighed and flipped to the next photo. "Okay, now we have… Sergei Kravinoff."

"I know that name," Maria sounded surprised.

"Kraven the Hunter, guy made a name for himself in Africa," Coulson picked up an image of the man wrestling a hippo. Wrestling. A. Hippo. The most dangerous animal in Africa, and he had a smile on his face as he wrapped his arms around the giant gray animals neck. "We had some records of him, but nothing to intensive. Rumor goes he's a hunter who prides himself on killing through stealth and his bare hands."

"Maybe less of a rumor, now," Maria said.

"I'm guessing you're pulling up the files as I go?"

"Do you even need to ask?"

Coulson smirked. "No. Anyways, the next one is Crimson Dynamo. Technology they claim is based on Vanko's old research."

"As in Ivan Vanko? The guy who attacked Stark years back?"

"As well as Anton's and some old Tesla designs apparently," Coulson held up a photo of the giant armored suit lifting a tank. "They don't say who the pilot is. But this thing looks like it has some impressive guns. Maybe even big enough to give Tony a run for his money."

"Can't help but notice you're less defensive when it comes to Stark," Maria said wryly.

Coulson chuckled. "Well, this is where it gets really weird. Fantasma, aka… nothing."

"Her real name is 'Fantasma'?"

"Like Cher, I guess," Coulson shook his head. "Claims she's a magic user."

"You must be kidding," Maria sighed.

"Nope. They say she learned it by instinct, and got some lessons afterward from… some place they redacted," Coulson switched his phone to speaker, placing it on the ground. He was tired of holding it to his ear. "Okay, she's sort of their Wanda, basically. It's not a perfect comparison, obviously. But she can manipulate minds, block attacks with shields, and even fly."

"So she's weird," Maria simplified. "And the last one?"

"Chernobog."

"The Slavic God of Darkness?" Maria asked, surprised.

"Maybe? Weird thing is, there is almost too much info on this guy. If he even is a guy. He showed up at the same time as the Rio incident."

"Russia did have some people on the groun-"

"No, he showed up in Russia," Coulson interrupted. "Just, poof. In the middle of a village in the home of some guy. Then he started absorbing energy from all around him. Focused on the sick and dying. When the Russian government found out, they saw the chance to get a 'god' on their side. He's superhumanly strong-"

"Feels like everyone is," Maria grumbled.

"Fair. He's also got the power to absorb energy. Sort of reminds me of Marcus Daniels. Not a great memory. He's… well, he's terrifying," Coulson laid out the photos on the floor and started taking pictures, sending them to Maria. "The last one is Chernobog."

"Holy…"

The image was the black skinned monster in the midst of devouring a deer. Blood dripped down black jaws and teeth, the monster leering at the camera.

"Yeah, apparently they really want to lean into the 'God of Darkness' thing," Coulson mumbled.

"...We'll have to deal with that, maybe ask Thor if he's lost another enemy," Maria said at last. "So the question follows. With all these people, why are you there? Why have us send you, insist on having Avengers along? For propaganda?"

"...I don't think so," Coulson said raising one last picture, unable to hold back his disgust.

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

Creel and I stood side by side in what looked like a lounge. At the least it had a pool table in the center. Across from us were the Winter Guard. And they were close enough that I could actually recognize the celebrities they looked like.

Kind of annoying, as powers go. I can tell the important people if they're played by celebrities I recognize, but only if I actually recognized them. Should have spent more time on IMBD. I looked them over, taking in as much as I could.

In a rough and modulated voice, Crimson Dynamo spoke. He sounded like an evil Terminator. Yeah, an evil Terminator. He spoke in Russian, so that Creel and I couldn't understand. Which meant my decision to keep the Omnitrix's universal translator out of public knowledge had worked out.

 _"They are staring at us,"_ Crimson Dynamo growled. He was at the back of the room, standing unnaturally still while lightning arced across his metal arms.

"Let them," Fantasma said in Russian as well. She crossed her legs and eyed me back. She looked like Kalinka Fox, a Russian cosplayer in my world. She was short, with long black hair, bright blue eyes, and a confident smirk. "These are Avengers? They're big, aren't they?"

"The shapeshifter," the Hunter said. Kraven. Very clearly Kraven. As played by Manu Bennett, the actor I knew for his role as Deathstroke. Weird. Dude was still eyeing me like my ribs would make a good sheath. "He's listening. Watching. And the bald one is ready for a fight."

"Alloy and Dial," Vanguard growled. "Both are shifters."

 ** _"Delicious…"_** Everyone in the room except the darkness winced as a smooth voice drifted into our ears. Like a knife gently slicing through meat. **_"Can you taste it? Their souls are mutated. Exotic flavors are such a treat. And the pain on the bald one's soul, that taste of desperate hope is-"_**

"Chernobog, none of us can understand you," Fantasma said with a wince. "Talk normally you oaf."

A huffing noise beat in sync with my heart. My heartbeat seemed to slow and speed up to match it. Took a second to realize he was laughing.

"Apologies. I'm simply excited," Chernobog chuckled. I didn't like what that horrific knife on my earlobes made me feel and Creel growled. "Can I eat them?"

"Try it," I snarled.

That got the whole group to stop and stare at me.

"You speak Russian?" Fantasma said, sounding surprised.

"I cheat," I replied easily. "Any chance you guys want to talk to us, or just keep musing?"

Chernobog laughed again.

"Dude, stop, seriously," I grumbled. "You damn, living edgelord emo deity."

He stopped, grinning with black triangular teeth. "Oooh? That is interesting. Haven't been called that before. Is it a compliment?"

Creel cracked his neck, drawing the attention of the room. "Okay, in case it wasn't clear, I don't speak Russian. But if that thing talks again, I'm ripping its arms off."

The tension in the room racketed upward. Vanguard's hand tightened on his shield strap. "Speak again, _yobany urod_ , and I will break your limbs."

 _"Vanguard,"_ Crimson Dynamo's robotic voice intoned as he rose up. Vanguard looked back him. Crimson Dynamo shook his head. _"We have orders."_

" _...Da,_ " Vanguard grumbled.

The tension slowly faded and I waved my hands playfully. "Yaaaaay, we're all friends now…"

Fantasma surprised me by laughing. She covered her mouth quickly, but we'd all caught it. I grinned up at Creel, who smirked.

"Okay, let's start over," I said, having expertly broken the ice. I gathered myself and breathed deeply. Steve would have tried to work with these guys. He wasn't here, so I had to be his poor replacement. "I'm Dial, of the Avengers, this is Alloy, same. We're superheroes. And you areeeee…" I waved a hand to try and beckon them.

"You already know who we are?" Sergei said, finally showing an emotion other than 'hunt and eat'.

"Right, yeah," I chuckled. "Look, clearly, you all have some sort of issue with us. But we came because someone asked us to work with Russian authorities. So how about, we try and do that?"

The door to the room opened, Coulson and Boris walking in followed by… well, holy shit.

"Sentiments I agree with," Coulson said with a look around. "Dial, Creel, this is Mikhail."

Mikhail looked like Dolph Lundgren. _Young_ Dolph Lundgren, playing Ivan Drago. Up until he gave us a wide and happy smile.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen!" he said in thickly accented English.

"...Sup," I said hesitantly.

"Most welcome to meet you both!" Mikhail added.

"He's the superhuman liaison officer for Russia's government," Coulson explained. "I thought it best you both speak with him when it comes to preparing for this mission."

"What is the mission?" Creel asked, sounding agitated.

Coulson held up a finger and waited for a moment. Soon, Skye, Simmons, Fitz, and May strode in, moving to stand alongside us. I noted Skye's backpack. "Good, you're all here. Boris, do you mind if I lay all our cards on the table?"

"No no, please," Boris waved politely for Coulson to speak.

"Thank you," Coulson passed folders to us. "Two days ago, March 9th, a military base filled with Russian soldiers stopped checking in. When their people were sent out to investigate, they found a base of dead men and woman and a few others."

"Others," Creel asked, opening his folder.

"Something that had no gender," Coulson clarified. Well, kinda clarified.

"Aw, that's no fun," Skye mumbled. Then she winced at the photos inside. "Oh, that is just-"

"Fascinating!" Simmons chirped while looked more closely at the picture.

"Fascinating, really?" Fitz asked her, horrified.

"Well, it depends on your perspective," Simmons mumbled.

"They look like," I raised the picture in my hand and pursed my lips thoughtfully. "Servitors. From Warhammer 40K."

 _"I said the same,"_ Crimson Dynamo said, surprising the hell out of me.

I gave the armored suit a look, then looked back down at the picture. It was a mangled body with no clothes on. And they had cybernetic limbs that looked _fused_ to their flesh. Rough looking bits of iron and steel, covered in wires and gears. The things head was half metal, with insanely nasty looking sections that looked infected where the metal sank into flesh.

"I'm going to be sick," Fitz coughed, putting his folder down.

"Not a pretty sight, yes," Boris agreed.

"Do you have one of these bodies?" Simmons asked. Bless her soul, always a scientist.

"Yes. And here's the kicker," Coulson pointed a section of the file out to her. "Once the DNA came in, we found out they weren't human. They're-"

"Monkeys!" Fitz said excitedly.

"What is it with you and monkeys?" Skye asked.

Fitz looked around at all of us and rubbed the back of his neck. "I-I just like monkeys."

"...Okay," I turned to everyone. "So some guy took robot parts and smashed them together with monkeys? Shaved monkeys? And these things took out a whole base?"

"Slaughtered," Vanguard growled. "Slaughtered a base of our soldiers. These were not your American 'weekend warriors'. These were men trained to kill. And still, they lost."

"And we know who was responsible," Boris stepped aside as some guy in a suit rolled in a big screen TV on a cart. "The day after the attack, we received a VHS tape."

"VHS, really?" Skye cocked her head in confusion.

"I know. So primitive," Boris said sadly. "It is in Russian, but the translation is in your files." He pressed a button on the tv and it came alive. Another button started playing the video.

And that was when a James Bond villain appeared on the screen. I wasn't super familiar with James Bond, but I did remember the guy on the TV looked like a general from the movie that had a really dumb name. Octo-something. A Russian general, of course.

This guy looked different in a couple of ways, like the long strands of white hair falling about his shoulders despite the baldness on the top of his head, and the thick red coat he wore. He had a very pinched face and a grim expression.

He began to speak in Russian. "My name is Ivan Kragoff. I was a scientist for the Soviet Union, in an era when my country was strong and united," he clenched a leather-gloved fist. "And now? We have been _weakened_!' Forced to live in a world where _capitalism_ has replaced our pure strength!" Ivan eyed the camera as though it had offended him. "No more. I am offering the people of Russia to rise above. To show the world _who. We. Are!_ "

He rose from his chair, eyes hard. "I believe i-in my people. But I must supply them weapons, to allow them to survive the monstrosities of the modern world. As such, I had to sacrifice. To prove that my weapons were worthy. And so I have!"

This crazy bastard actually had the gall to look proud. "When you are ready, I will send you my weapons, and allow you to use them for the war. The War that will end all wars at last, to leave a world of Russian greatness!" he scowled. "But. If you choose to refuse. Then I will do what I must. I will _force_ the issue. Force my beloved nation to accept their greatness."

A raised and shaking fist rose up, the man actually having the gall to shed some tears. "I am Ivan Kragoff! And what I do, I do for my country!"

The video shut off.

"...Monster," Vanguard hissed.

"You said it," Coulson mumbled.

"Okay," I looked down at the folder in my hand. Filled with images of the dead. Men and women, dressed in military uniform. There was a man with… did you know that when the human body gets hit with enough all at once, the liquids in your body flash boil and explode outward? Yeah. Another one, a woman, had her chest cavity opened up by something ripping it apart with pure force.

"Alright," Coulson crossed his arms and swayed slightly as he spoke. "We'll fight over the politics later. Right now, we need to get to work. First, Boris, you have information on Kragoff?

"What do we need to do?" I asked Coulson and Boris.

The two shared a look. Boris sighed. "I told you Coulson. Our nation needs BRIDGE and the Avengers. We have attempted to find this madman on our own, but we must not waste time. I have sacrificed my reputation and did that PR stunt, in return for the request," Vanguard and Fantasma didn't look pleased. "And now, those idiots will not allow me to request more support, as they wish to resolve this with as little aid as possible. I will follow your lead, as long as you respect my country. You are a good man. So I know you will."

Coulson had a very neutral look on his face. Finally, he looked over everyone in the room. "Avengers, Winter Guard," Creel and I, all two Avengers in the room, straightened along with the others. "You'll stay here with Mikhail and May, try to figure out how to work together in combat. These things took out a base, I want to make sure we know the other's capabilities before we head out," he looked at Crimson Dynamo. "Except you. I imagine you've got some skill in engineering?"

 _"I am the one who built and maintains my suit,"_ Crimson Dynamo confirmed in that weird robotic way of his.

"Perfect. I'd like to ask you to help the other team," Coulson nodded to each one as he spoke. "Skye, Fitz, Simmons. These things are flesh and machine. I'm going to need you to find out how they were made, where they came from, the works."

"Yeah, sure, I'll hack a… corpse, monkey, robot," Skye frowned.

"Servitors," I said, lifting a picture. "They look like them. Except for way nastier."

 _"Worrying concept,"_ Crimson Dynamo said.

"Boris and I will speak to the government and see what we can pour on this. I'd like to get more BRIDGE resources on this, maybe some Russian military support. The rest of you have your assignments," Coulson looked around at us. "Go."

Everyone else left, leaving Winter Guard, Mikhail the world best Ivan Drago impersonator, and May. Creel and I shared a look.

"This should be fun," he said with absolutely no enthusiasm.

"Eh, maybe," I grabbed a chair nearby and shoved it closer to the Winter Guard, sitting down as casually as I could. "So. How do we do this?"

May and Mikhail shared a look. Finally, everyone started grabbing chairs. Except for Chernobog, who just watched everyone with those unsettling eyes.

"Let us start simply," Mikhail looked between Creel and I. "Um, my English not good, do you mind if I speak Russian?"

May and I nodded. Creel was about to say something before I spoke up. "I'll translate for you."

Creel sighed in relief, then nodded.

Mikhail looked just as relieved. "Thank you. So, I already know of some of your capabilities. The heroes Dial and Alloy are well known to us. And the Cavalry is a respected combatant."

Creel and I looked at May when Mikhail said that. She scowled. "Don't call me that."

Mikhail blinked. "Oh. My apologies if I offended, I-"

"Don't worry about it," May cut him off, clearly still annoyed. "So you know about us. And we have files on you," she lifted one of the folders we'd been given. "How best can we work together in a combat scenario?"

"Well, clearly Dial will be good for any role," Mikhail waved at me. "While Alloy would be best on the front-lines of any conflict. I must ask, do any of you have any conflicts in working with us? I would have wished for my people meeting and working with the Avengers to have a less… rough, introduction."

"Nah," I rested my head on my cheek. "It's not a great first impression, but a very smart lady recently warned me about making assumptions."

May smirked.

"I'm not here for politics," Creel added. "Just tell us who to punch."

Mikhail didn't seem to know how to take that. He coughed, then continued to speak. "Very well. Then this is what I suggest. Vanguard is our most skilled field tactician, so I'd like him to take the lead. Now, when it comes to power, Chernobog is our most powerful member in close quarters…"

 ** _Dr. Leopold Fitz_**

"This is so exciting," Simmons said happily as Crimson Dynamo led them through the halls. "More superheroes, a mission in Russia…"

"And monkeys," Fitz reminded her. "Can't forget that."

"I think the superheroes are the best part," Skye noted. "I mean seriously, is every superhero just built as the ultimate fantasy? Did you see the muscles on Vanguard?"

Fitz gulped. He hadn't. He'd been more distracted by Fantasma. She'd been dressed so skimpily! How did she do that in Russia, with the cold?

"But that giant monster, the one called Chernobog," Skye shuddered. "What is that thing?"

 _"A dark god,"_ Crimson Dynamo said. _"In the old legends, he is, how you say… the opposite of all that is good in this world. He absorbs the energy of all things, but life is his preferred food."_

Fitz gulped. Well, that was terrifying. Seriously, he was on their superhero team? Granted, the Avengers had Hulk, but Hulk was so friendly! They'd had a food fight and everything! In comparison…

 _"Here we are,"_ Crimson Dynamo stepped under a doorway and slowly stepped in, careful not to damage the door.

Fitz followed inside and immediately held his nose. "O-Oh good god!"

Four corpses rested on tables. One was human, a poor man who had been ripped and burned to shreds. The other three were those monkey-robots that were the cause of all the hullaballo. And god help him, he really hated the smell of infection.

"God, this is so amazing," Simmons whispered, making a beeline toward the cyborgs. "And so…"

"Disgusting?" Skye asked, holding her nose as well.

"Well, yes," Simmons admitted. "But it's also a rush job."

 _"I thought the same,"_ Crimson Dynamo said. _"If you excuse me, I will be back momentarily."_

"Uh, yeah, sure," Skye said. The giant armored figure stepped out of the room with some loud clanking noises. "Man, that is one crazy giant piece of armor."

Fitz finally stepped up the 'servitors', as Dial had called them, and held his nose. Then he took a closer look, trying to block out the smell. "These look like… Cybertek enhancements? But not really. There's modifications, genius ones. If there was more time put into them, they could have been integrated properly… these look almost like power cells, here. Not powerful, but enough for weapons and limb movement."

 _"Here,"_ Crimson Dynamo walked back and held out a gas mask, the kind all labs that might have if dealing with dangerous chemicals and diseases would have. _"I have armor, but you might need this, da?"_

"Oh, thank you," Fitz said, surprised but pleased. He quickly put it on and smiled at the taller figure. "How do I look?" he asked, voice muffled.

"Less grossed out," Skye joked. "Anyway, guess I got to start the work too. Moon Prism Power, Make Up!"

Fitz watched as the backpack Skye had put on snapped open. She held out her arms with a smile. Pieces started moving outward, 'rolling' to cover her chest, back, legs, and arms, until a helmet snapped over her head. She stood there covered in her dark blue armor. The armor design had been changed on her request. Now, instead of another hard shell Iron Man suit, it looked like it was made up of segmented plates over an undersuit, with larger plates over vital areas, giving the user maximum mobility. The undersuit beneath looked like striations of dark muscle. Fitz could see her partially blurred face through the flat triangular piece of blue polymer that was her viewscreen. She lifted her arm and a holographic screen floated over her wrist.

 _"That is interesting,"_ Crimson Dynamo sounded surprised. _"I have yet to crack the trick for doing that as carborundum alloy is far too dense for such a transformation, despite the increased durability and electrical absorption properties."_

"Electrical absorption?" Fitz turned to look at her. "That sounds fascinating! Did you make that alloy yourself?"

"Fitz," he turned to look at Simmons, who had also put on a gas mask and was in the midst of slicing into a servitors chest. "Focus."

"O-Oh, right," he felt some embarrassment. "Well, the engineering is clearly upgraded from Cybertek."

 _"It is sloppy, however,"_ Crimson Dynamo sounded almost offended. _"The_ svolach _who made them was more worried about speed. Look, here," he pointed at where screws had been dug deep into flesh and steel. "The way the metal was ground down, the cuts were the_ debil _seemed to lose patience and just slammed everything together."_

"And the organic parts are… strange," Simmons frowned. "Look here, this doesn't look right. Almost as though this was pieced together."

"These power cells are the same way," Fitz leaned down and shook his head. "They're almost like weaker versions of Chitauri energy cells. There was a lot of efficiency sacrificed here. But… these limbs are still very powerful. And this seems to be an energy weapon?"

"Well, I'm going to see if there's something I can hack here," Skye circled the bodies with her arm held high, typing at her screen. Crimson Dynamo seemed amazed at the sight. "There's got to be something… Okay, hold on. This looks-"

Suddenly all three bodies shook. Everyone froze. Not for long. Crimson Dynamo lifted his arms, lightning cracking to focus on the palms of his armored hands. _"Ru-!"_

The bodies erupted off the tables. Fitz shrieked, diving aside while Simmons screamed and stepped back. One body, the one whose body Simmons had been cutting into, rushed Crimson Dynamo with unsettling quietness, reaching out with a long steel arm tipped with long metallic fingers ending in blades. The blades slammed into Crimson Dynamo's chest.

And bounced off.

"Мудак!" with that shout, Crimson Dynamo unleashed a blast. Pure lightning flew out from his arms and slammed into the creature, sending it flying back into a wall. A second creature landed on Crimson Dynamo and started clawing at him, the armored warrior snarling out more Russian as he made to grab the thing.

Fitz yelled again when the last of the three corpses jumped at him. He ducked, the monster flying over him to end up scratching at the wall instead. The creature spun and raised an arm that ended in a tube. A tube that glowed purple at the end.

"Oh, bloody hell!" Fitz leaped out of the way again, and a purple ball flew at where he'd been, melting the steel table he'd ducked near into molten slag. The logical part of Fitz's mind noted it was a plasma bolt, and immediately worked on figuring out how it managed to be so precise, figuring out how the circuitry and coming up with improvements. The rest of him went to his mouth and screamed out the least logical thing it could. "Why monkey, why?!"

The creature ignored his screaming to aim at Fitz again. Its arm glowed.

Skye kicked it's arm upward, sending the bolt flying into the ceiling and exploding to send stone raining down on them. The creature staggered back, then lifted both hands, swinging its arms at her. Skye blocked a punch and was sent skidding back several feet from the force of it. At the same time, the first corpse Crimson Dynamo had shot at leaped up and tried to land on Crimson Dynamo. The giant armored man caught the creature out of the air and ripped the one still clawing at him off of his back. _"_ Ебать _you!"_

Skye fired the plasma casters in her suits gauntlets, two basketball-sized green balls flying forward, burning into her opponent's chest and setting the creature's flesh alight. Without a sound, it tried to rise up once more.

"Seriously?!" Skye shouted, shooting it again and sending it flying back where it shuddered on the floor.

Crimson Dynamo, at the same time, hugged the two creatures close. The sound of something charging filled the air. _"Fall you_ yubani urody _!"_ two metal arms crushed the creatures close with bone breaking force, and lightning suddenly erupted all around the armored man. It crackled loudly in a focused bubble, blinding Fitz. He slid back slowly in amazement, looking over at where Skye had killed one of the creatures, then back at the bubble of focused lightning. The lightning stopped moments later. Crimson Dynamo lifted and slammed the creatures onto the ground, growling. Fitz stared at the corpses. They were fried and charred, backs shattered by the immense strength of the armored man. Crimson Dynamo rose tall and looked over at Skye.

 _"Are you okay?"_

"Yeah," Skye winced and waved the arm she'd blocked the punch from the creature with. "Damn, those things hit hard."

"T-There must have been some sort of sub-system, inside it?" Fitz shook his head. "Something that reacted when we tried to hack it?"

"Well, that wasn't enough," Skye said determinedly, walking up to the one she'd killed whose torso was a charred wreck. "I'm hacking what's left in this things head, and I'm damn well not letting some zombie monkey keep me from finding that asshole."

Fitz struggled to his feet. "Y-Yeah, I'll just-"

A man in a lab coat rushed into the room, shouting in surprise at the sight of three bodies turned to near ash, a table melted, and a hole in the ceiling. More people came in, shouting in Russian.

 _"I'll speak with them,"_ Dynamo said. _"Then we will find out where these came from."_

Fitz nodded, staring at the charred bodies thoughtfully.

 ** _Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD_**

Coulson watched a frustrated Boris slam his phone down on his desk with a shout of, "Блять!"

"Oh wow," Phil said in honest surprise. "I didn't expect the language."

Boris looked surprised, then chuckled. "Yes, well. Dynamo is a bad influence on me."

"I know the feeling," Coulson shook his head. "So, no chance they're letting us call in more support?"

"Not without proof that the forces we already have cannot handle it," Boris said sadly. "I am glad you brought your team and the Avengers. But I had to promise to do that little propaganda stunt to put that request through."

"Well, our people should be enough," Coulson walked up to the desk. "I'm not going to lie, knowing we'd have more superhumans on call is smart. But my team is made up of the best."

"...As is mine," Boris chuckled. "But I can't help but worry. Thank you for putting politics aside to help us, Coulson."

"...Do you remember Camilla Reyes?" Coulson said.

"The Peruvian woman?" Boris smirked. "I remember you took quite a shine to her, from what I heard."

"I did," Coulson was less amused. "I met her again, recently. Took a bit less of a shine to her this time. But, during our little scrap, I told her something I stick by. That the borders and colors we use to divide up the Earth matter a lot less when the world is threatened. This guy, Ivan. He's a good example that we need to fight together, not against each other."

Boris hesitated. "...Coulson-"

He was interrupted by an alarm that began to ring out across the base. Boris and Coulson shared a look before the phone rang. Boris picked it up.

"Yes, what is happening? ...Shut down the alarm then. If Dynamo says they handled it, then they handled it. Go ahead and get them everything they need," Boris waited a moment, then hung up the phone.

"They have something?" Coulson asked.

"Yes and no," Boris narrowed his eyes. "Things have gotten very strange, Coulson."

"...Boris, you really have no idea."

 _Author's Note:_ I never know how chapters like this will be responded to. All I can say is that I did my best to show the Winter Guard as having problems with some things, but generally just being people doing their best for their country. Not perfect. But they aren't inhuman machines of the Russian government.

And yeah, the Russian government really did have a problem. But when Boris wanted to get extra help just in case, a group of prideful morons in the government blocked him. The propaganda thing was the trade-off. To make sure when help arrived, Russia stood in a position of strength.

In final, the bad guys are robot monkeys that take at least three shots of plasma and a small lightning storm to kill. Oh, and some guy named Ivan Kragoff. Probably not too dangerous, wouldn't worry about them, pay no attention to the man behind the mirror.


	72. Chapter 72

_March 11, 2014_

We got interrupted briefly by Skye and Crimson Dynamo going all 'For the Emperor!' on the monkey zombie servitors, but after that Mikhail, Vanguard, and May got into full swing talking about team formations.

Which left the rest of us to kind of drift off.

I'm not a general. I'm a fighter, nowadays, and that has been a journey and a half. So, out of curiosity, I started wandering around on my own.

With a pair of armed Russian guards, of course. I didn't mind. They weren't going to just trust a random American with their base after all. After all, I could do a lot of damage inside… well, inside anywhere.

The Russian base of the Winter Guard was freaking badass. Tagansky Protected Command Point had apparently once been a secret military base at the height of the Cold War. It was completely underground in the middle of Moscow, right next to the metro lines. Of course, it wasn't a secret nowadays, since a google search had told me all that, but real estate is real estate. And honestly, it was a sweet base.

I ended up stopping near the bottom of the base when one of the guards stepped in front of a door, preventing me from walking in.

"Classified," he said in heavily accented English.

"Oh?" I hesitated. Man… classified is such a tempting word. Maybe there was something cool behind the door. Or something illegal. Or both. Maybe it was where Dynamo kept some of his suits.

"It's where we hold the generator," someone said, cutting off my train of crazy ideas with the harsh blade of reality. We all turned to see Fantasma walking up to us. The scantily clad woman walked over in her high heels. Seriously, she looked just like Kalinka Fox, which was blowing my mind. I'd get over it, same as I had with Steve and Nat looking like Chris and Scarjo. She stopped in front of me and smiled. I was surprised to realize she was a head shorter than me. Didn't seem the least intimidated by the height difference though. "You want to see? It's quite interesting."

"Ma'am!" the guard who had stopped me from entering protested.

Fantasma rolled her eyes and switched to Russian. "Get out of the way. I will guard him."

The pair of guards shared a look. After a moment, they walked away, still looking dissatisfied.

"Урод!" one said. A slur the Omnitrix translated as something similar to freak. Someone born unnaturally.

I stared after them in shock, then looked at Fantasma. She bit her bottom lip, pain in her eyes. When she saw me looking, she quickly recovered, turning and entering the room I'd been barred from.

The room we entered was big, almost house-sized. In the center was something that brought me to a standstill. "Daaayum. That is impressive."

A gigantic machine was humming in the center of the room. It looked like a giant and squat letter H, with that little line in the middle replaced by a big glowing metal ball with wires and some pokey sections coming off of it. I walked down some steps to join Fantasma, who smiled up at me. She was standing near a set of comfy chairs that had been set up around a beat-up wooden coffee table.

"Dynamo made it. It's based on the same technology as his armor, as well as some notes from Tesla. I'm not sure how it works, but it's quite beautiful, isn't it?"

"Hell yeah," I said in awe, watching the glowing blue orb.

I grunted, walking down the last of the steps to join her. She sat down on a chair and put on leg over the other, watching me while I did the same.

"So, does that happen often?" I asked her. "The guys you work with, calling you a freak?"

Fantasma let out a surprised huff. "You're rather blunt, aren't you?"

"It's part of my charm."

She shook her head. "It's annoying."

"So is you avoiding the question."

"...Sometimes," Fantasma admitted. She looked over at the reactor as it continued to hum. "We are gifted with incredible abilities," she lifted a hand and twisted it. Purple lights flowed off her fingertips, turning into intricate sigils set in a violet circle. A google search later told me it was something similar to mandalas in Eastern cultures, but with Russian lettering and symbols. The light shone against her face as she watched it thoughtfully. "But they separate us from the rest of humanity. It is only logical, for them to covet our abilities. To be jealous."

I rested my head against my hand. "Sure. Sometimes. But it sucks too, right? Getting called that by people who're supposed to be your allies."

"It is the nature of people," she raised a hand and watched the purple sigils float away from her. "To fear and covet these abilities."

"Yeah. It's human nature. And it sucks."

Fantasma clenched a fist, destroying the sigils. "Yes. It 'sucks'," she looked over at me. "How long have you had your abilities, Mr. Schahed?"

I leaned my head back to look at the ceiling, thinking. "I don't know… six, seven months? Since October, maybe?"

She laughed. "You don't remember?"

"It's been a bit of a roller coaster," I grinned. "The last few months sort of flew by."

Fantasma nodded slowly. "I have had my powers all my life. Since I was a little girl in an orphanage. I was forced to hide them. We Russians aren't very friendly to that which is different. Later when the Russian government took me in for training after BRIDGE was created… I was happy. Happy to prove my abilities were a gift for the people, to save and help my country."

"They didn't mistreat you?" I couldn't help but ask.

"If they had, Mikhail would have beaten them to a pulp," she smiled fondly. The image of Ivan Drago glaring down at me saying 'I must break you' filled my mind. Yeah, can't imagine anyone messing with her with _that_ on her side, putting aside her own abilities. "He has been a father to me. Kept me safe, taught me to love these gifts."

We sat quietly for a moment, listening to that massive engine hum in the center of the room. "I can't pretend to know what you went through. I mean, I didn't have these powers for long. But I know what it's like to find a home. A place where people have your back."

Fantasma leaned forward in her seat. "But if you had to leave them? To help them elsewhere. Would you?"

I stared at her, unthinking. "Uh… how long are we talking?"

"Unspecified," Fantasma said.

"Oh, so this is a heavy type question," I rubbed the back of my neck. "...I'd hate it. It would suck. For multiple reasons. But if it's for my," I hesitated on the word to use. "For my team? Yeah. I mean, I'm here, right?"

Fantasma bit her lip thoughtfully. "And if they were the only family you had? The only ones who had ever trusted you, to have treated you as more than a freak or a weapon?"

For some reason, I could tell that answering too quickly would be to my detriment. That it would seem like I was treating this very important question with careless brevity.

I looked back at the glowing orb in silence, thinking. When I spoke, it was only after some thinking. "You know? I think, as long as it's to keep them and the world safe? I'd head out. For their sake… Being a superhero sucks sometimes."

"There, you have more experience than I do," Fantasma joked. "But thank you. It helps, a little, to talk about this."

"No problem. Funny though, I kinda thought you were hanging out with me to get secrets or something James Bond type," I said with a chuckle.

She smirked. "No. I'm not exactly the spying type. Do I look like a woman from a James Bond film?" when I cocked an eyebrow she looked down at her purple outfit and rolled her eyes. "Fair enough."

"Don't you get cold?" I asked.

"No. My powers protect me. Let me express myself as I wish," she wiggled in her seat. "I spent a lifetime hiding myself and my powers, pretending I wasn't different. This is just me standing out at last."

I nodded. "Yeah. I know someone like that," I said, thinking of Jen. Suddenly, it became hard to breath. I looked up at the door at the same time as Fantasma.

"Oh?" a living shadow strode into the room, teeth of black smiling down at us. "You look cozy. I'm disappointed. I was hoping he was planning on fighting you."

"I'm not the combative type," I glared up at the guy as he walked down the stairs.

"Ahhhh, but you are," Chernobog huffed out a laugh and I felt my heart clench and release with each puff of laughter. "I can smell it on you. Blood and pain, like wine dripping off a knife. It's almost hilarious."

"Chernobog, did you need something?" Fantasma said in annoyance.

"I just came to annoy you."

Well, what the hell was I supposed to say to that?

"It's fun, you know? Seeing how people react in my presence. Used to be so boring. All the knights in shiny armor, screaming about they'd 'destroy the evil god and remove all darkness!' It was fun, at first. Killing them off had its own fun appeal to it. But then, they were boring," he scoffed. "Idiots. As though I was the reason they all killed and raped across the land."

He sat down at a chair with us with a loud sigh of pleasure. It made for a ridiculous image. "I like this century better. You all have more fun reactions, so much more varied. And Netflix! What a concept!" he laughed while I looked at Fantasma, who was slowly moving her fingers around to make more magic purple sparks. "I always rewatch the Office. Can't help it. It's just intoxicating."

"Are you always this ridiculous, or are you still looking for a reaction?" I asked.

"Can't I do both?" he smiled at me.

Seriously, that doesn't… everything about him made me feel as though I was dying. Like he was seconds from ripping my throat out. Every word made my heart clench, and the second he walked in I had to squint to see, like all light that had been illuminating the room was headed toward him instead.

"See? Interesting," the darkness in gold armor purred. "I'm curious, Dial. That watch of yours. Can it defeat me?"

"You wanna give it a shot?" I growled.

He laughed. "No. See, the reason I'm curious is, well… the Russians, as they call themselves now. They made us to reflect you Avengers. I'm sure you've noticed.

"Sorta obvious. You got a point there, bud?"

"Oh yes. Well, Vanguard and Dynamo are obvious. Hunter, he's just a killer, like your Black Widow and Hawkeye. I'm the one who is supposed to represent your Hulk and that pondering oaf Thor," he looked over at Fantasma. "But who is Fantasma? In our little group."

"Chernobog," she said warningly, more purple sparks flowing. "If you say another word!"

"You know, she was eager to meet you," he hissed softly. "They warned her to be ready. She needed to be versatile, to have a counter for every trick… every alien. Sonic spells, illusions, shields, poisons. How often did you train, Fantasma? For the day you might need to kill your new friend?"

" _Enough!_ " with that shout, she swung a hand at him. A purple line of energy blasted him in the face with enough force that I was rocked back in my chair.

He sat for a moment, he snapped to the side from the impact of her blow. He slowly turned to look at her.

"..." Chernobog smiled. "Oh? Does it shame you? To sit across from a man you thought you might have to kill, while he's being so friendly?"

"You've got issues," I said softly.

"Dozens," he chuckled. "But then, that is my life."

Fantasma spun and walked out. I gave Chernobog a glare, then went to follow her as he laughed eerily.

After some walking, she stopped and looked at me. "I had to."

"Had to?" I asked. Honestly, I'd expected an apology. Instead, she was eyeing me fiercely.

"We all did," she spat out. "All of us had to be ready in case the Avengers would invade Russia. A worst-case scenario. And I don't regret it. It was necessary."

"A bit of a hurtful statement, considering I'm right here, ya know?" I pointed out.

"You scare people," she crossed her arms looking up at me. "That is unavoidable. I don't want to kill anyone-"

"Okay, that's more on the right track, back to friendly ground," I said.

"But I also needed to be ready to kill you despite that."  
"And you've derailed. Back on enemy territory."

Fantasma stopped for a moment. Then she looked at the watch. The Omnitrix. "You keep getting stronger. We keep getting records of more and more aliens. All so powerful… can you blame them for wanting me to be ready? In case those were turned against the people of Russia?"

To that, I could only open my mouth and realize I didn't have much of an answer. I had thought about it.

What if… I mean, what if, somehow, someone got the watch off of me, used it on others? Or if I got brainwashed? Or if some evil version of me got shat out by a mirror dimension ala Star Trek? I could do a lot of damage. All of us could. Hawkeye was considered one of the weakest of us. He was also one of the most skilled killers on Earth, and he'd been getting stronger. If he got turned somehow… well, I didn't like the idea of feeling cold steel slicing through my throat.

"So, is that why we were talking?" I asked. "So you could get a read on me?"

"...I was curious," she said with obvious reluctance. "And your advice was helpful."

"Heh," I sighed. "Well, you're welcome."

"...You aren't responding how I thought you would," Fantasma uncrossed her arms.

"Yeah, well, I've gotten more death threats than most," I shrugged. "Your's is the most polite so far."

She blinked, then smirked. "That's not funny."

"It's hilarious," I rubbed the back of my neck. Was I not taking this seriously enough? Russia had been training people specifically to be able to kill me. How the hell was I supposed to take that? "Look, I'm just processing."

"...If it helps, it's all a worst-case scenario. Mikhail always told us to ignore the idea of fighting the Avengers. To remember our priority is the people of Russia, the people of Earth. That is what we fight for, train for," she sounded earnest. Not asking for forgiveness, but at least understanding.

I looked down at her. She met my eyes without fear. "You know I'll have to tell my bosses."

"I expect it. And Chernobog will be punished for telling you."

"But you really don't want to kill me?"

"Not unless I have to."

"Well. Do you think you have to?"

She thought about it for longer than I was comfortable with before shaking her head. "No, I don't. I never did… but I'm not the only one who was trained to kill you," she nodded behind me. I turned around.

Sergei was watching us from the end of the hallway. He was flipping a knife in the air, catching it, then flipping it into the air again. When he saw that we'd noticed him, he gave a nod, then walked away. Flipping his bowie knife all along.

"He's been training for weeks, for the chance," Fantasma said softly.

I gulped nervously. As I said, I don't like the idea of cold steel slicing through my throat. But then I narrowed my eyes and breathed. Nat had trained me better than to be intimidated by this. "That's the thing. I've been training too. So I'll tell my bosses. But you should let _your_ bosses know," I turned to look at her. "I'd rather work with you guys. I'm nice like that. That said, if you do try to kill me, no amount of training in the world will be enough to finish me."

She didn't seem to know how to take that.

"Until then," I held out a hand. "Frenemies?"

She frowned, cocking her head in confusion. "F-Frene-Frenem, what is that?" she asked, giving up on saying the word midway.

"Friends who might kinda be enemies. Like Tom and Jerry?" she stared, still not understanding. "Er, a cartoon where a cat tries to eat a mouse, but they're kinda best friends too?"

"Oh, like 'Ну, погоди?'" she asked.

"Uh, if that helps you?" I said, wondering what the hell 'Well, Just You Wait' was.

She bit her lip again, then nodded and took my hand, shaking it. "Friends that are enemies, then."

"Great," once our handshake was done, I looked behind me. "Now, as my new frenemy, what the hell is with having the darkness on your team?"

"Do not get me started," she said with a shake of her head. "He is powerful, dangerous, and a complete _svo-lach'._ "

"I hear that," I grumbled.

Just then, my stomach growled. The two of shared a look. Fantasma giggled, and I chuckled.

"Come," she turned and led me away. "I have threatened you with death enough. Now I will feed you."

"Do I get a chance to try that borscht stuff?" I joked.

"Bleh," she stuck her tongue out, disgusted. "No, I hate beets. We will have pirozhki."

That last was said with an excited skip in her step. With that, she led me away.

 ** _Sergei Kravinoff/The Hunter_**

Sergei thought quietly to himself as he prowled the hallways of the Winter Guard base, nostrils flaring. He continued to flip his bowie knife in his hand.

Dial and Alloy. How wonderful that they had arrived.

When the squalid mess that was now the remains of the formerly powerful Russian government came to him with an offer, he'd been ready to refuse immediately. The country his mother and father had once loved had changed.  
No dignity, no honor. Like all civilization. Only in the jungles and forests had he been able to find that.

Men would eat when they were full, kill with explosives and disease. Animals killed. But only for things that made sense. And they didn't waste time on fruitless things, like the internet or television. All actions had a reason. Animals and plants didn't do things just to 'have fun', they did them to survive. Even play was training and exercise for animals.

In many ways, he'd been proven right. A country of fear, of pompous and overblown displays like the one at the airport. Disgusting.

But all that time ago, when he'd been approached, they showed him things. Beings of incredible power. Beings they wanted his help in learning how to kill. How fun.

Since then, he'd been training again. The thought process had been fascinating.

He'd devoured hours of research on the Avengers and their allies, watching video clips carefully. The footage of their enemies was just as fascinating.  
One of the best ways to hunt a predator is to watch it during its own hunts. To follow the same trails its prey uses.

And now, he had two of them where he could watch. Now was not the time to hunt them, of course. That was the fun, of course. Patience was the most important part. Patience made all things so much sweeter.

Kraven stopped walking. Melinda May stood there. He hadn't noticed her.

... _he_ hadn't. In all his time back in civilization, no one had evaded his senses. Until this woman.

How intriguing.

"Did you need something?" Sergei asked politely. He kept his hands open, his stance wide. She noticed.

"Mikhail and Vanguard are looking for you," she said simply. "I'm on my way to talk to Coulson."

Sergei let out a grunt of acknowledgment, then moved to walk around her. She was still. Oh so still. As he stepped around her, he could feel it. The same as hunting panthers in the jungle. That tense moment when you couldn't tell just who was the true prey. He almost sighed in happiness. To think, in this pile of civilized rot, he would be reminded so much of the thrill of the jungle.  
Civilization was still a waste. But less so than it might have been once.

"Mrs. May," Sergei said with an honest smile as he passed. "Thank you for this. Truly."

With that, he left, all the while feeling eyes like blades digging into his back.

Exquisite.

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

 _March 12, 2014_

The morning after though, my favorite geeks had come upon a solution. They gathered us in a room together and started explaining what they'd found. With a torn apart body lying down in front of us.

"They're clones?" I asked.

"Yes!" Simmons sounded absolutely fascinated. "And no. They are technically genetically engineered from the same DNA. They could almost be seen as being related, but they're clones, without a doubt. However further research shows they were grown in pieces in vats. There's no sign of cuts where they are joined to cybernetics. Instead, they were specifically grown to be melded to robotics."

"And the technology in their limbs is from Cybertek, at least the main crux of it, using Chitauri derived energy cells to power the weaponry," Fitz continued.

"What sort of weapons?" May asked.

"Plasma energy weapons, razor-sharp claws, and a hell of a left hook," Skye said, rubbing her arms with a grimace. She was still in full armor. In fact, all of us were ready to fight, if need be. I had my sword resting in my right hand and my gun on my back with my full armor on, Creel had switched to his vibranium form, and even May looked more serious than usual.

"Of course, we aren't sure if these are just foot soldiers or not," Fitz rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Soooo, this could be the elite, the standard, or-"

"Or Kragoff has more powerful creatures ready to attack with," Vanguard snarled. Seriously, ninety percent of his dialogue seemed to be snarling.

 _"At the least, we know they can be killed by us,"_ Dynamo said. _"But there are also markers of early Russian experimentation into cybernetics, as well as some engineering similar to that found in records from HYDRA we found when we purged them from our nation."_

"What is with bad guys making lego sets out of superpowers?" I grumbled.

"Can't blame them for taking the easy way to superpowers," Creel mumbled.

"You would know," the two of us looked over at Vanguard. He was glaring at Creel.

Creel had just enough time to get angry before Skye spoke up.

"Anyways, we managed to find out why they woke up when I hacked them," Skye raised an arm and her hologram emitter created a map. "They were all programmed with a way to head back home. GPS coordinates, in a way?" Skye smirked. "But, once I got through their defenses, we were able to track them here," the map blinked and a dot appeared in a spot northeast of Moscow. Waaaaay northeast.

Sergei smiled. "Ahhh. The forests. He's hidden away."

"And probably has a base to do it," Coulson crossed his arms. "I don't like going in not knowing what we can face, but we have to start early. Boris?"

"Yes, Coulson," the overweight politician said politely.

"Can you let high command know what's happening? If we can get military forces to organize while we head in, we can keep this contained."

"Agreed," Boris walked out, presumably to go do that.

"He probably knows we might try to attack him. Vanguard, Mikhail, I'd like to invite the Winter Guard to fly on the Bus with us," Coulson said, crossing his arms and swaying in place. "Probably best if we have our strongest assets together, moving as fast as possible."

Vanguard and Mikhail shared a look. They seemed to communicate non-verbally as we watched before Mikhail nodded.

"Agreed," Vanguard looked around. "I assume we leave now?"

"As soon as I get the Bus ready," May answered in the affirmative.

"Wheels up in five, then," Coulson turned and headed out.

Later, on the Bus, I walked down the stairs to join Crimson Dynamo and Fitz just as they were about to enter the lab. "Hey. May is about to lift off. You guys all good to go?"

"Yes," Fitz smiled, then looked up at Dynamo. "Oh, um… I don't know how comfortable you'd be about this, but my lab isn't really… I mean-"

 _"It's too small, da?"_ To his credit, the armored man sounded more amused than offended.

"Uh," Fitz chuckled self-consciously. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about your tech," I tried to say in a reassuring voice. "We aren't going to hack it or something."

 _"I was not worried about that until you said it."_

Fitz and I shared a surprised look and I quickly tried to save face. "I-I didn't mean it, I was just trying to-"

A low rumbling chuckle erupted from the suit. _"Joking. Only joking. Here, it is best we begin our work as soon as possible."_

Some surprisingly quiet noises filled the room. Fitz and I watched with bated breath as the back of the armor opened up. Faster than I would have guessed, the figure exited the suit to crawl over it and drop on the floor with a hop. The figure was shorter than Fitz, almost rail-thin, wearing workman's boots and a blue jumpsuit that seemed built for both mechanics and pilots. Brown hair streaked with blonde flipped in the air, green-flecked brown eyes gazing on us.

Fitz and I shared a surprised look, then looked back.

"What?" Dynamo's pilot blinked up at us.

"I-I-I-I, nothing nothing whatsoever, what could-" Fitz stuttered nervously.

"I assumed you were a guy," I said bluntly.

Crimson Dynamo, a near dead ringer for Mila Kunis, scoffed at me, waving an uncaring hand. "Well, I suppose that makes sense. Come on, we have work to do."

She spun on her heel, ponytail spinning in the air, and strode into the lab, somehow still stomping with the same amount of force as when she'd been in the suit. "I think if we work together, we can come up with some ways to take advantage of enemy weaknesses, maybe a hacking program of some sort? What do you think, Dr. Fitz?"

Fitz gave me a hesitant look. I shrugged. "Hey dude, she's cool as shit. Didn't really have personal skin in the gender thing anyway."

My fellow nerd opened and closed his mouth. "I-I just don't," he spun to look at Dynamo. "Do you have a real name?"

I laughed, honestly surprised by that. Dynamo turned to look at him, then chuckled. "Galina Nemirovsky," it was kinda funny how husky her voice sounded. Very deep for such a petite person.

Fitz looked at me, then at her. He seemed rather nonplussed for a moment.

Then he breathed deeply and strode into the lab. "Okay, you uh, you said something about weaknesses? If we can isolate the main power for the machines, it's possible we can disrupt them."

"I think you're right," Galina (cool name) grabbed a tablet and started tapping at it. "I think we should focus on somehow making them a keystone army."

"A what?" Fitz asked, confused.

"A keystone army, an army that dies once one thing is activated, destroyed, or removed. These are all connected, da? If we can force that connection, maybe we can find some way to shut them down all at once."

I walked up the stairs, figuring I wasn't as useful right now.

As I entered the halls, I ended up walking past an image of the world map. I stopped to stare at Russia, panning my eyes across it as the Bus hummed around me. I turned away and headed away, wondering how my friends were doing.

 ** _Antoine 'Trip' Triplett/A Friend_**

In a small laboratory in the middle of China, a scared scientist rushed through his lab, trying not to scream. Behind him, screams filled the air. The sound of blades slicing through flesh was followed by one of the screams going silent.

The scientist went around a corner and found himself bumping into someone. The man screamed.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" The person he'd bumped into backed off with a worried look on his face. In English, the man spoke. "It's okay, it's okay! I'm BRIDGE man, you're okay!"

The scientist breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at the man. He was tall, with dark black skin, and very well built. He was wearing a strange armored suit similar to the ones BRIDGE soldiers wore on the TV.

"T-They're behind me!" the scientist stammered fearfully.

The man frowned, looking behind him then nodding. "Okay, come on," putting a hand on his back, he led the scientist away. When the man smiled, the scientist relaxed even more. The man had a very confident demeanor and a charming smile.

"What are they looking for?" the man asked with some concern.

In hesitant and accented English, the scientist spoke. "W-We've been experimenting with a new form of computer chip. Using new materials. I-I'm just a scientist, I-I-I-"

"Hey, hey," the man, with concern, patted the scientists back as he led him along the hallway. The smile the man gave him calmed the scientists. "It's okay. Look, if it's just an experiment, we don't have to worry. As long as you don't have an actual chip, I can get you out. We don't have to worry about HYDRA getting their hands on it, right?"

The scientist stopped. The man looked at him in surprise.

"...There is a prototype."

The man's face fell.

"W-What could they want with it?" the scientist asked.

"...Don't think about it," the man said hesitantly.

"N-No, tell me!" the scientist shouted.

The man shook his head. "It's HYDRA."

That was enough for the scientist. "We have to get it out, to stop them!"

"It's too dangerous!" the man shouted.

"Please!"

Hesitantly, the man stared in the direction of the exit. Then he sighed sadly.  
"Okay. Lead the way," the man took out his pistol.

The scientist nodded, still scared but determined. "This way!"

The pair went running down the hallways. The scientist let out a shout when bullets flew past them. The man fired back, pushing the scientist along. "Go, go, go!"

"Ahhh!" the scientist screamed.

They entered a small room at the end of the hallway. The scientist stopped in front of a keypad to a door. "Give me a minute!"

"I'll do my best," the man said, worried. They stood for a tense moment as the scientist tapped at the keypad.

"Okay got-" the scientist turned, only for his eyes to widen in horror. A round shield was spinning towards his head.

"Down!" the man from BRIDGE pulled him out of the way. The shield flew past where his head had been, bounced off two walls, then flew back.

"I-Is that Captain America's shield!?" the scientist stammered as the man pulled him into the room.

"I wish," the man said, pulling the door closed.

Still terrified, the scientist gulp. "Over here," he guided the man deeper into the room. The place was cold, extremely so. Dozens of monitors were set up everywhere. The scientist ran to a set of lockers. "They were going to do some more test on it, but it's pretty much good to go already."

"Then we stopped HYDRA in time," the man said. He sighed sadly for some reason as the scientist began to press numbers on another keypad. "By the way man… my name's Trip. What's yours?"

"My name? Oh, it's Li Jei," the scientist, back turned, opened the locker and let out a little sound at the sight of the device behind all the trouble. He smiled with some hope.

"Li Jei… I'll remember it."

A single shot rang out in the room. Trip's face was neutral as he watched the scientist fall to the floor, a hole in the back of his head. He stepped up the body and turned it face up, closing the man's eyes. Then he reached into the locker and plucked out the chip, putting it in his pocket. Without a look back, he left for the door.

When it slid open, two women were waiting for him. One was tall, with long curly blonde hair. She wore a white skin tight combat suit, carrying a pistol in one hand and a dented round metal shield in the other.

The other woman was barely out of her teens, rail thin, with pale skin and long straight black hair. She carried no weapons and wore only a black tank-top and blue jeans. However, a pair of long crystal blades could be seen stabbing out of each of her hands, two from each hand, with another pair of blades from her feet and another from her shoulders. As Trip walked up to them, the blade retracted into her skin, the cuts they'd created healing.

"Sharon, Laura," Trip said with no emotion. "Are you done?"

The two women shared a look, then looked back at Trip. "Yes. Everyone is dead. Are you okay?" Sharon asked.

Trip scowled. "Yes. I have the chip. Laura," the young woman cocked her head to the side. "You have someone's blood on your cheek," she let out a little 'ah' of surprise, quickly scrubbing at her face.

"Let's go," Trip turned and led them to the exit. "We have work to do."

 ** _Agent Phil Coulson_**

"This is fascinating!" Mikhail lifted a single cigarette, staring at it as though it was much more than that. "What sort of power source does it use to produce the laser?"

"Simple batteries, the kind Howard Stark was developing years back," Coulson said eagerly.

The pair were standing in Coulson's office in the Bus, looking at the shelves behind his desk filled with old spy gear. They stood side by side as they geeked out over the tech.

"Incredible. I've seen similar devices in museums, but none in such good condition!" Mikhail put it down and lifted another device. "Now, I'm tempted to think you'd left a few American coins here," he displayed a quarter, one of a couple.

"Walkie talkie," Coulson said as an answer.

Mikhail chuckled, shaking his head. "Amazing. The best I have is an old insectocopter the CIA used."

"The dragonfly one?" Coulson asked. "Man, I always wanted one of those."

"Well, I would trade you, but I left mine at home," Mikhail joked.

Coulson chuckled. Both men stepped around the desk to stand across from each other, Coulson leaning against his desk and crossing his arms. "I'll be honest, a lot of people don't seem to get my love of old school tech."

"Same for me," Mikhail chuckled. "I get jokes about, what is the word. 'Midlife crisis', da?"

"Yeah, I've gotten that sometimes," Coulson chuckled as well.

Mikhail shook his head. "Where did you get yours? I often have to buy some from private collectors. I imagine the cigarette laser would be quite a lot."

Here, Coulson found his good humor fading.

"Well, I did the same thing for most of my stuff. But the laser and the quarters were a gift from a friend. Someone I lost a while back."

Mikhail gave Coulson a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Coulson scowled. "We're working on getting him back."

"He was captured?"

"By HYDRA, yeah."

Mikhail hissed. "HYDRA. Animals, all of them. How are Nazis still a thing?"

"You're asking me?" Coulson chuckled. "So how does a guy like you end up in charge of superhumans?"

"I could ask you the same," Mikhail replied. "Not just two Avengers, but the young woman with that armor of hers?"

Coulson smirked. "Dial and Alloy are just helping. As for Skye, the armor and the martial arts are more of a recent thing."

"Hn. Fair enough," Mikhail hummed. "As for me, I have a… unique, understanding of superhuman individuals. I've been a soldier all my life as well as trained them. I know people and I know fighters. So, I volunteered… They are good people, Agent Coulson. And Fantasma has…" Mikhail winced and stopped suddenly.

After a moment, Coulson understood. Truly understood. Mikhail didn't speak. "...Skye has really grown recently. She was raw, at first. But I'm proud of the women she's become."

Mikhail nodded, a soft smile on his face. "I understand."

"I'm sure you do," Coulson frowned. "What about Chernobog?"

Mikhail winced. "He… I don't get all the choices I wish I could on who joins the team. Chernobog is a sacrifice, in more ways than one. But he is powerful. Power that is necessary."

There was a tense silence in the room. Finally Mikhail hesitantly coughed.

"Well. I suppose I should go check in on my team."

"Same," Coulson got up from his desk. "Mind if I join you?"

"Of course, Agent Coulson."

As they walked out, Coulson kept his thoughts to himself. But seriously. For a man who'd been training a team to be able to kill the Avengers if need be, Mikhail was very friendly.

 ** _Carl Cree/Alloy_**

"So we're flying off to fight some guy who's turning monkeys into super cyborg monkeys," Creel said as he sat on a chair in the lounge, holding his phone up so the camera could see him. "I should have never left New York."

Isabelle chuckled from his phone's screen. "What, and New York isn't weird enough? The Naked Cowboy is still doing his thing in Time Square."

"Yeah, not as weird as this," Creel returned wryly.

She laughed. "But man, Russia has their own Avengers? Have you guys already been getting pissy with each other?"

"Well, Dial told me they've been trained to kill the other Avengers," Creel said wryly.

Isabelle blinked. "Seriously? Does Coulson know?"

"We told him and the director," Creel leaned back in his seat. "She told us to keep it from the rest of the team for now and do our jobs, but to also be ready to fight back if we have to. The magic one, Fantasma, she was forced to admit it."

"Fantasma," Isabelle mused. "Now she is just hot as hell. And she's got a hell of an outfit. Think I'd look good in it?"

"You'd look good in anything."

"Now that is the correct answer."

Creel smirked.

Suddenly, Vanguard strode into the room. Creel looked up at him, then back at the phone. "I got to go babe. Talk to you later."

"Later!" Isabelle hung up, and Creel put his phone away. As he did, Creel and Vanguard eyed each other from across the room.

"...Girlfriend?" Vanguard asked.

"Something like that," Creel answered.

Vanguard nodded slowly. He removed his shield from his arm, placing it alongside a chair and sitting down. "I would like, Mister Creel, to settle something with you," Vanguard, to Creel's surprise, reached up and pulled back his mask. The man had thick black hair and brown eyes, his skin slightly lighter where the mask didn't cover it. Creel had to wonder how often he wore the mask that it actually affected his tan.

"Okay...," Creel leaned forward curiously.

"I am a soldier, Mister Creel, a man who works to defend the honor of my country. I protect them. Even now, as a superhuman, I continue that," Vanguard's eyes narrowed. "But I am also a man who likes to trust those he works with."

"And you don't trust me?" Creel shook his head. "What the hell did I ever do to you?"

"You are a criminal."

" _Former_ ," Creel growled. "I'm a former criminal. And I've been making my amends."

"Amends?" Vanguard snarled. "You were a criminal, a dishonorable mудак who killed on behalf of HYDRA."

"I was mind controlled, you colossal dick."

"Yes, you were. But before that? How am I to fight alongside a man who cheated his way through life, took the easy route to everything?"

Creel nodded slowly. "Yeah… Yeah, that's a really interesting question. But let me respond with this," Creel rose up carefully. "I've spent everyday since I became an Avenger redeeming myself for the shit I caused. But I didn't do it to prove something to anyone but myself. If you want me to bend over for me to work for you, I'm just not going to. I'm going to do my job. And while I'm at it, kiss my ass, you absolute fuck," Creel couldn't help one last dig. "At least I'm not the one working for a literal god of evil."

He turned and walked away. Vanguard spun to his feet, reaching for his shield  
with rage in his eyes.

"Nikolai!"

Creel and Vanguard stopped, turning to look. Coulson and Mikhail were standing there. Coulson looked surprised.

Mikhail, on the other hand, looked pissed off. "What are you doing?"

"Mikhail," Vanguard said, a look of shame on his face.

"Come," without another word, Mikhail walked away.

Vanguard scowled but immediately followed.

"Do I want to know?" Coulson asked Creel as the Russians left the room.

"Probably not," Creel admitted.

"Hey," Dial walked in from the direction the Russians had left in, looking confused. "What the hell just happened, Mikhail looks pissed off."

Creel sighed in annoyance.

 ** _Leopold Fitz_**

Fitz sighed, annoyed by the sight of the words 'Simulation Failed' in front of him. "It's a good thing this is a long flight because I have plenty of time to fail."

"Well, as we say back home, Без муки нет науки," Galina said, tapping at a tablet nearby.

Fitz looked over at her. "And that means…?"

"Hmm?" Galina looked up blinking. "Oh. Well, the literal translation is, 'Without torture, there is no science'. The closest counterpart would be 'no pain, no gain'."

"'Without torture, there is no science'… I like it," Fitz said with a chuckle.

"Fitz?" Simmons came in with a smile. "I was wondering where you, you… who is this?" Simmons stopped, looking over at Galina. Her smile faded into confusion.

"Oh?" Fitz pointed over at Galina, then realized what was happening. "This, this is Galina."

"Hello Simmons," Galina said, not looking up from her tablet. The screen flashed red again. "Vot eto pizdec!"

"Okaaaaaay," Simmons walked around to join Fitz. She whispered as soon as she was close. "Who is she?"

"The Crimson Dynamo's pilot," Fitz whispered back.

" _Really?_ " Simmons sounded intrigued. And also something else he couldn't quite read. Which was odd, because Fitz usually had a very easy time reading Simmons emotions. "I didn't expect her to be so… well-"

"Pretty?" Fitz asked.

"Female," Simmons looked up at him, shocked. "What did you say?"

"Nothing."

"I thought you said-"

"Nope."

Simmons scowled, displeased.

"'Idi na hui'! It isn't working!" Galina scowled, tossing her tablet onto the table.  
"It's so strange. Like something is blocking us!"

After another look Fitz couldn't read, Simmons walked over to the tablet. "What are you trying to do?" Simmons asked. "Maybe I could help?"

Galina opened her mouth, then shrugged, walking over to join Simmons. "We are attempting to find some way to shut down the servitors. If we can affect their limbs or their cybernetics, maybe we can force them to freeze in place. But every time we try, something blocks us from the cybernetics. Or, not restarts. Reboots them?"

"Well, Kragoff is a genius," Simmons noted. "When we were researching earlier, I noted that the mixture of vat-grown flesh and cybernetics was almost elegant. Like he'd genetically engineered the monkey flesh specifically to _need_ the robotics. As though one structure can't exist without the other."

"Hmm," Galina took the tablet. "I have noticed that the robotics wouldn't have worked if he hadn't removed the organs and limbs first. But if what you say is true, maybe we need to interfere with the biological component as well."

Fitz frowned, thinking on that as well. For some reason, every time they attempted to shut down the robotics they would just reactivate. If Simmons was right though…

"I have an idea," Galina grabbed a different tablet and tapped at it. "If Skye can work with us on this-"

As she spoke, Mikhail walked into the lab, drawing everyone's attention. He was followed by Vanguard, who to Fitz's surprise wasn't wearing his mask. Mikhail walked past them with a nod to Galina, waving a hand for her to follow. She frowned, placing her tablet down and following without a word to Simmons and Fitz.

The pair of BRIDGE scientists shared a look while the Russians left.  
"What was that about?" Fitz asked.

"Trouble in the ranks, maybe?" Simmons replied. "Mikhail looked rather angry."

The two shared an uncertain look before going back to work.

 ** _Galina Nemirovsky/Crimson Dynamo_**

Galina strode after Mikhail and Nikolai. The trio stopped in a room that was likely used for basic storage, considering the cleaning products around them. As soon as the door closed behind her, Galina spoke in her native Russian.

"What happened?"

"You want to tell her?" Mikhail asked Nikolai.

"No," Galina said firmly. "Don't pull that bullshit, just say what the issue is, now."

She was not someone to waste time. Time was to be spent on things of value, in the end. Not stupid back and forth 'you want to tell her', 'no I don't', 'you better tell her'. Stupid.

Mikhail scowled. "Fine. He was moments from attacking Alloy."

"Why?" Galina said immediately.

Nikolai, the man who had taken the name Vanguard, hesitated. Galina nudged him, impatient. He sighed. "The man is a criminal. I don't trust him."

"Then don't," Galina said simply. "But we all have a job to do, and that includes working with him."

"We have enough unstable elements on our team," Nikolai looked at her, anger in his eyes. "Galina, he's just part of the problem."

"We've discussed this," Mikhail protested.

"No, we haven't," Nikolai clenched his fist. "He is a monster. Not a god. And yet, we've been forced to accept him on our team? That unstable beast?!"

"Nikolai," Galina said firmly.

"NO!" Nikolai slashed a hand down. "Chernobog devours life. He freely admits to killing to survive, killing for pleasure. And yet, he is rewarded?"

"You know why he's on the team," Mikhail said firmly. "He can absorb gamma radiation, becomes stronger from it, and his physical abilities match those of Thor. If we need to combat the Avengers-"

"I don't care about the Avengers," Nikolai scoffed. "We all know that the necessity of fighting them is a long shot at best."

"Well, the men who give us funding do. And they demand that we have 'counters' to BRIDGE's superhumans," Mikhail sighed sadly. For a tense moment, both men stared at each other.

"...My father died for this country, Mikhail," Nikolai said, haunted. "I just want to defend it honorably. And I'm forced to work with murderers and criminals?"

"...Nikolai," Galina said, drawing both men's attention. "Chernobog is a necessity. No, let me talk," she interrupted before he could respond. "I agree that he's unstable. But he has been following orders, doing his job to the best of his ability. Same with Creel. You must put aside your personal feelings. You are a soldier. Focus on the mission, and as long as those under your command do the same, then work with them."

"And when Chernobog tries to devour our souls or Creel decides to run when things get too hard?" Nikolai said softly.

"For the first, I'll kill him," Galina said simply.

Nikolai and Mikhail shared a look. She rolled her eyes.

"The second I found out that he was joining us, I prepared for the moment I might need to fight him. I'm the greatest engineer in the world, I have a solution for him."

"Greatest?" Mikhail raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that Star-" he stopped when Galina glared at him, the man chuckling.

"As for Creel, any research will tell you that he has a good record as an Avenger. You don't have to like him but-"

"Fine," Vanguard was staring at his shield as he spoke. The others stared at it as well.

"...I miss him as well," Galina said softly.

"He was a good man," Mikhail agreed.

Vanguard only nodded sadly. "For him. I'll accept all of this for him... Reluctantly."

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

Vanguard looked like Joe Manganiello. Kraven looked like Manu Bennett. Both of whom had played Deathstroke. Did that mean something? Other than both men being very badass looking?

I had plenty of time to think it over as I stood behind the bar, making a milkshake for myself. Coulson was nice enough to get me some ice cream, milk, and bananas since I didn't drink. I made myself a coffee milkshake this time, turning around to see Skye.

"Mind if I get one?" she asked hesitantly. She was wearing a black sweater and blue jeans, though I could see her armor standing on the other side of the room.

After a moment, I nodded. "Yeah, of course. If you like coffee, I mean?"

"I love it," she watched as I poured the milkshakes into glasses. "This is all so weird, right? Super monkeys and Russian Avengers, I mean."

"Is it that weird?" I handed her a cup. "I mean, we spent a lot of time fighting dinosaurs and all that in Rio."

" _You_ did," Skye corrected. "I was mostly hacking computers and phones. Still, that is a good point. When did life get so crazy?"

"May 4th, 2012," I smirked. "When aliens fell out of the sky."

"Oh, right," she sipped at her drink, then winced. "Too many bananas."

I took a sip as well and shrugged. "I like it."

Skye leaned back in the seat in front of the bar. She looked thoughtful Coming upon an idea, I picked up a rag and started wiping it down. "You know, I don't drink. But people tell me talking to bartenders helps."

She laughed. "Helps with what?"

"Hell if I know, I usually talk to my friends," I said with a shrug.

"Well… I'm just a little nervous. This will be the first mission we've been on in a while without full Avengers support. Or BRIDGE soldiers. It's just us."

"And the Winter Guard. And me and Creel," I reminded her.

"You know the battle plan," she responded. "I'm probably going to have to fight. For real, this time. And I don't know if I'm ready…"

I put a straw in my drink, shaking my head. "Hey, none of us know. But you've been getting your ass kicked right next to me for the past few weeks."

"Oh yeah," Skye's brown eyes flashed with mirth. "Nat and Steve are _mean_."

"Ruby doesn't help. Getting my ass kicked in training by that mean midget is the highlight of my day," I sipped at my milkshake slowly.

"...Is this awkward? Me and you, like this?" Skye asked uncomfortably.

I stopped sipping my drink, placing it in between us. "Are we still friends?"

"Of course we are," she said without thinking.

I couldn't help my relief at that. Ridiculous, that I'd be relieved about that as though it was in question, but I still felt it.

"Awkward is fine. Means we cared enough that we were worried," I held out a hand placing it on one of hers. She smiled down at our joined hands. "Whatever happens, I'm your friend. And I'll always have your back. Okay?"

She turned her hand in mine, gripping it. "Yeah. Thanks, Mahmoud."

I smiled. For some reason, I felt like, like something had been released then. I pulled my hand back and sighed. It was a sigh of relief. Like something that had been tight in my chest for a while finally released. There was just another thing I had to do. But that would have to wait till I got back home.

"How long until we get there?" Fantasma asked later. The young Russian woman was leaning back in her chair, Chernobog roaming around us while I passed her a drink, one I'd poured from a bottle I noticed her eyeing. Didn't know what the drink was, but she seemed pleased with it, so I must have guessed right.

"Should be about fifteen minutes," I told her. "We'll land in the forest outside the base. I figured, since the three of us are team 3, we might as well talk."

"That is so nice of you," Chernobog said softly, just behind me. "Although, I wonder why you didn't offer _me_ a drink."

"Because you don't. Drink. Wine," I said softly.

"...Heh. Dracula," Chernobog smiled. "One of many things I love about this new world. So much pleasant entertainment."

"Yeah, you seem like a real nerd," I returned. "Seriously, tall, dark, and freaky, you want something?"

"Blood," I raised an eyebrow. "...y Mary," he grinned as he said that.

"Well, I don't know how to mix that, so," I waved at the bar. He let out a dismissive snort, walking around to the bar. Fantasma looked between us while sipping at the drink I'd given her. "You know, you're real friendly sometimes.  
Why do you switch between that and being a manipulative asshole?"

He chuckled, somehow grabbing the ingredients he needed with finesse despite his massive hands. "Well, I said it before. I love this new world. So much more fun. I love seeing all the little ways people act out."

"So you're a troll," I said simply.

The darkness shrugged, apparently unoffended. Fantasma, on the other hand, frowned.

"A troll? Like the mystical creature?"

I thought of Ulik.

"Not so mystical," I said with a scowl before shaking my head. "But in American culture, a troll is someone who acts like an asshole specifically to get a reaction."

Fantasma let out a little 'ah' of understanding. "Troll. Makes sense."

"Only for a purpose," Chernobog came back to us. "I rarely go on rampages anymore, so I get my kicks elsewhere," he sat down next to me, placing a massive arm on my shoulders. I pushed him off, got up, and moved to a different chair, getting a mock pout for my troubles. Fuck me, even his pouting was horrifying. "Actually, if I ever get to visit America I'm going to do some sightseeing."

I frowned at the sudden change in topic. "Okay?"

He chugged back his drink, tossing the glass aside when he was done. "Oh yes. Look," from out of nowhere, he handed me a paper list. I looked over at Fantasma, who seemed as confused as I felt, before hesitantly grabbing it and reading it.

"...This is nothing but places in different states named Bald Mountain."

He gave me a toothy grin. "Well, after watching Fantasia I can't help but laugh, thinking of how people will react to me showing up. Even downloaded the song."

I opened and closed my mouth. "I...Damnit, I don't know if that's hilarious or cruel."

"Can't I be both?"

Fantasma rolled her eyes. "You really are-"

 **Boom!**

The whole plane shook suddenly, sending us all tumbling. I got up to my feet at the same time as the others. "What the hell was-"

An explosion came from the wall behind me. I shouted a wordless scream as I was sucked out of the plane.

For a breathless moment, I tumbled through the air. The stars and clouds were replaced by the ground, then came back, around and around.

"FUUUUUUUU-" I kept shouting as I reached for the Omnitrix. Still screaming, I flipped through the menu. For a breathless moment, I had to fight off the urge to just smack the Omnitrix. Instead, I pushed it down.

My skin was replaced with soft black and blue spots, like that of a moth. I unfurled my wings with a shout, my descent slowing until I was floating thousands of feet in the air.

 **"Big Chill!"**

I stared up at the plane. Its lights were flickering. I could see strange figures buzzing around the Bus, purple lights flashing from them as they ripped into it. _"What the hell was that?"_

"Dial!" Fantasma floated down to join me. "You're okay!"

 _"Same to you!"_ I said back. _"Didn't know you could fly!"_  
Fantasma's boots were surrounded by purple sparks, making it look like she was somehow dancing on air. She looked up as darkness floated down to join us.

"That was fun," Chernobog was somehow standing on nothing, the way Soul Reapers from Bleach did, helped by a pair of bat wings he unfurled from his back. Wings he'd had no indication that he had before. He looked up at the plane. "Ah… food."

 _"Come on!"_ I shot upwards, Fantasma and Chernobog following. _"This fight ain't over!"_

As we flew up, Fantasma came along to my right, her boots releasing sparks at a faster pace. She had to yell to be heard over the wind of the chill Russian skies. "You think it's servitors?!"

 _"Does it really matter?"_ I asked with a look toward her.  
Fantasma frowned. "I suppose it doesn't!"

"-Dial! This is Coulson, can you hear me?!" the Omnitrix symbol on my chest shouted.

 _"I'm here!"_ I shouted back.

"Thank god!" Skye yelled through the Omnitrix as well.

"We're under assault by unknown aerial enemies!" Coulson shouted. "I'm going to fight back with the cannon turrets. Skye and Dynamo will join you in the air! We need to take these things out and land as soon as possible."

 _"See you soon!"_ with that I charged forward.

The enemies flying about the Bus seemed to notice, because a bunch of them spun in the air, spinning to come toward us.

 ** _"Lunch!"_** Cherobog barked. Weirdly, unlike the last time he'd spoken in his real voice, I felt nothing.

The enemies came close enough that I could finally see them. A face of metallic fangs and fuzz, eyes of flickering light as tiny arms ending in tubes aimed at us. They had wings of metal and rockets set into their backs. And they were babies. Very clearly baby apes.

 _"Cherubim servitors. Baby servitors,"_ I realized. _"Dude has problems,"_ I mumbled in reference to Kragoff. Before I could say anything else, the flying monkeys with lasers were firing at us.

I quickly went intangible, letting the shots pass through me. I flew through one of the monkeys, freezing it in mid-air, then spun around while going tangible. I raised my hands and blasted out two beams from my palms, freezing another monkey, going intangible again when a monkey flew down to blast me. When I fired back at it, our shots met in mid-air.

According to Tony and Fitz, plasma shots tended to be ionized gas that was fired through magnetic fields with extremely hot temperatures, unless I was _way_ misremembering. Whatever the case, when plasma met a beam that could freeze anything instantaneously, it exploded.

 _"The wicked witch gave you some upgrades!"_ I shouted at my opponent.

The monkey only fired another beam. I tucked my wings in and dive away from it, unfurling my moth wings again to fire at it and freeze it.

Fantasma raised her hands and made some elegant hand motions, another purple mandala coming to life in front of her. Several servitors fired at her, their plasma shots making ripples across the mandala shield with no effect. She clenched her fists, clapped them together, then swirled them outward, a sword of violet fire appearing in her left hand. With an intricate flowing motion of her right fingers, she let out a blast that flew through her mandala, knocking a servitor out of the air. When one flew around her shield, she slashed at it, cutting an arm off, then blasted it again.

Chernobog was nowhere near as elegant.

 ** _"Hehehe!"_** he charged forward, ignoring the plasma shots tearing into his form. He opened his mouth wide, and something flew out of one of the servitors, a ghostly wailing figure. The servitor shuddered in place, still firing, but somehow with none of the energy of the others. The wailing ghost flew into Chernobog's mouth. He swallowed. **_"Hm. Artificial, mangled and stillborn. Not the least bit filling,"_** he smiled. **_"But I don't mind overeating!"_**

With that, he roared forward, grabbing a monkey out of the air and digging his teeth into it. Sparks flew, blood and viscera pouring down his gold chest armor in streams, the sound of him eating sickening. It didn't help that he was still joking around. **_"Um num, num, num!"_**

 _"Take them out and get to the Bus!"_ I shouted, diving aside from another plasma shot. I flew to go back to back with Fantasma. We rotated together, me firing at anything that came towards her back while she protected mine. I blasted a monkey, then froze another plasma shot to explode it. The monkey I froze was about to fall to the ground far below before Chernobog grabbed it and took a bit.

 ** _"Mmm, like ice cream,"_** he said pleasantly, diving through the air to claw at another.

 _"Hurry up!"_ I shouted at him, breathing out a cold mist before continuing. _"We need to join the others!"_

"Agreed!" Fantasma slashed out at a monkey, cursing when she missed. Chernobog flew by and tackled the servitor she'd missed, tearing it apart in a spray of blood and oil as black teeth tore through red flesh. Fantasma waved a hand and blasted another servitor apart. "Come on!"

Flying together, we charged upwards, fighting our way toward the Bus.

 _Author's Note:_ Sooooo, a lot of things happened this chapter. I'm not sure how some of it will be responded to, like the Winter Guard secretly being trained to kill the Avengers.

Now, Chernobog. He's tough to write. He's a sadistic bastard who is also pretty happy with his current life. He could just go nuts and start devouring the countryside. But he's too satisfied with where he's at.

Then the reveal of Crimson Dynamo's gender. Which uh... huh. You know, it's actually not a big deal. She's fun to write.

Anyways, if you guys have any questions or comments, let me know! I really hope you liked this chapter. Also, please take a look at the TVTropes page, because seeing it grow gives me wings, and if anyone wants a link to the Discord or my Twitch channel let me know.

Next chapter, superheroes and spies in a battle over the skies. Have a great day guys!


	73. Chapter 73

**_Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD  
_**  
Phil rushed into a room with two joysticks in front of a screen, sitting down and initializing the weapons as fast as possible. "May, how long can you keep us in the sky?!"

She responded over the plane's speakers. "I'm barely keeping us up as it is! We need to either land or evacuate as soon as possible!"

"Get ready for either one!" Phil shouted as the plane shuddered, the loud sound of plasma shots slamming into _his_ Bus making Phil grit his teeth. The screens came up, the camera's showing the monkey servitors outside. Phil grabbed the joysticks and aimed at the monkey with an angry smile. He began to pull the trigger.

Outside, on the wings of the bus, twin cannon turrets rose out of hatches. Phil aimed them at the targets and pulled the triggers, blasting one of the monkeys out of the sky. "Eat your heart out, Luke Skywalker," he quipped, spinning the cannon turrets to fire again and again, trying to stave off the destruction of his plane.

It very quickly became clear that he was fighting a losing battle. The damn things were rocketing around too fast, ducking and diving through the air while firing at the Bus. He took out a couple, but there were dozens of the things. Phil frowned in disappointment when one of the cannon turrets got taken out.

"Skye, Dynamo, I could use some air support out there!"

-

 ** _Skye  
_**  
Skye felt her armor fold into place over her body. She bit her lip as she ran toward the hole blown into the side of the Bus, flying up and out. As soon as the wind hit her she had to compensate, twisting in the air to aim her boots so that she was flying alongside the Bus. She fought against the high-speed winds of her flight. Her HUD showed a sudden drop in temperature, and she had to focus on her targets.

She stopped to blink at the sight of the enemy. "Are those flying monkeys?!"

"I know right?" Phil said over the comms.

Before Skye could respond, some of the buzzing monkeys twisted to shoot toward her. She yelped, twisting out of the way of a plasma shot, and fired one back. Her green shot hit a monkey, setting it on fire, but she was forced to hit it again when it kept shooting at her.

With a twist, she shot to the right, then forward, aiming her hands and firing more plasma. The blasts flew past a few monkeys, hitting others. She yelped when a sudden burst of wind sent her sliding back, forced to compensate for it. While she did that, she was tackled by a monkey. It wrapped around her arms, Skye shouting in shock as a monkey baby started clawing at her armor. It raised an arm and prepared to fire plasma. Skye yelped out a command word.

"Shoulders!"

Her shoulder popped open, a pair of turrets sliding out. They twisted to fire at the monkey on her back, hitting it with a stream of bullets that sent it flying off.

Skye shouted out again when a plasma shot grazed her thigh, scorching her armor. Her HUD screaming about the sudden rise in temperature and damage wasn't needed when her leg was screaming in pain. She grit her teeth, raised her arms, and started shooting, her shoulder guns joining.

"Come on!" she roared, jet boots sending her flying forward to meet the monkeys. She took out two, dodged another, then twisted to slam her elbow into another, spinning back to kick another. Another plasma shot nearly took her head of. She fired back, her shoulder turrets firing on auto while she forced down her emotions.

Baby monkey viscera and cybernetics parts sprayed around her. She was panting as she fought, trying to stay calm and failing, getting clawed in the back before she spun out of the way and punched her opponent. Another one tried to tackle. In a desperate move, she struck with a palm strike at the same as she fired a plasma blast. The impact of the attack combined with the plasma shot sent the thing twisting away.

Struck by inspiration, she struck another monkey the same way, trying to incorporate the techniques she'd learned from Nat, May, and Steve with the armors plasma shots.

"Yeah!" she cheered as another plasma palm strike knocked an opponent out of the air.

More monkeys flew toward her, slowly trying to overwhelm her. Despite her desperate attempts to drive them back, another shot grazed her arm, the pain slowing her down. Gritting her teeth, she tried to fight back, sweat pouring down her lips to fill her mouth with the salty taste.

Then lightning flew around her. Monkeys froze in the air, falling back behind her as electricity disrupted their systems. Skye looked down at the plane, where some more lightning flew up from to join the cannon turret fire.

Crimson Dynamo stood firmly on top of the Bus, hands raised and hatches that covered Leyden jar-looking devices opened all across her massive armored form. As Skye watched, Galina fired twin beams of searing blue light from her palms, blasting apart several of the servitors as they dived toward the Bus. Crackling lances of electricity surrounded her in a bubble, streams flowing into her hands then flying outward to meet with the monkeys, the white-blue attacks ripping them apart. She looked like a lightning rod in reverse, blasting the sky with power.

"Oh right, mag boots!" Skye realized when she noted Crimson Dynamo somehow standing on the Bus with ease. Dropping down, Skye landed next to Dynamo, sighing in relief when her own boots activated. At least she no longer had to fight the wind.

 _"_ _You okay?"_ Galina said as she unleashed power over and over toward their opponents in a brilliant display.

"Yeah, but it came close!" Skye shouted, wincing at the pain from her grazed leg and arm.  
 _  
"We must continue to defend the Bus!"_ Galina roared, gathering a ball of electricity in her palms before firing it as a beam.

Before Skye could respond, more monkeys came from the sky. She fired her plasma beams, fire joining lightning, filling the air between them against more enemies. Skye used Crimson Dynamo as cover, the other woman's electric bubble able to take incoming fire.

Then the monkeys started going all kamikaze on them, diving toward the bubble. When they slammed into it they would erupt in balls of purple energy, sending ripples across the bubble. Galina cursed out in caustic Russian.  
 _  
"They are attempting to overwhelm me!"_

"Can they?!"  
 _  
"With time!"_

 _"They don't have time,"_ another voice said.

Like a spirit, Big Chill floated up from the floor in between them, scaring the hell out of Skye. Apparantly he'd chosen to just fly through the plan as a ghost instead of going around. As she watched, he unfurled his wings and snapped his hands up. Cold blue light flew from his palms, freezing the servitors. Skye shot one, while Dynamo hit another, sending beautiful flecks of frost across the sky.

Fantasma flew overhead, waving her hands around in a circle then thrusting them forward. A gust of wind erupted with the motion, sending a group of monkeys tumbling through the air. She punched her fists together and held them outward, a pair of purple circles floating parallel to her knuckles that she used as shields. "We're here Coulson!"

 ** _"_** ** _Yum!"_** with that little battle cry, the most terrifying thing she ever saw dropped from the night sky. Teeth dug into flesh and metal. A wailing soul was sucked into a gaping maw. All life in the area seemed to wane.

Except Big Chill. Everyone else seemed to flinch, even the monkey servitors, but he fought just as hard. The others joined in. The Bus itself continued to fire it's cannon turrets while the heroes fought on top of it, flying around in a display of powers and lights.

Funny. Years back, Skye would have given anything to be able to be in a fight like this. Kinda worth the wait, scary and painful as it was.

-

 ** _Carl Creel/Alloy  
_**  
"Damn it, I should have gotten rocket boots," Carl cursed to himself as he fought his way through the rocking plane. "Then I could be fighting out there."

He'd switched to vibranium form. While he couldn't exactly contribute in the fight around them, he'd bounced enough times off the walls of the shaking Bus that he was glad he'd done it.

"Coulson!"

"In here!"

Losing his balance on the way, Creel slammed a fist into the wall, vibranium knuckles splitting apart steel. With that handhold, he forced his way into a room at the end of the hallway, where Phil was sat in front of two joysticks and a screen.

"May told me to check on you!"

Sparks flew from a console, a spray of some sort of gas shooting down from the ceiling. Coulson cocked and eyebrow at Creel. "I'm doing okay, how about you?"

Creel had no idea what to do with such an unflappable response. "Uh…"

Coulson turned back to the screen and kept shooting. "We're losing systems all across the plane. May is barely keeping us up, and so far Galina has shattered my kill count. So no, I'm not doing so great."

"What should we do, do we have a plan?" Creel said worriedly. "I mean, worst comes to worst I can just fall all the way down."

"...Lucky you," Coulson said after a moment of hesitation. He shook his head. "I hate to do this but… we need to evacuate the Bus. If the engines fail, a lot of us are going to die, and I need everyone I can get for the next part," Coulson looked behind Creel. "What do you think?"

Creel turned to see Mikhail standing behind him.

"It's our best option," Mikhail said with a shake of his head. "I'm sorry, Coulson."

Coulson rose from his seat. "Sympathy later. We need to go, now!"

All three men rushed out, Creel and Mikhail helping Coulson along. "Everyone, get ready to evacuate! May, that means you!"

"Coulson-" May said over the speakers.

"That's an order! Set it to autopilot and get to the cargo bay!"

-  
 ** _  
Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

I reared back with a deep breath then leaned forward, a wide blast of ice enveloping the area in front of me. The temperature drop froze the servitors in a wide area, allowing Fantasma to slash them apart with her magic sword while Skye hit them with bullets from her shoulder turrets.

And yet, we were getting surrounded. Chernobog was happy about that, the dark spirit shooting from one servitor to another and ripping them apart with his teeth. Galina was doing a really good impression of Frankenstrike and Thor, Skye was kicking more ass than I expected, Fantasma was making Gandalf look like Frodo, but we were barely making a dent in the numbers around us. A kaleidoscope of purple magic, ice beams, lightning, plasma from Skye and the monkeys, and the cannon turrets joined together to turn the Russian skies into a beautiful war zone

Coulson suddenly spoke over our comms, my Omnitrix blinking green light with every word. "All teams, we're going to have to evacuate the Bus! Try and hold them off of us until then!"  
 _  
"Already done!"_ Galina and I said in unison.

A servitor charged toward me. I punched it aside where it bounced off the Bus, only for another to hit me. Fantasma blasted it off of me, and I returned the favor by hitting another one.

"How many of these things are there?!" Skye shouted, standing back to back with Galina.  
 _  
"Enough,"_ I growled in annoyance.

Chernobog, floating above us, hummed in pleasure. "More are coming."

With that ominous little line, something large slammed into the roof of the Bus, shaking the whole thing. We all staggered with the shockwave of the impact. I stared in shock at the being that had landed on the plane.  
 _  
"A servitor… gorilla?"_ I said in honest surprise. Looking back, it made sense, but the suddenness threw me.

What had to be five hundred pounds of muscle and metal roared. It's left arm had been replaced with a metal cannon, and half its chest was either replaced or covered in steel, a glowing green orb on it's back. The thing raised hits arm and shot at me. I went intangible, the big ball of light it fired bashing Chernobog out of the air, the dark god growling in anger as his big bat wings pumped to get him back to us.  
 ** _  
"Oh, shoot me with a cannon? I'm coming for you first!"  
_**  
"A gorilla, seriously?!" Skye shouted.

"Take him down!" Fantasma shouted back, blasting at the gorilla with a series of purple beams. Skye and Galina joined her.

The orb on the gorillas back glowed green. Before he could get hit by enough force to turn a tank into mulch, a big orb of green light flowed over him, becoming a shield that absorbed the beams of power. I waited for a moment for the shield to deactivate, then fired as well, hitting the gorilla on the chest. His metal chest frosted over. He didn't seem to like that, cause he leaped forward with a roar.

I went intangible, letting him fall through me, every part of his body covered in ice as it passed. More monkeys attacked the others, forcing me and the gorilla to face each other head-on with no distractions.

The gorilla raised his left arm and fired shots at me, forcing me to dodge as I floated about or go intangible. I fired beams at him, slowing him down or bouncing off his shield. He charged me again. I went intangible and dived into the plane beneath us. I fired a beam of ice as I flew back up toward up, the beam smashing into his chin, followed by my fist.  
 _  
"Shoryuken!"_ I said in Big Chill's ghostly voice.

The gorilla staggered back, then raised his left cannon hand again. I went intangible before I realized that he wasn't aiming at me. With a primal roar, he fired.

The ball of green flame that left his cannon slammed into the right wings engine. The engine exploded in fire and sparks, scrap metal flying about while the shockwave shook the world around us.  
 _  
"Oh you dick,"_ I said softly.

The gorilla roared. I sprayed him with ice again, trying to distract it. It raised shields, my ice uselessly bouncing off the green orb. It raised its cannon arm, the end glowing green. I ignored the shadow that flowed behind the gorilla to stop firing my ice beams. The gorilla dropped shields to fire back.

That was when a massive arm wrapped around its cannon.  
 ** _  
"_** ** _Hey,"_** Chernobog grabbed the gorilla by the other arm. He pulled the screaming animal close. I could see portions of its soul floating off of it. Chernobog smiled, an inky black tongue slipping past razor-sharp teeth to lick at the gorillas face. ** _"_** ** _I don't let a man hit me with his cannon,"_** the gorilla struggled in its grip, muscles of flesh straining, limbs of metal squealing as they were crushed by hands and claws of shadow. Chernobog smiled, slowly opening his mouth over the gorilla's neck. ** _"_** ** _Unless he's willing to give me dinner."_**

Teeth shredded into soul, flesh, and metal. Chernobog laughed as he began to dig into the creature that screamed in his grasp. He slashed out chunks of what I could only think of as 'soul' and swallowed it down. **_"Ahhh,"_** he sighed happily. _**"Was it good for you?"**_ Chernobog asked the discarded remains of a robot gorilla in a satisfied tone.

I turned away to float over the Bus, more easily able to catch up with it. I froze servitor after servitor, punching when needed punching and going intangible where I could as the onslaught continued.

Then a group of monkeys twisted in the air. For a moment I wondered what the hell they were doing. They didn't seem to aim at us. Instead, they flew toward… Oh shit.

I dived toward them, raising my hands to fire at them. They fired at me, forcing me to dodge while firing, but I only got three in a spraying movement. The rest slammed into the other wing.

"Oh come on!" Skye shouted below me. "This is my house you assholes!" the shout was followed by more shots of plasma from her palms before she spun to kick aside a servitor that must have been made from an ape instead of a monkey.

I grit my teeth. _"_ _Forget the Bus! Defend the cargo bay, make sure everyone can get out!"_

We all headed there while fighting through an army, two more loud thumbs followed by a pair of gorillas trying to shoot us. Chernobog groaned.

"Ah man, I filled up on empty calories already! So delicious, so wasteful."  
 _  
"You are a special kind of weird,"_ I grumbled. I took a deep breath. When I breathed out, the immense wave of cold that shot out of my mouth became a blizzard. The gorillas raised shields, blocking the blast, but a majority of the monkeys froze over.

"...You should do that first from now on," Fantasma mumbled while monkeys fell to the ground.  
 _  
"Not without making sure I can take out as many as I can,"_ knowing the move would just expend energy otherwise, especially for prolonged combat when a simple beam was so much more efficient. I shook my head at the sight of the gorillas shooting up into the air to go after us, the green orbs on the backs acting like jetpacks.

Damn. This was just getting annoying.

-  
 ** _  
Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD  
_**  
Coulson sighed in relief when he entered the lab with Creel and Mikhail to see Simmons and Fitz finishing up. "All done?"

"Yes!" Fitz shouted, running from computer to computer. "All the data is backing up right now. Coulson are you sure-"

"The Bus is lost," the words felt like sand in his mouth. Coulson forced them out anyway. "Get to the drop-packs."

Simmons ran up to Fitz and handed him a gray device that looked like the jetpacks from modern cinema. "Coulson, should we go now?"

"Creel," Coulson said as an answer. When the material absorber looked at him, he continued. "Go down with them. Where are Kraven and Vanguard?"

"Here," Vanguard strode into the room, already wearing a similar pack. He was followed by Kraven, who was holding his own back with some distaste.

"Good. We'll jump together, don't want to get lost on the ground." Coulson led the way out as the cargo bay door slowly dropped. As it did, Big Chill and Fantasma flew in to land in front of them.  
 _  
"We're getting swarmed,"_ Big Chill said. _"_ _If we could go all out and stop worrying about the plane, we might be in better shape."_

"You'll get your chance," Vanguard said in response.

"Are we all here?" Fantasma asked, worried.

Coulson looked around. His eyes widened in realization. "May!"

"On my way," Dial's Omnitrix symbol on his chest blinked with each word. "Go without me, I'll catch up."

"Damnit," Coulson cursed. "Everyone, head out! I'll stay and make sure she's safe."

"Coulson-" Mikhail seemed ready to say. He was interrupted when the plane rocked.  
 _  
"That'll be the gorillas,"_ Dial mused.

"Gorillas?" Creel said incredulously.

"It's been an odd night," Fantasma answered. When a lock of hair fell across her face, she blew it out of the way.

"Go, now!" Coulson barked.

After a look at everyone else, Vanguard nodded. "Come on!" He ran toward the door and leaped out.

"Sir," Simmons said softly, pausing before saying anything else. Then she sighed. "Good luck."

"Same from me, sir," Fitz said.

Creel led them over to the bay door. "I'm going to drop first," he said.

"Don't you need a drop-pack?" Simmons asked him, a worried look on her face.

Creel eyed the back. Then he smirked. "No. I'm going to clear the landing zone."

He shifted into his vibranium form. Before anyone could say anything, Creel twisted to fall out of the plane, plummeting to the ground with immense speed.

"Ha!" Kraven barked with a savage smile. "He really knows how to live!"

"That's one way to put it," Simmons grumbled. With a deep breath she followed, Fitz close behind.

Everyone leaped out one by one while he moved over to Lola. Coulson stopped to stare out at the plane. After all this time, all the battles they'd fought. He felt at a loss as he watched his plane shatter around him.

The Bus had been transportation, weapon, base, lab, and home. It had protected them, helped them. In many ways, it had saved the world as much as the rest of them. And now he was about to lose it.

Coulson was drawn from his thoughts when May came into the cargo bar. She leaped over the railing, ignoring the stairs, and rushed over to him. "We need to go!"

He nodded slowly. After one last look, he turned to May, who was looking for a pack. "Forget it. Get in."

May looked over at him as he opened the door to Lola. Nodding firmly, she leaped in as well. Coulson twisted the key into his car's ignition and chuckled sadly. "Kinda sad but… I've always wondered if I could pull this off."

The car started up and he reversed out into the open air behind them.

-  
 ** _  
Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

Coulson driving backward in Lola surprised the hell out of me. As I watched, the wheels folded in, the hubcaps pointed toward the ground and blasted out jets. He twisted her around and flew her down to join us.  
Coming to a hover next to me, Skye, and Fantasma, we all watched as the Bus plummeted through the sky.  
 _  
"...maybe it won't be that bad?"_ I said hesitantly. _"_ _Maybe we'll be able to repair it or-"_

Green and purple lights erupted around the Bus. In a spectacular display of light and sound, the Bus, home of Team SHIELD, exploded.

"I set it up to take out as many as I could," May said softly as the red fire of the Bus' last fight shone on her face. "Figured I'd give her a shot at revenge."

"Goodbye," Skye said sadly, shrapnel raining down on the forest below.

"We're not done yet," Coulson turned to look at us. "Dial, go shut down that fire," he indicated toward the flames that had arisen due to the plane shrapnel smashing into the forest. "Take Fantasma as backup. The rest of us will go down and join the others."  
 _  
"Got it, Coulson,"_ I agreed. I looked over at Fantasma. She gave me a firm nod, the two of us twisting into the air to head toward the fire.

"How did the monkeys sneak up on us?" Fantasma asked as we flew side by side.  
 _  
"They must have had some sort of stealth system,"_ I mused. _"_ _Then again, they could have been mistaken for birds? We'll have to find out later,"_ I went intangible, diving through the trees as Fantasma flew just above. _"_ _Plus side, we're pretty close to our destination anyway."  
_  
Coming to a stop just above the fire that was burning the forest, I felt a bit of relief that things weren't that bad. The floor was covered in snow, and most of the fires hadn't began to rise. Still, the training I'd been given told me not to take a risk. Even a snow-filled forest didn't necessarily negate the possibility of a fire spreading out of control.

I could mentally feel my clock for my Big Chill running down (Not literally, more just me guessing combined with experience for how long forms lasted), so I started blasting the fires around us, dropping the temperature around us even further. I did it over and over, cooling the metal shrapnel around us and puffing out the fires. Then I realized something, cursing.  
 _  
"Damn it,"_ I grumbled.

"What's wrong?" Fantasma asked.  
 _  
"Just… I forgot this form doesn't really have problems with high heat. This species actually eats plasma,"_ I shook my head. _"_ _Didn't have to go intangible. I could have literally eaten every shot that came at me."_

When I looked over at her, Fantasma blinked. "How does one forget something like that?"  
 _  
"Get as many forms as I have and lots of things can slip your mind,"_ I said with a shrug, pulling my wings in to surround me in a hooded cloak. I finished up a few minutes later and looked up at the still floating Fantasma. _"_ _We'd better join the others."_

Before I could say anything else, the Omnitrix began to beep, and I turned back into a human. I grunted in annoyance. "Damnit. And now I'm freezing again."

"Oh, so that's what it looks like," Fantasma said, dropping to join me. "When you become human again, I mean."

"Pretty much, yeah," I rubbed my arms, trying to get some circulation going.

"Is it strange, turning into aliens?" she asked curiously. "Or does it feel natural?"

"A bit of both honestly? Like, when I'm an alien it feels normal to have four arms, or wings, or no eyes. But I'm still mentally human, so I can get a bit weirded out about it," I looked around. "Let's go. Dial!"

In moments, the catom armor I was used to keeping on me flowed over my body, leaving everything but my face uncovered. I sighed in relief as my black and green armor clamped into place and protected me from the cold, reaching for my waist to feel… Oh shit!

"My sword!" I spun in place, staring at the remains of the plane. "It was on the plane!"

Fantasma looked around the scrap metal all over the floor and hanging in the trees. "Could it have been destroyed?"

"It'll take more than that. Tony made that thing to last," I said back, trying to figure out what I could do. "Man, I loved that thing."

"Is it really so important?" she asked.

"It's the best melee weapon I've got and a gift from Tony. I stabbed a Wendigo with the thing," I mused softly.

"Oh, I can help!" Fantasma stood before me, raising her hands. "Okay, hold still. I just need to do a spell I made. It'll connect your soul to your sword, letting you find it. Then I'll disconnect you again."

I blinked down at her as she bit her bottom lip, twisting her palms together, flickering her fingers against the palms, separating them, then clapping them together. Purple rose over her hands. She held out her hands, placing them on my chest.

I had a second to wonder if Chernobog was next to me again before I realized what was happening.

The energy that touched my chest filled me with the feeling of acid in my veins. I gulped unsteadily. That little motion felt like it took all my energy. When the energy faded I felt disgusted. Like I'd been dipped into something had a honey sweet smell, but was also made of raw toxic sludge. Something horrific that was also somehow intoxicating, but _inside_ me.

Fantasma eyed me as I stood there. "A-Are you okay? Some people… don't seem to like my magic, when I use it on them."

I coughed and felt like I had a glob of playdoh in my throat. With another hacking cough, being careful to aim at the ground, I shook my head. "Oh, oh man. That was… rough. What was that?"

"A location spell," when she spoke, she sounded… hurt. Hurt and sad. "I'm sorry. My magic… I don't know why. But it just has that effect. People say it feels disgusting. But it always feels normal to me."

I nodded slowly. "I-I guess that means it works. And that's all that matters. Thanks, Fantasma," I said with a smile. It was a struggle, but I really did feel grateful, so the smile was as broad as I could make it. She smiled back, eyes glittering.

"Okay. So what do I have to-" I was cut off when a line of white came from my chest. The line slowly twisted through the air, headed deeper into the forest. "Oh. Like that, I guess."

"Yes," Fantasma seemed a bit proud, flipping her hair as she flew up into the air and followed after the line.

Not willing to walk, I jumped, activating the jump jets in my armor to cover more distance. With her flying and me jumping, the two of us followed the line through the forest. I tried not to let the fact that the line leaving my chest felt like a Ghost had her hand in my chest and wrapped around my heart throw me off.

Tried to at least.

We ended up near a large chunk of metal that had probably been a wall of the Bus. Portions of scorched leather and furniture stuffing, as well as a bunch of trees that had fallen over, lay around, covered in ice from when I'd blasted the area as Big Chill. The line went under a thick piece of metal. I crouched and grabbed the piece, using the armors enhanced strength to pull it up and toss it aside, making sure to do it with my leg muscles rather arms. I dug through the remains of metal and glass until I found the handle of my sword, sighing in relief.

"Thanks, Fantasma," I said as I looked up at her. "Your magic is pretty sweet. I mean, it feels weird as hell, but it's damn cool."

She seemed really happy about that for some reason, practically glowing with joy. "You're welcome! We should join the others though."

"Got it," I turned and walked in the direction the others had been falling, jumping moments later to follow her flight as we went through the trees. It took a while for us to make our way there. When we came close, the sounds of gunfire and plasma bolts began to fill the air, coming from the skies above. We shared a look and double-timed it there.

-  
 ** _  
Leopold Fitz_**

Fitz yelled in fear as he fell toward the forest below. Creel was quickly falling down below him, barely visible as a vibranium dot far below. Jemma was alongside him, screaming as well.

Fitz held out his arms and legs like he'd been told a million times, slowing down his descent with a wider surface area. The science of terminal velocity filled his mind, not helping his minor panic attack. Bloody hell, people who did this for fun were lunatics!

In his ear, his comm was filled with the sound of Coulson. "Okay, don't panic, but you guys are under attack."

"What do you mean don't bloody panic?!" Fitz spat out.

"Just stay calm! Activate the drop packs when you hit the right elevation. I'm coming down in Lola, and we'll all be together."

Gulping, Fitz looked at the altimeter on his wrist, the one all drop-packs came with. Far too fast for his liking, it was dropping. He waited for an amount of time that felt like both forever and far too short.

The second it hit the green zone, Fitz tried to hit the button on the right strap of the drop pack.

His fingers slipped.

Panicking, he hit it again.

With a gentle 'fwoosh' sound, the jets on the drop pack ignited. Bit by bit, they revved up, slowing him down. By the time they were fully active he was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Until the monkey with wings flew past, scaring the hell out of him.

"I am getting real tired of being scared!" Fitz shouted in annoyance.

"Fear not!" Mikhail floated down to join him, followed by Simmons, Kraven, Vanguard, Skye, Crimson Dynamo, Chernobog, and Coulson with May in Lola. The fighters surrounded Fitz-Simmons while more servitor monkeys came up from the forest. "We are here!"

With that triumphant cry, he pulled out a pistol, firing at the servitors as they flew past. Vanguard joined him, while Kraven, to Fitz's surprise, pulled out a bowie knife. Skye and Chernobog flew about, while Coulson twisted Lola around.

Fitz looked down at the ground in time to barely see Creel about to hit the ground.

Or, not the ground. On the ground below, more servitors could be seen running about. A gorilla was roaring up at Creel in freefall. Time seemed to slow as Creel came down at the roaring gorilla. Creel raised an arm. When he met the gorilla, it was elbow first. The impact sent a shockwave that shook the trees free of snow. Creel's elbow dented in the gorilla's skull, split it apart in a spray of sparks, shrapnel and flesh, and just… kept going. A combination of terminal velocity and vibranium durability let the human bullet crush his way through the cybernetic horror. When he impacted the ground, an immense crater was created around him.

"Hoooly," Fitz said in shock, watching Creel stand up to roar a challenge at the monkeys. "Eat your heart out, Rath."

Coulson piloted Lola around, two machine guns sprouting from the headlights. May had a pistol in her hand, firing at the monkeys while Coulson unleashed hell on the buzzing creatures with Lola. At one point, May quickly headshot a monkey, then hit it two times in the heart when that didn't finish it. Whenever the monkeys grouped up, Coulson activated Lola's flamethrower, scorching the things. Poor Lola ended up getting hit hard by the plasma bolts, scorching her surface with holes and melted metal, one of the shots shattering the windshield. Coulson kept fighting.

Skye floated about the landscape, teeth gritted under her helmet. She twisted through the air with impressive ability, blasting out plasma shots, her shoulder guns firing. At one point the shoulder guns clicked. Out of ammo. The shoulder guns sank back into her armor, and she kept fighting. She seemed to have learned a new technique, a palm strike at the same times as she fired plasma. Badass.

Kraven, to Fitz's surprise, seemed to be using his bowie knife to great effect. He was using the slow engines of the drop pack to somehow just… end up in the cybernetic monkeys paths. Like he just _knew_ where they were flying next, and didn't need the high speed of Lola or Skye to meet them. When the monkeys came close, he would slash out. First, he sliced off their wings, the knife somehow chopping through metal with ease. Then he took off the arms as the monkeys fell. With two stabs, he pierced the chest and head. It was… terrifying. He was fast, ruthless, and quiet. There was a primal feel to the attacks, the way he seemed to prowl about and surprise his opponents. Even in the air, he made a _knife_ a viable weapon. Just by being smart about it.

Vanguard stayed closest to Fitz-Simmons, his shield high. Fitz found himself trying to figure out what metal the shield was made of. Because no matter how many plasma shots hit the glistening shield, it was undamaged. He blocked a shot headed for Simmons, pulled Fitz out of the path of another, then raised his pistol to fire at the monkey, forcing it to dodge.

"Thank you!" Fitz-Simmons said in unison.

Vanguard only nodded, eyes narrowed as he continued to defend them.

Chernobog flew past then. Fitz gasped at the sucking feeling that came from him. A sense that was more mental than physical. What… what was that? It felt like he had been… what was that?!  
Chernobog laughed, grabbing a servitor between his hands. As Fitz watched in uncontrollable curiosity, the servitor seemed to emit a sort of, energy. A pale white stream of light in the form of a monkey, one that had been withered, with no cybernetics. What was that? Not a power source, something else.

A traitorous part of Fitz's mind whispered that Chernobog had absorbed the soul of his victim. He turned away to look at Crimson Dynamo.

Dynamo had taken to the ground, landing to fight alongside Creed. She hit the ground with an eruption of lightning, melting the snow around her for twenty feet.

A gorilla rushed her. She blasted it with lightning, the massive gorilla blocking it with that strange shield it emitted from the green orb on it's back. The gorilla slammed into Crimson.

And came to a stop when Crimson raised a palm and stopped it in place. She raised the gorilla high, the animal roaring, then slammed it on its back. Held down by Crimson Dynamo's armored hand on his chest, the gorilla screamed out on the ground, scratching at her armor and the ground, punching her desperately in the chest. Galina raised her other hand and punched the gorilla in the face. Once, twice. The gorilla's face was covered in blood. Then she punched it once more, sparks and gore following the monsters head exploding.

Galina rose up and created twin balls of electricity in her palms. The round blue-white orbs flew out, melting snow on the way and turning servitors to corpses. She hit another one in the midst of attacking Creel, knocking it back. The woman and man of metal fought side by side against the overwhelming numbers, electricity and vibranium fists causing mayhem.

Fitz looked over at Mikhail.

The Russian soldier had pulled out a massive pistol, one that Fitz recognized. He'd looked up a lot of Russian weaponry on his way to the country after all. This one was a RSh-12. A model of gun that had a reputation as one of the most powerful revolvers in the world, only in competition with the Smith and Wesson 500. It was capable of firing 12.7x55mm cartridges. The same sort of bullets used in Russian sniper rifles.

Mikhail raised the massive revolver and fired it.

A monkey tore in half.

He fired again, the Russian's eyes hard.

A servitor lost a plasma shooting arm.

Another shot ripped a hole in the chest of a servitor, spraying metal, wires, and computer chips. Hollowpoint. The nutter was using hollow point bullets in one of the most powerful revolvers in the world.  
Mikhail aimed at a larger servitor, this one more ape than a monkey, that was flying down toward Creel, who was in the process of lifting a boulder off the ground and tossing it at a gorilla. His bullet sliced a hole in it, tossing it to the ground.

Before he could fire another shot, a plasma shot hit Mikhail's drop pack.

"Гавно!" Mikhail said in Russian as his drop pack exploded.

"Mikhail!" Coulson shouted in horror as Mikhail fell dozens of feet to the forest below.

"He'll be fine!" Vanguard called out, to Fitz's surprise. "Let's land!"

Coming to the ground, the drop packs stopped holding them up, allowing the group to continue fighting. Kraven disappeared into the forest, while Vanguard stabbed the pointed end of his shield into a servitor.

Everyone went into battle except Coulson, Fitz, and Simmons, Fitz-Simmons ducking behind Lola when she landed while Coulson and May hopped out of the car.

May, undeterred by the lack of power armor or enhancements the others had, snapped out a baton, held her pistol out, and began fighting alongside the others, determination on her features as she struck out at her opponents, baton knocking the lighter servitors to the ground while the others took care of the larger opponents.

"We have to find Mikhail!" Coulson shouted over the din. "If he's hurt-"

A sound came from the forest. All other noise stopped. Everyone turned to look at it as the trees shook with the power of that roaring sound. Birds flew off in the distance in a chorus of fear. Fitz gulped.

"What was that?" he asked trepidly.

 _"_ _A friend,"_ Dynamo answered, rising to her full height.

A tree came crashing down in the distance. Then another and another, coming toward them. A noise like an avalanche of stones down a mountainside came with it, the roar of something powerful. Fitz had never heard a true Hulk or Rath roar in person, but he imagined that was what it sounded like.

The being that stepped out of the woods was as large and wide as the Hulk. But covered in fur. Fangs flashed in the light. Massive hands clutched a gorilla by the head, dragging the cybernetic creature behind him. The other hand reached up to rest on a tree, then pushed it aside with ease, sending the whole thing tumbling to the ground.

A bear. A man. A gigantic bear-man. It, he, made that mountain roar of noise again and clenched the fist holding the servitor head, crushing it in his grip.

"Hey guys," Dial said behind them as he joined them, Fantasma floating near him. "What are we… oh. Holy shit."

"Mikhail!" Fantasma said cheerily.

"Mikhail?" Coulson asked, stunned.

 **"** **WINTER GUARD!"** The bear man raised the destroyed servitor high. **"** **BREAK THEM!"**

"I knew it!" Dial shouted.

Then all hell broke out.

-  
 _Author's Note:_ There's only a few big reveals in this chapter, since it was mostly about combat. Mostly how Fantasma's magic feels to people who aren't her, and the Mikhail has a very good barber. The rest was combat. I was trying my best to fill the awesome page of the TVTropes for this story since it hasn't been touched in a while.

Seriously, this was really fun to write. And we haven't even gotten to the coolest parts!


	74. Chapter 74

**_Mahmoud Schahed/Dial  
_**  
Well, this trip to Russia hadn't held back in being weird as shit. On the plus side, I know knew where Ursa Major was. He was using a tree like a baseball bat while roaring like a maniac. Mikhail was a bear man. Who would have thought?

Seriously though, yelling out 'Winter Guard, Break Them' while looking like Ivan Drago in human form? Awesome.

He smashed a monkey out of the air, roared in annoyance when some plasma bolts hit his furred chest, then raised his tree-bat and turned a gorilla into a pancake while making a shockwave that shook the ground.

A whole lot of monkeys were flying around for the rest of us to fight though. We weren't in a clearing though. The area was very hilly, with small cliffs, boulders, logs, mud, and high piles of snow. Perfect for us to split up and conquer without getting overwhelmed.

But with the Omnitrix turned off I only had one option to attack with.

Well, I was fighting Warhammer monkeys. Might as well embrace the madness.

I raised my sword and leaped forward with the cry of the Luna Wolves. "Kill for the living! Kill for the dead!"

 _"Убивай за живых! Убивай за мертвых!"_ Crimson Dynamo roared in agreement, rushing forward like a ball of lightning surrounding a dangerous power core.

 ** _"_** ▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅ ** _"_** was Mikhail's wordless roar.

Our two groups charged each other with death in our eyes.

Lifted twenty feet into the air by my jump jets, I came down sword point and boots first. I hit a flying chimpanzee like a meteor, my sword slicing through its chest with all my weight behind the blow. The chimpanzee roared angrily as we hit the ground, punching me in the chest. Thank god for my armor, because chimpanzees are insanely strong.

I raised my sword and slashed out like Nat had taught me, cutting the chimps head off.

A gorilla rushed me, only for Creel to grab it in a full nelson. Fantasma dropped down alongside me, holding her magic sword. With a shout, we slashed the gorilla on the chest, making an 'X' symbol across its chest and destroying it.

"Thanks!" Creel barked.

Fantasma and I shared a grin with Creel. He tossed the broken machine ape aside and punched another in the face, brawling with it. Fantasma flew to join Mikhail, and I leaped into the air again, slicing one of the baby monkeys out of the air.

As I dropped, I passed by Skye. Both of us hit the ground together near a servitor. Before it could shoot us, I sliced off its plasma arm. The creature tried to attack us with its actual hand, but Skye lashed out with a plasma palm strike, the heated attack tearing through the servitor's chest with fire and force.

"That is so badass!" I shouted.

"Right?" Skye said in exhaustion.

A gorilla dropped in between us, sending us both stumbling. He swung his left arm cannon at me, forcing me to duck. When he swung again I blocked the blow, only to shout at the pain. Yeah, big mistake trying to block a superpowered gorilla with metal limbs with a sword. My armor's servos whined as they took the immense blow, my arms feeling as though they were about to break.

Then a giant red hand wrapped around the gorilla's green orb thing, squeezing and pulling hard. In a pulse of energy, the orb was pulled out of the gorilla's back. As it whined in pain, Dynamo slid around to join me.

In that weird moment of synchronized thought, she blasted out electricity while I stabbed the gorilla in the chest, ripping the damn thing to pieces.

 **"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!"** I roared angrily.

 _"...too much,"_ Dynamo said.

"Yeah, I felt it," I said with a wince.  
 _  
"Still cool."_

Then I was getting attacked again, and Dynamo was blasting the monkeys/apes back. I backpedaled while slicing and blocking, my armor getting blasted bit my bit. A monkey/ape slashed and shot at me as well and a gorilla was rushing me. I used a chopping move Nat had apparently learned from the Red Room to cut a chimp head off, and kicked the other back, sending it flying.

I stumbled on a rock. "Oh fuck!" I shouted as my back hit the forest floor. The gorilla roared and rushed toward me. I crawled backward as it raised its arm-

Tree. A sudden tree slamming down from heaven, smashing the gorilla down to plant itself into the earth. Ursa Major growled at me with a beary big grin.  
 ** _  
"Think green, da?"  
_**  
I laughed, then spun up to my feet to rush for the next fight. Kraven dropped from the trees, sliced into a monkey with disturbing ease, then jumped back into them. That was the first time I saw him. But the evidence of monkey and ape robots having been sliced apart by more ruthless blades than mine was all over the forest floor. At that point, he dropped next to me.

"May I?" he asked with surprising politeness. Before I knew it, he had taken my sword and confronted a gorilla. He sliced off the green orb from its back, then it's cannon arm, throwing my sword back to me when he was done. When the gorilla lashed out, he ducked under it and stabbed the gorilla in the heart. The gorilla tried to keep hitting him, so he pulled out his bowie knife, flipped back in the air, and threw his knife, the blade digging into the gorilla servitors brain right between the eyes.

"Thank you," Kraven said with a savage smile. "I needed the extra length."

"There's a dirty joke in there somewhere," I mumbled while he disappeared again.

I landed in the center of our little group, where Coulson, Fitz, Simmons, May, and Vanguard were fighting. "They aren't running out of people, or robots or monkeys or whatever!" I panted. A monkey got on my back, claws tearing at my armor, the pressure hurting me from its immense strength. I reached back and wrapped my fingers around its tiny head. As the screeching baby monkey flared metal claws and fangs, I tossed it to the ground and stomped down on it twice, bone and metal crunching under my boot.

"We must gather!" Vanguard blocked a plasma bolt on his shield, then spun to toss it at the offending monkey. I found myself dueling a chimpanzee in claw to sword combat but I could still hear and see what was happening to the others.

"The servos!" Fitz shouted when a gorilla rushed toward May. "Left arm, just under the armpit!"

With incredible accuracy, May shot the gorilla three times where Fitz had indicated. The green glow of the left arm cannon faded immediately. The gorilla, not the least bit discouraged (since, ya know, half-robot, half-badass jungle animal), continued to rush forward.

"On the back, the power couplings, they should look like silver quarters!" Fitz shouted shakily.

May didn't respond verbally. She simply lowered her pistol and waited calmly as hundreds of pounds of enraged super ape rushed toward her. At the last minute, the gorilla was about to tackle her. She jumped up, placed a boot on his shoulder, and flipped over the gorilla. In mid-air, she fired at the power couplings Fitz had indicated. The gorilla shuddered in place, unable to move as electricity was diverted from machinery to flesh. May did a finisher with a few more shots to the head before she ran out of bullets.

"This doesn't make sense!" Simmons shouted from where she was ducked next to Coulson. "These are too weak!"

"We're being outnumbered and maybe overwhelmed, and you want these things to be stronger?" Coulson asked incredulously.

"The gorillas are powerful, but the flying monkeys are only really dangerous to us because of their numbers!" Simmons yelled.

"This job leads to a lot of weird sentences," Coulson noted.

"But the servitors we had in autopsy were much more formidable!"

"What are you saying!?" Vanguard shouted.

"This might just be Kragoff trying to drown us in numbers, with the real forces elsewhere!" Simmons ducked under a plasma shot with a squeal. I ran for the monkey that had attacked her, taking a plasma shot to my chest before slicing him out of the air.

"Then we have to finish this," Coulson declared.

"I can do it!" Fantasma flew up to us. "If you give me space! I don't want to accidentally hit anyone!"

"Winter Guard to me!" Vanguard agreed.

"Creel!" I shouted.

My best friend was holding a gorilla in the air, forcing the cyborg to fire on his allies. When he heard me, Creel tossed it aside and rushed over.

We gathered around Lola in a circle, still fighting the monkeys. The area became thick with the damn things. Chernobog was the last to join us, the dark god roaring with glee as he smashed cybernetics and flesh to a disgusting paste on the forest floor. I sliced another head off, shouting as I did so. "Now, Fantasma, now!"

She floated above us, waving her arms around her. She spoke. Chenobog shuddered in happiness while the rest of life in the area flinched. The words that left her lips made my limbs weaken, and I blinked heavily when I noticed my vision start to blur.

With a final, caustic word, her eyes glowing purple, she thrust her palms outward. Two things happened.

First, a large circle of violet flowed around us. The monkeys began to beat on it, a gorilla Mikhail had been brawling with getting its arms cut off by the shield and choosing to continue attacking with its fangs.

Then Fantasma spread her arms out, eyes trailing purple energy, sparks coming to life around us. **_"Burn, all of you."_**

With that, a skull rose in front of us. A violet one, surrounded by flames. I can leave it at that, at just that generic description.

But something about this thing… Chernobog was laughing. My heartbeat rang in my ears. I felt like I was seconds from death.

The servitors began to burn as the skull floated there. Purple flames erupted around us all, using the flesh around it as fuel. The skull just… stood there. It looked serious, somehow. Less like the grinning smiles of fiction, more like the imposing image of a judge laying down a sentence. A demon of hell, making it's sentence known.

I was reminded of Ghost Rider. Of what I thought he might look like.

And while I watched, every servitor stood still. Slowly, they turned to ashes. Even metal burning in violet fire. And the wisps of white? The souls Chernobog had been eating. They ignited.

"Beautiful," Chernobog whispered. He held a hand out reverently, pushing it through the purple shield. His hand began to burn. He twisted it slowly. His smile was gentle. "So beautiful."

The fires faded away. The skull slowly floated to look at us. Eyeless orbs panned over us, as though trying to discern if we too deserved our enemies fate. Deep within those orbs, I could see a pinpoint of red.  
Maybe, if I looked closer… Chernobog was right, it was sort of beautiful. Maybe a closer loo-

"Enough," Fantasma clenched her fists. Slowly, the skull faded away before us.

When it was gone, the shield fell. "Wha-" Fitz stopped speaking, then shook his head. "What was that?"

"Magic," I whispered.

"There's no-" he stopped speaking again, eyes roaming the landscape of purple fire.

Above us, Fantasma's eyes closed as the purple fires around us and the energy around her faded. She fell out of the sky.

Massive bear arms caught her, holding her close. Mikhail looked down at her as he slowly lost his fur, his human form revealing itself as he gently clutched Fantasma's unconscious form. "Good work, lastachka," he said softly.

"That was…" Skye gulped, looking about the battlefield. "Crazy."

"But it exhausts her of most of her energy," Vanguard said, looking on with concern as Mikhail held her.

"She'll be all right, she just needs a break," Mikhail had stopped shrinking, now left shirtless with torn up pants ala the Hulk. Which made sense.

"She can rest," Coulson said, eyeing Mikhail. "In the meantime, mind explaining anything?"

Mikhail winced. "Well… I suppose I have a few things-"

We all stopped when a buzzing sound filled the air. All of us turned to see another Servitor fly in. May and I stepped forward side by side, as did everyone else, all of us brandishing weapons as a group. The thing came to stop in front of us. It had no weapons or claws. It looked like an orangutan with wings and a… really?

"You had to keep upping the crazy?" I asked.

The image of Ivan Kragoff stared out at us from a screen embedded in the belly of the thing. He smirked.  
"Impressive, isn't it? Allows for long-range communication on the battlefield between a general and his forces."

"So does a cell phone," Skye noted.

Kragoff scoffed dismissively. Then he narrowed his eyes. "I give you this one chance, Winter Guard. As daughters and sons of the motherland, you _must_ understand that I do this for you, for all of us! And yet, here you are, working for the Americans to attack me?"

"I'm British," Simmons cut him off.

"Scottish," Fitz added.

"Yeah, and we work for the United Nations, not America," Coulson explained further.

"You are all enemies of Russia," Kragoff swung an arm out, tossing things aside. "You wish to keep her weak and defenseless! Keep from the greatness she deserves!"

"Yay, logic isn't working…" I mumbled.

"Does it ever?" May said to my right.

"Speak, now!" Mikhail barked, striding forward while clutching Fantasma.

"One chance," Kragoff snarled. "One chance to simply walk away. Leave the Americans behind. Go to your leaders and tell them of what I do for our people. That we must _use_ my creations, for the betterment of all! Without depending on," here he eyed Fantasma and Chernobog. "Foul _magics_ and disgusting false gods," he looked at me. "Or alien monstrosities."

Chernobog smiled. "Oh? How funny. I was worshipped by the Slavs of old. I'm the most Russian one here. Though I suppose I should thank you for the meal."

Kragoff snarled angrily, the orangutan carrying his screen shuddering. "Make your decision. Russia, or death."

Vanguard shook his head. "We will come for you. And you will pay for what you've done."

"So we're agreed that we're kicking his ass then," Creel said, crossing his arms over his barrel chest.

"Not if you want to live," Kragoff's face faded to reveal an image of a small town. A village, really. "As a Soviet scientist, I was privy to many of our bases. Most have been abandoned, leaving only their remains. Remains an intelligent man could use to his advantage," he smirked as the camera zoomed in across the cold landscape, slowly coming in on a place that looked… well, military. Stone bunkers, lots of helicopters and tanks destroyed by the decades of ice and wind over time. The camera slowly panned in until we were entering a base, and then quickly, to quickly to be natural, the footage stopped in what looked like the bottom room of the place, a big room covered in snow with dozens of seats around a big central space, like a round amphitheater. In the center was-

"Oh, you fucking asshole," Creel said, dumbfounded.

It was big, and ugly, covered in pipes, with lots of wires, a series of lights on it. And a single symbol resting on it. The symbol for radioactivity.

"You made a _nuke_!" I shouted in shock. "Dude, what the hell!?"

" _Silence!_ " Kragoff shouted. "This is a necessity! If you don't follow my demands, the nuke will detonate on a timer, killing millions in the surrounding cities and villages," the camera flipped to show a group of servitors. They were flying, running, and a couple were in cars driven by robotic skeletons. "We will be attacking another base, to prove once and for all the strength of my army. If you interfere in any way, I will not tell you where the bomb is. It will go off, without you there to stop it," Kragoff narrowed his eyes. "Make the smart decision. Or see the death of millions. Your choice."

The screen turned off, and the orangutan tried to fly off. Until Chernobog leaped forward and grabbed it out of the air. "No. I'm going to need you soon," the dark shadow said simply.

Coulson looked over at Skye. "So, you got the coordinates?"

"Yep!" Skye chirped. "Guy really loves to talk, so I had plenty of time to trace the connection, and the software used the video he sent to figure out the other locations."

Mikhail blinked, before looking over at Crimson Dynamo. "Can your armor do that?"

 _"It will,"_ somehow she managed to combine impressed and determined in one sentence.

"In the meantime, we have three objectives," Vanguard growled. He hopped up on top of a log and looked down at us. "The plan hasn't changed. May, Mikhail, and I had anticipated needing to split up, and I believe we have the best plan. Galina, you said you were working on a counter?"

 _"Yes,"_ Galina stepped forward. _"Fitz, Simmons, and Skye were all working with me on a virus that would cause the cybernetics within the servitors to react violently to their biological components. If we can get to Kragoff, we can upload it directly to all the servitors."_

"Then that is team Alpha's job," Vanguard said firmly. "Coulson, May, Kraven, Galina, Skye, and Fitz-Simmons will head to Kragoff's location. Team Beta will be stopping the servitor army attacking the base. We need enough powered forces to stop them, so Dial-"

"I think I should head to the bomb," I interrupted. "My tech form, Jury Rigg, can disable the thing in seconds, even use it to make something that will help people."

Vanguard bit his lip, then nodded. "Very well. Mikhail," he hesitated, then reluctantly continued, Creel, and I will intercept the army. Coulson, I will need to borrow your flying car."

"...Damn it," Coulson said, pulling out his key and tossing it. "Fine, but if you scratch it, you're paying for it."

We all looked at Lola. Her fender fell to the ground, and some sections where plasma bolts had melted the sides smoldered. The poor girl had had better days.

"Well, scratch it more," Coulson amended sadly.

Vanguard sighed, then continued. "We need someone to defend Fantasma-"

"No need," Chernobog walked over to Mikhail, still holding the struggling orangutan in his right fist. "I'll take care of this little problem myself," he said with bared teeth.

Mikhail watched him, clutching Fantasma protectively. "If you hurt her-"

Chernobog chuckled. "Wouldn't dream of it. For such a wonderful display, summoning even a portion of that creature? The little lady deserves to partake. And to be honest, I'm too bloated for another delicious bite," as we watched, he reached for the ape in his hand. The poor thing stared at it curiously. His clawed fingers dug into its chest as though diving through water. It screamed.

With a single pull, a wailing spirit was held in Chernobog's left hand, the orangutan going limp in his right.  
He twisted the soul in his hands as we all watched in horrified curiosity, then slowly moved his hand over Fantasma's lips. She breathed in. The spirit entered her mouth and nostrils in a stream of white. "There she goes. Should have a fruity flavor, like apples," Chernobog chuckled.

"I wish my scanner wasn't broken," Fitz whispered. "I need to know the science behind this."

"Oh, it is science," Chernobog whispered back, eyeing Fitz. "Ancient, with an understanding of the energies of the world. Few study this anymore. But there is power here. Forgotten power and pretty damn cool power."

Fantasma's eyes snapped open, the entirety of them glowing shades of purple, switching between them. She breathed in again, then looked around at us, settling on Mikhail. "W-What happened?"

"You saved our asses," I said, getting a look from her. "Thanks, Fantasma."

She sighed in relief. Mikhail slowly lowered her down and she primly flipped her hair. "Well. It is my job, after all."

Vanguard smirked. "I'm glad. Because I have one more," he pointed to each of us. " Team Omega is Fantasma, Chernobog, and Dial. You will leave together to stop the nuke. He will most likely have defense.  
We will need Chernobog to absorb the radiation in case this 'Jury Rigg' fails, while Fantasma will aid you in the offensive."

"Nuke?" Fantasma asked, stunned.

"I'll tell you on the way," I promised. "You were kind of out of it before Chernobog fed you a monkey soul."

"He did what!?" Fantasma said, giving the grinning darkness a shocked look.

"Well, ape soul, technically," I noted with a frown.

"Only the energy," Chernobog explained. "Soul food ain't good for mortals."

"You fed me a monkey!?" Fantasma shouted angrily.

"You have your missions," Vanguard said, cutting us all off. "Skye?"

"Here," Skye brought up a map of the area on a hologram. "Dial and Creel should already have these in their armor and gauntlet."

My HUD did indeed show our targets.

"Then you have your assignments," Vanguard snapped his arm out. "Go!"

* * *

Running across the snow and leaping around with the jumpjets was slower than flying, but not by much. If I could, I would have turned to Fasttrack or Astrodactyl, but I didn't want to risk running out of time on the Omnitrix mid-battle. Better to change before a fight, when I could do the most good.

We didn't really talk during our journey beyond me taking time to explain everything Kragoff had told us to Fantasma. Fantasma and Chernobog flew above me, forcing me to push my armor as hard as I could, catoms expanding and contracting like muscles to let me, if not catch up with them, then at least not slow them down too much.

We reached the village that we'd seen from the video. Coming to a stop, Chernobog and Fantasma floated to my left and right as I rested my sword on my shoulder. We probably looked like something out of a fantasy RPG, a demon, a wizard, and a knight in black and green armor standing together on a hill.

The village was just three apartment buildings and a small section that looked like it had been one of those little sections set aside for stores and such. I eyed the military base in the distance. "Okay. Those who think this guy actually left a bomb unguarded, raise your hands."

"Suckers bet," Chernobog growled. Fantasma nodded as well.

"Okay then. In that case, we play this… damnit," I shook my head. "No, we can't wait. It's a nuke. We need to take care of it before the others meet Kragoff and he decides to just detonate it with a suicide mandrill or something."

"Agreed," Fantasma said, floating down toward the village. Chernobog and I followed, the three of us making our way to the center. I tried not to show how exhausted I was.

Running here was bad enough. But the combat before had been worse. Like cardio on fast forward combined with stress and delirium. I was panting, my muscles were sore, and I was basically running on adrenaline. But there was a nuke. If it went off, innocent people would die. That just wasn't going to happen. I'd seen enough death in Rio.

"Just one thing," I raised a hand to my ear, activating the quantum comm unit I'd made all those months ago. "Team Omega, about to attack. Should we go for it?"

Creel came on. "This is Team Beta, Vanguard is wondering the same thing."

For a moment, all was quiet. Then Coulson came on. "Team Alpha is ready. Let's do this."

With a look at each other, we attacked.

As we dived down toward the village, they began to pour out of the buildings. Servitors. Dozens of them, coming from the windows of the apartment buildings, the entrances on the bottom floor, and off the roofs.  
I flipped the Omnitrix open as I ran, changing through my menu. Most any alien would have been effective, but I decided to use someone new. With a push, my body changed in a millisecond.

Brown human skin became orange, with the consistency of stone. My feet became two toed, and my hands became four fingered. I gained a couple feet in height and hell of a lot of pounds of rocklike muscle. My ears became pointed, my face widened, and my beard flowed to join my hair and become dark brown instead of black. Black armor covered my torso and waist, a Roman-style skirt surrounding my waist.

 **"Grendel!"** I shouted out as I slammed into the ground. With that cry, I roared, feeling energy fill my body like a shot of caffeine direct to my heart. "Let's do this!"

"Ah man," Chernobog grumbled. "He can turn into a troll."

A plasma shot hit me in the head. I blinked at the bright green light that followed, then wiped off the remains of plasma. I smiled a fang-filled smile. "Didn't hurt…"

More shots hit me, over and over. I roared in happiness, jumping towards a group of servitors. "Doesn't hurt, bitches!"

What a rush. I could feel that I wasn't as powerful as Four Arms or even Rath. But I was _durable_. With the confidence that brought, I landed in the middle of a pack of servitors.

These ones were different, somehow. They were all more human in appearance, with little to no fur, and more recognizable features. One leaped on top of me, grabbing the fur on my chest and stabbing claws at me. I snarled, grabbing him up. Stronger than the others, he seemed to pull at me. I ripped him off anyways, tossed him to the ground, and stomped on his head.

The earth spoke behind me, warning of an attack. I spun around, grabbing a fist as it was thrown at me.  
The gorilla, much bigger than his counterparts from earlier, struggled against my grip. When he threw another punch, I grabbed this one, then wrestled him briefly. Just like Steve had taught me, I dragged him in, twisted him over my hip, then slammed to the ground. Then, just like Nat had taught me, I pressed a foot to his neck and twisted snapping his neck.

Something came out of the sky, surprising the hell out of me as it tackled me to the ground. I laughed with the excitement of the attack, rolling to punch the servitor off of me. I dived back into the group and… I'll be honest, I ended up losing myself a bit.

I ripped apart another servitor in my hands, took a fist to my face with a grin, brawled with a gorilla just for the fun of it.

The Rock Troll form I got from Ulik apparently had an effect on my brain. Like Rath, I felt it affecting me. But it was so much more insidious than Rath. Rath was like cocaine, hitting me immediately with a rush. Grendel was more like eating a pot brownie. The rush came slowly, filling me until I was burning with it. I punched, kicked, and bit my way through my opponents, laughing.

Someone was yelling at me, but I ignored them favor of continuing to have fun. I clawed at the chest of a servitor, ripping chunks of metal off of it, then uppercutting the thing back. Before I could continue rampaging into the army of monsters, taking punches, claws, and plasma shots without a scratch.

Before I could continue, something happened. The world faded away into smoke, coming together. I blinked as the smoke coalesced into the image of Fantasma in the middle of a red landscape. "Dial, look up and listen dammit!" she shouted with a voice that felt like it was in my brain. Otherwise, the sheer volume would have cracked my eardrums.

The world faded back. I felt a mouth biting down on my arm with immense force, but ignored it to listen to the instruction

"Dial!" When I looked up, Fantasma was above me. "We have a job to do!"

"Ah, let him have his fun!" Chernobog called behind her, eating his way through opponents. His armor was covered in gore and machine oil, the darkness all smiles the whole time.

"Nuke, you idiots!" Fantasma blocked some plasma shots with her shield, then fired back with a magical bolt that slammed an opponent out of the air. "We need to stop the nuke!"

I blinked up at her, finally realizing what she was talking about. "Damn. You're right," I smirked. "No need to stop fighting though," I mused.

With that, I started rampaging again, this time rushing directly into an apartment building. In there, I found what had to be servitors in the double digits, rushing toward me in the hallways. I grinned, flashing fangs before slamming my fists together. "Lets rumble!"

The monkeys in front of me hit me like a wave, five pushing me back. I grunted, grinding my feet on the ground to try and come to a stop, my arms encompassing my opponents. With a shout, I punched one in the face, grabbed another, picked it up, and tossed it into the ceiling, cracking the stone above us. A gorilla joined the mashup. I grabbed by the shoulders and twisted to slam it into the right wall, smashing through the wall. The gorilla, about three feet taller and hundreds of pounds heavier than the ones we'd fought in the forest, spun around as we went through the wall, tossing me through the remains of a bedroom to land in the decrepit kitchen, half covered in mold and snow. I broke apart a drawer and tossed it at the gorilla, then jumped upward, slamming my way through the ceiling.

Once on the next floor, I began to run. Fantasma had been right. We had a job to do. With that in mind, I took a football charge stance and started running.

More plasma bolts hit me, and I could kind of feel them now. Apparently, there was a limit to how durable I was. Good to find out.

I grinned and roared my way down the hallway. I shoved aside another servitor, tackled one to the ground and stomped on its head, grabbed a fluorescent bulb off the floor and stabbed it into the heart of another.  
Picking another monkey, I used it as a shield, making my way down the hall with all the speed I had, until anything in my way was tossed aside or trampled on. The sounds of monkeys shrieking filled my ears like a series of explosions, the servitor I'd lifted up scratching at me while firing shot after shot at my face. There was a window at the end of the hall, one of the few intact ones in the entire building.

When I smashed through the window and most of the wall around it, I let out a whoop of joy, the chill air of Russia filling my lungs. Falling down with the servitor beneath me, our impact crushed it under my weight. Crawling to my feet, I kept running, Fantasma and Chernobog just ahead of me. More servitors rushed across the snow, or flew through the air, rushing through the half-destroyed tanks and helicopters around us. I took a massive jump, landing on top of one of the smaller servitors as it crawled on a helicopter. As the former vehicle and current weapon of war were smashed apart under my weight, I grabbed the rusty rotor blade of the helicopter, ripping it off in two sections until I had them in my hands like a pair of blades. Rushing forward, I started slicing through servitors, laughing all while.

"Enjoying yourself?" Chernobog asked laughingly, landing behind me to join in.

"This is just plain fun!" the earth spoke to me again, letting me know to duck an attack. I was finding that my connection to the earth was deeper than just being made of it. I mean, I suppose it made sense for a _Rock_ Troll. Explained how the hell Ulik kept dodging us, if he could sense things on the ground the way I did.

"Come on!" Fantasma said from the door to the massive round bunker. Chernobog and I shared a reluctant look, then ran for the door. "We need to-"  
 **  
BOOM!**

Chernobog and I slammed our shoulders into the metal door in unison, snapping it open. Inside, I could see some stairs leading deeper inside.

"Thank you," Fantasma said lightly, rushing in after us. She turned back to block the doors with a shield, straining as she held off the small army outside. Dozens of servitors clawed and shot at the violet mandala, and she gritted her teeth. "I can't hold them off for too long!"

"I got it!" I said, clapping my hands together and rubbing them. "Go!"

Fantasma nodded, then turned. As she did, I jumped up, slamming my fingers deep into the ceiling. With a pull and a push, the entire ceiling began to crumble. I dropped down as the whole thing began to collapse, rushing down the stairs.

"Go, go, GO!" the cave in smashed down over us, forcing us all to book it down as a trio. Fantasma twisted out of the way as I passed her, turning to blast out purple flames from her left hand. They were hot enough that even I could feel it. Hot enough that as it hit the stones falling toward us, the rubble boiled. She grit her teeth and snapped out her other hand with a shout. In a single move, the rubble froze into place, turning it into a rough wall. We all stared at it as the sound of plasma shots and claws impacting stone filled the air above us.

"Won't hold for long," Fantasma noted.

"Then we better find the nuke," I growled.

"Hn," Chernobog sighed. "This has been just the best day, you guys."

"..."

No idea what I was supposed to say to that.

* * *

 ** _Director Maria Hill_**

Hill shook her head, glaring at the woman in front of her, a woman with dyed blonde hair and glasses wearing a black business suit and blue shirt. The blonde was speaking in Russian and sweating slightly. Maria could see why.

Steve and Fury were on either side of her, both wearing casual clothes, Fury glaring at the woman along with Maria, while Steve was more neutral. Though Steve had the benefit of his powerful demeanor to help.

Apparently, that was enough to make the woman panicky. Which meant she was a lapdog, forced to come by with the paperwork and read off the proposal. Which meant the Russians were scared Maria was angry. So the Russian politicians didn't all suddenly have their heads up their asses.

The doors to Maria's office suddenly opened. The woman squeaked, startled, while Steve, Maria, and Fury sighed in unison.

Tony strode in confidently. He eyed the woman. "Huh. You… are clearly under a lot of stress. You should have a drink."

With that, he strode up to the bar nearby. "Tony-" Steve was about to say.

"I warned you about this," Tony said to Fury and Maria.

"About what?" Fury said with a cocked eyebrow.

"Crimson Dynamo," he poured out a drink as he spoke, walking over to the woman. "I mean, it was bad enough when it was just me and Rhodey, but now that we've got so many people running around in the low rent stuff, of course, everyone else is trying to cramp my style. I mean, it was bad enough when they were screwing up all over the world and I had to show it during that trial forever ago."

"Those poor people," Steve winced.

"Eh, screw those guys," Tony passed the woman a glass, the terrified Russian woman taking it gratefully.  
"Important thing is that once again, I was right, and once again, true genius goes unappreciated."

"Tony," Maria said firmly. "We were in the middle of something. I believe I told you to come when you had something."

"I do," Tony walked over to stand behind the desk with Maria. "I read the deal. I say we take it. With some modifications, sure. See, we need more. And I can think of a couple of things we could use," he tapped at Maria's desk, bringing up the files in question. Before them, Tony's 'revised' version of the file. "What do you think?"

Maria read it over. Then she nodded. "Fine. I won't shoot you today."

"And once again, I survive despite destiny," Tony chuckled. "By the way, Thor is still raging."

"Really?" Steve asked, sounding amazed. "He's been at it since-"

"Since he saw the bad guy from Ferngully rushing around with our lesser selves?" Tony scoffed. "Hell, I'm still surprised you aren't mad."

"I don't really care as much," Steve said with a raised eyebrow.

The Russian woman sank down in her seat as she started to realize how ignored she was.

"Yeah, well I do," Tony scowled. "I don't know who the guy cramping my style is, but I'm tempted to fly over to Russia and have a party."

"...That doesn't sound like a threat," Steve frowned.

"Steve, you've seen the kind of chaos I can cause at a good party," Tony said with a wide grin.

Maria raised a hand, stopping their banter. "This deal will work. If you can meet our own demands, we'll be able to, if not overlook this, then at least use it to our advantage."

The Russian woman gulped. "Okay! I will hurry and call!"

"Please do!" Tony said with a grin. "You've got a deadline though."

The unforgiving looks she got had her rushing out of the door.

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ So yeah, we're getting there. One thing I did want to note. I like Coulson. I'm not sure why I keep breaking his toys. First the Bus, now Lola? Man.

That said, there's a few other things to unpack in this chapter, but I figured I'd let you guys pick out what screams at you the most


	75. Chapter 75

_Author's Note:_ At the end of this chapter is something a little more personal, so I'd appreciate it if you guys could read the Author's Note down there. Anyways, hope you guys like this chapter in the meantime :D

* * *

 ** _Phil Coulson_**

Coulson, Skye, May, Galina, Fitz-Simmons, and Kraven all stared down at the building in the distance. It was a two-story complex, with decrepit hulks of trains all about, rusted rails covered in snow, and windows blown out by time.

Kragoff's servitors were roaming the complex. A bunch of robot monkeys hopping on top of rusted trains, flying through the air, and roaming around the tracks. It should have looked ridiculous. But dozens of primates covered in metal and able to shoot plasma was kind of terrifying. You never realized how big and strong a gorilla or chimp was.

Coulson put aside the thought, for the millionth time, of what a weird mess his life had become. He looked at the others. "What do we got?"

"Enough of an army to cover the entire area," May answered Coulson, lowering the binoculars in her hand with a sigh.

"Not quite," Kraven said. "He makes it seem like that. But watch how they move. He's there, or at least has the nearest entrance to him there."

"...Okay, I got nothing, Crocodile Dundee," Skye said after a moment of watching.

"First, I take that as a compliment," Kraven flipped his bowie knife in his hand with a smirk. "Girl, take a look," he stepped forward to kneel, eyeing the army below. "When a herd moves like this, it's because they want to hide their individuality. To keep predators like us from picking out the weaknesses, constantly shifting to hide their vulnerabilities. This Ivan has hidden himself behind a facade. But any careful person… There," he pointed, trailing his hands along. "Kragoff has patrols going past one particular spot in a perfect sequence. As long as we can follow it-"

"It looks random," Fitz mumbled.

"No, he's right!" Simmons said excitedly. Without meaning to, she moved forward to kneel next to Kraven, who looked surprised. "If we follow it…" she bit her bottom lip and traced her finger.

"Then Kragoff is there. And following the same traits found in herds-"

"So he's not a crazy nutbag?" Skye asked curiously.

 _"Kraven knows what he's doing,"_ Galina clinked as she moved forward slightly.

"The logic is sound," Simmons looked up at Coulson. He crossed his arms and swayed in place for a moment.

"...We don't have much time. Creel and the others are going to intercept the army soon. So we need to move at the same time. If I'm right, they're thinking the same thing. If all goes well-"

Over Skye's comm unit, the sound of Dial's voice was projected. "Team Omega, about to attack. Should we go for it?"

Creel came on. "This is Team Beta, Vanguard is wondering the same thing."

Coulson looked at Kraven. "You're sure about this, right?"

Kraven scowled, about to speak before Simmons cut him off. "Sir, it makes perfect sense."

Kraven gave her an oddly appreciative look, then nodded. "I have experience. Not just in hunting animals, but in assaulting military bases and poacher camps. Humans are just animals who have lost their way, Coulson. And every animal is at its purest when it comes to a fight. Follow me, kill what you have to, but keep on moving. Fitz-Simmons will be in the center, Skye, you and I lead, May and Galina following."

Coulson mused on that. Then he nodded, looking at Skye. "May I?"

"Sure thing, boss," Skye held out her right hand, Coulson awkwardly uncrossing his arms to talk into her wrist armor.

"Team Alpha is ready. Let's do this."

"Wait," Kraven frowned. "We need a distraction. If we simply rush in, we'll get overwhelmed. We need someone to cause the distraction, to make sure if we do get spotted while we go after him."

 _"I'll do it,"_ Galina said immediately.

"No," Coulson shook his head. "We need someone to cause a distraction, then sneak over to join us again. And you aren't exactly sneaky, no offense."

Galina said something caustic in the roughest of language.

"I have to go," Skye said softly. Everyone turned to look at her. "What? My armor is made to be able to sneak around quietly and I can make a hell of a noise if I have to. You guys wait for me to make the distraction, then go in. I'll fly after you guys."

"Then we'll have mostly internal forces to deal with," May stood in military stance. "I suggest we cause a distraction for those as well. Our goal is Kragoff. Fighting the soldiers he's got isn't as important as getting to wherever he's controlling them."

 _"Then that is my job,"_ Galina said.

"Again, you'd need to sneak back to-" Coulson began to say.

 _"No, I don't,"_ Galina growled. _"I will simply fight them. You don't need me inside, Coulson. Skye, Fitz, and Simmons will aid you. I can stay outside and kill as many as possible."_

"There are hundreds of servitors," May noted.

 _"Good for them. I'll give them a cookie,"_ Galina said blandly.

Coulson smirked. "Yeesh. Kids, right?"

Kraven and May smirked as well.

"Okay then. Skye will do the first distraction, sneak away, then Galina will do the second. Agreed?"

Nodding, the two girls in power armor flew off. Moments later, the sound of plasma bolts filled the air. The small army below them spun, then ran in the direction of the shots. A large portion of servitors sent up dust and snow as leaped over rusted over trains and flew into the trees, leaving only a small amount behind.

"Go, now!" Kraven immediately rushed forward, everyone following as he had suggested. They ran through the snow and dirt as a group, charging forward. Using bushes and hulks for cover, Kraven led them along.

Coulson found it funny that somehow, Kraven kept leading them to sneak up behind enemies to kill.

"I really need to my hands on one of those Model 2 guns!" Coulson whispered as he snuck alongside the others, firing his silenced Glock, the loud shots mixing with the plasma fire in the forest to make his shots tough to track. Considering all the insane alien weaponry and tech he dealt with on a daily basis, he couldn't be blamed for the thought that a simple pistol just wasn't cutting it anymore.

"No need!" Kraven jumped like a panther, slicing out the jugular of an ape, then twisting in the air to grab it and force it to the ground, stabbing it in the brain. "No matter the battlefield, a knife will have its place."

"The super strength and speed probably help," May grumbled, joining Coulson in firing a simple pistol at her opponents. "Use the trains for cover!"

"Already doing it!" Simmons whispered, sounding panicky.

"I'm officially sick of monkeys!" Fitz mumbled, groaning as he joined the others.

They made their way to the door Kraven had indicated, the jungle fighter guiding them in his killing spree. Honestly, between May and Kraven, it was tough to tell who was deadlier. It was like comparing a predator to a killing machine. While Kraven was efficient, he was also passionate. He had a wide smile on his face as he sliced and killed, like his life had found completion. May was unmoved. She had a job to do, did it, and moved on.

Both were intimidating to Coulson for multiple reasons. Though May was far more fun to watch for him personally.

They made it to the door, which was guarded by two gorillas. Hiding behind a train, Kraven looked over at the gorillas. "Okay. Can you take care of the ligh-"

May shot out the lights. Kraven grunted in satisfaction, the gorillas roaring in confusion. He and May rushed forward through the darkness and struck as one.

Kraven leapt onto a gorilla, bringing it to the ground and stabbing it in the right eye. He backflipped out of the way of a swipe, then leapt back in to stab his opponent in the heart, twisting his blade with a savage smile.

May, on the other hand, backflipped onto it and shot it in the power couplings that Fitz had marked for her.

With both guards gone, the group entered through the door, Simmons reaching for her comm unit. "Skye, we're good!"

They all waited for a breathless moment.

"On my way."

Skye dropped out of the sky with surprisingly little noise, landing in front of them. Coulson had to fight down his worry for her. The warrior hacker was covered in plasma burns and looked as though she was in pain as she walked through the door. No one said anything as she joined them, Coulson focusing on the job.

"Okay, Galina. Hit em."

* * *

 ** _Crimson Dynamo/Galina Nemirovsky_**

That was all Galina needed. She'd been standing behind Kragoff's base, waiting in the woods with bated breath, almost bouncing in her armor. She raised her arms to cock them at her hips. Her chest opened up as electricity passed over her arms and legs to gather at her chest. In the center of her chest where the plates of her armor slid open, revealing a spinning orb of light.

 _"Dobraye ootro Cyka!"_

With that triumphant cry, the energy in her chest began to fire.

An ion cannon, a weapon that used electrical charges to fire particles with immense speed and force. Fiction often displayed such weapons, from Star Wars to Command and Conquer.

It was just as powerful as you would expect and a true show of her genius.

The beam tore through several trees, ripped the dirt in it's passing while melting the snow and turning loose granules to glass, and shone so brightly it illuminated the whole trainyard as though a blue sun had appeared in the sky.

When the beam hit the building, it dusted the concrete wall. And most of the hallway behind it, a portion of the ceiling, over and over until it went through the other side of the building. Galina smirked at the loud sounds of alarm that followed, various primates shouting and shrieking as they all rushed her.

"What the fuck, Galina?!" Skye shouted over comms.

"Warn us next time!" Kraven yelled in agreement.

"That was incredible!" Fitz-Simmons said in unison, bringing a smile to Galina's face without her realizing.

Galina ignited her jets, lifting herself into the air. She growled, lifting her arms up to prepare for the fight. The ion cannon shot, powerful as it was, still caused a noticeable drop in her power reserves. She grit her teeth. "Coulson, you have your second distraction. Now make it count!"

Apes flew and ran towards her as she blasted forth twin bolts of lightning, eyes hardened in rage.

* * *

 ** _Nikolai Krylenko/Vanguard_**

Vanguard was in the driver's seat of Lola, Mikhail was in the passenger seat, and Creel was standing on the hood, his form changed to match the red of Lola's metal. Vanguard was shouting into a walkie talkie that came with the car.

"Yes, evacuate the entirety of the area!" Vanguard said to his superiors in Moscow. "We have a team getting ready to dismantle or stop the bomb, but we can't risk him detonating it prematurely!"

He twisted the steering wheel of Lola. Dozens of feet below, an army of vehicles and servitors were tearing across the landscape, sending up plumes of snow. Vanguard brought the car over the army and pressed a button. Bullets flew from the cars headlight machine guns, ripping into the army, which fought back as well. Creel and Mikhail dived down together, their forms rippling into shining metal and brown fur, respectively. When they hit the ground, they immediately began to unleash hell. Claws and fists began to rip apart monkey flesh. Creel grabbed a jeep and tossed it into the air, the occupants falling to the ground. Mikhail was in a duel with the bigger apes, roaring in rage.

In the meantime, Boris had apparently grabbed the radio from the terrified man who had been speaking to Vanguard. "Nikolai, we're running operations to evacuate every town and village we can. Have the reinforcements arrived?"

Vanguard eyed the horizon. Soon, a smile came to his face.

A group of tanks came over the horizon. Smaller dots walked alongside them.

"They're here. I'm going to meet them."

"Good. You have full command over them," in the background, someone shouted in protest. Boris snarled. "Really!? We are fighting goddamn killer monkey robots, let my team do their job you, Debil gazyol!" someone shouted again. "Oh, taking my job are you! Come here! No, come here!"

Loud noises that sounded suspiciously like a metal briefcase hitting a skull came from the radio, Boris yelling all the while. "You have full command Nikolai! Defend our country!"

Vanguard smirked. Boris was a politician. But he'd also been a soldier once. Time like this were a good reminder of that. "Understood!"

Twisting the flying car around, Vanguard flew it over to the army in question. Twisting, he heading to where the man in command would be, noting the formation they'd taken. An older one. Battles on open fields hadn't been a thing in warfare for a while, so it was good they were using the old methods. Vanguard used his knowledge of old Russian military tactics to guide him, coming in low. A man stood on top of a tank, looking up at Vanguard as he came in.

"Looks like your new ride has had better days, Vanguard!" the soldier cried up to him.

Lola hiccuped slightly, the poor dear shuddering in the air.

"I'm borrowing it," Vanguard admitted. "You have your orders."

"Monkeys," the man standing confidently on the tank spat to the side. "Robots. Whatever. We're here to fight."

Vanguard smirked under his mask. Had to respect a soldier. Vanguard parked the car behind the mainline, then got on top of the tank next to the soldier in command, taking a comm unit from the man and linking it to the one Galina made for him. Thinking of the comm unit she'd made for him reminded Nikolai of Galina and Dial's recent obsession, he shook his head and smirked.

"Drive us closer, commander. I want to hit them with my shield."

The tanks and soldiers charged to meet the apes. Bullets began flying. The apes responded as well, the tanks stopping at range to fire on the vehicles and gorillas as the soldiers found what cover they could. Vanguard blocked a shot from a gorilla cannon on his shield. One soldier was shot in the chest, plasma flash boiling the liquid inside him to tear the poor man apart.

Vanguard grit his teeth in anger but kept his focus on the battle. Yelling into his comm unit, he felt his eyes flicker from moment to moment, death and destruction all around him.

"Cover the left flank! Our enhanced units are on the right, we can afford to send less soldiers there! Tanks, stop shooting the small fry, we need to take out the heavy units!"

The second they came close enough, he got into the fray himself. Slamming the pointed tip of his shield into one chimp, he ducked under another, punched it in the chin, then twisted in a spinning kick to knock another over. The tank turret spun around, forcing Vanguard to duck under it's cannon as it passed over head. As he came back up, he backflipped through the air, landing among the other apes to start throwing punches again. The battle became thick with blood, a tank exploded, and another one fired. Vanguard defended a man, only to stop when he realized that man was Creel.

The men shared a brief look. Then they stood back to back and started fighting. Mikhail roared past using his claws to capture a chimp and rip it in half.

More and more servitors charged. More men died. Vanguard grit his teeth, back to back with a man he didn't trust, calling commands all the while.

Team Alpha needed to finish fast, or else they'd lose purely by exhaustion.

* * *

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

We went down the stairs slowly, me in the lead, Chernobog and Fantasma behind. Chernobog was having trouble with the stairs however. His big feet were just too large for the stairs, leaving him grumbling as he had to keep adjusting to keep from falling on his face. Finally he just floated off the floor and followed that way.

For some reason, despite also having giant feet, I didn't seem to have any trouble at all. As long as some part of my feet were touching stone, I was fine. It was a subtle ability, but useful in terms of my balance.

At the bottom of the set of stairs was a series of different hallways. We looked around at them. There were six. I could see down each of them, with the large amount of paint peeling off the walls to make each of them look more like a trail through a forest rather than a stone hall.

A light from behind me drew my attention. Chernobog and I turned to see Fantasma raising a hand covered in a purple 'glove' of magic and a white light in her palm.

"Sorry," she said with a wince. "I didn't bring a flashlight."

"Where would you even put one?" Chernobog said shooting a look at her clothes.

She glowered at him.

"What, that's a fair question!"

"I mean-" I was about to say, only to get glared at as well. I blinked. "I didn't realize it was dark, to be honest. I have perfect night vision in this form."

"Of course you do, you're a Rock Troll," Chernobog said with a grunt. "You aren't named that just because you're as dumb as one."

I scowled, then focused on the job in front of me. "Okay. Which way?"

Fantasma looked around. "We can't just guess. We have to be sure."

I thought about that. Rock Troll. I'd tested the form before, but apparently testing it in a lab setting was less helpful than I thought. But Chernobog had said my night vision was to be expected. Because I was a Rock Troll? Why…

I walked up to one hall. Working on instinct, I closed my eyes. I could feel the earth speak to me again. Well, not speak. In some sense, it was like a very lowkey version of Swampfire's power to talk to plants. Stone and dirt didn't have any sort of life. But I could read vibrations and shifts in the earth like it was a language. Following that, I walked around for a moment. The image we had seen when Kragoff sent the video through that orangutan had been of a cavernous room. So we were looking for an empty space of that size, with a big metal bomb in the center, maybe defended by more apes.

I felt it after a moment. Something sang to my senses, told me that was what I was looking for. The closest equivalent, at least.

"This way," I said, walking down a seemingly random hallway.

"Are you sure?" Fantasma asked.

"Nope," I admitted freely. "But if we're going down a random hallway anyways, it might as well be the one that feels right. I'll trust my troll instincts over chance."

We all walked down the hallway together. Every once in a while we'd come to another set of halls and I'd take one after a moment of thought. We made our way down the disgusting halls, stepping over debris and peeled off paint.

"This place could use a decorator," I mused.

"What, you don't think Kragoff has a monkey just for the purpose?" Chernobog said sarcastically.

"Why monkeys anyway?" Fantasma mumbled.

"Hey, everybody has their own thing," I shrugged. "Tony has his suits, some people have robotic tentacles, Kragoff has monkeys and apes."

We stopped in a room, a big oval lobby type of place. Shattered glass rested on the floor along with destroyed sections of the furniture. Moss was everywhere and the whole place had a disgusting slimy feel to it. I stopped.

"We've got incoming."

As I said that, in the hallways around us, flickering green lights came to life in the darkness, followed by the sound of heavy breathing.

Only four of them though. That surprised me. After an army popping up every time, I could only feel a few.

One of the four stepped out of the shadows, striding toward us.

Kragoff was carrying a cane, stepped toward us in that calm and measured manner that Fury had perfected. The man was just like we'd seen him before, balding at the top of his head with long strands of his remaining hair falling to his shoulders. His eyes were hard, flinty I guess you could say, and he was frowning like we were unruly students in his classroom. He wore an old military uniform under a red winter coat that made him look even more severe as he stared at the three of us.

"Sup," I said instantly.

He sneered, speaking in Russian. "Leave. Now."

We all shared a look. He sneered a bit more. "I knew you wouldn't listen. That someone would be sent to disrupt the bomb. It is why I am here. To give you a final chance. You foolish children have no chance," he snapped his fingers.

Three beings came from the shadows.

One was a gorilla. But it dwarfed all the others that had come before, standing even taller than Chernobog. It was covered in brown armor of steel across it's chest, back, and arms, and his eyes glowed red. The guy looked like King Kong shrunk to barely fit in a building and somehow became ripped. The armor on his arms glowed a slight white, like they were surrounded in energy.

The second was a baboon about the size of a human. He had armor that looked almost loose, gray in color with larger sections along his back. The armor suddenly shrank to become skin tight, with the looser sections flowing to become wings. It wasn't catoms or nanotech or anything, but it was advanced.

The last one was another orangutan. It was floating in the air, electricity floating about armor sections on the arms and legs, with metal slowly circling it like lightweight Magneto.

"You see, while my creations are quite powerful, none of them can match my pride and joys. My three original designs. Miklho," the gorilla growled. "Igor," the baboon flew up on wings of metal. "Peotor," the orangutan raised a fist as steel circled it in the air even faster. "Prevent them from disabling the bomb. I will deal with their allies."

Kragoff faded to nothing. A hologram.

The gorilla rushed forward with a deafening roar. Chernobog laughed. "Come on, Furious George, show me what you got!" The two met in the middle with immense force, spinning into a kiosk that might have once held a bored secretary and turned ancient office supplies to rubble.

Chernobog reached out for the gorilla, Miklho I guess, and pressed his claws to the gorilla's chest. Presumably to simply rip his heart/soul out and end the fight.

Glowing white energy that erupted at the point of contact stopped him in his tracks.

"Oh?" Chernobog clawed at the gorillas chest again, only for the white energy to become a bright flash of light, strong enough that even Fantasma and I were almost blinded and probably would have been had it been aimed our way.

Chernobog, much closer in proximity, roared. **_"AHHH! You absolute fuck!"_**

Chernobog stumbled back in pain, his shadowy form flickering. The gorilla raised a fist and promptly socked Chernobog in the face, sending the dark god through a wall. Apparently Kragoff had more tricks up his sleeves.

The orangutan, Peotor, rushed Fantasma, flying on currents of lightning while swinging his arms forward, small metal spikes flung towards her. Fantasma floated up and backward, raising her arms to create a mandala shield in front of her. She grit her teeth as the metal shards bounced off her shield only to fly back and hit the shield again. She fired a magical beam, only for the monkey to raise and combine metal shards together to block the beam.

While those two had a duel in the air between metal and magic, the baboon, Igor, stared at me.

Nonplussed by the intense glare, I hesitantly spoke. "...So, uh, how you doing? You wanna fight or-"

Igor rushed forward before I could finish. His armor flowed to surround his hands to become two long sword blades, slashing at me. I raised my hands and blocked the swords on my forearms, tried to front kick at the baboon. He spun out of the way, then slammed his blades against me again, getting me in the chin.

"Goddamn it!" I swung at the thing, only to miss. "One day, I'm going to meet a bad guy who responds to me being nice to them in a good way!"

"WRACH!" the baboon's armor on his fists grew to become massive mallets, the monkey punching me back into a wall.

Okay then. Apparently he was too fast for me to hit.

The baboon flipped over another punch, punched me again, stabbed at me with a sword hand, flew up on shapeshifted wings and dropped behind me to punch me again.

And he was a shapeshifter. I mean, technically his weird as hell armor was shapeshifting but it was fucking with me either way.

What had Hawkeye told me all that time ago in Rio? That I held back with the watch? Well, a nuke was a good time to unleash everything I had.

Before I could do anything to that effect, the baboon's fingers became five long claws. He slashed at me and I blocked it on my arm again. He got through my skin this time, slicing into my flesh. I shouted in rage, stepping back. I glared at the deep red cuts. "Rude!"

Then, before I could say anything else, the cuts stopped bleeding at a very fast pace, enough that I noticed it.

"...Neat."

Cool. Grendel had regen.

With that in mind, I had to change forms if I wanted to touch this guy. I slapped the Omnitrix symbol on my chest.

Fur and flesh went from orange to blue, and I lost hundreds of pounds of weight in favor of a more svelte form.

 **"FASTTRACK!"**

"Shapeshifting is my game, asshole," I said with smirk, rushing forward. "And I'm the master of this universe!"

Until someone else showed up at least.

Igor the Baboon swung long claws at me as I sped toward him. I slipped around his slash with ease and punched him in the face while running past, basically clotheslining the thing. Iran back around, ready to attack, only for Igor to try to escape by forming wings on his back again and flying upward. I ran forward at full speed, then jumped. In a flash of green, my form shifted again, fur being replaced by orange scales.

 **"ASTRODACTYL!"**

"Squawk!" I blasted forward, my organic jetpack using star power to send me into Igor. We smashed into the ceiling in a crater-making impact.

"Crach!" Igor snarled, flashing fangs at me, then slashing out. I dived back to hover with my wings and fired a blast of green power from my mouth. Igor shapeshifted a large shield out of his armor, which took the blast. I made a whip from my left arm and slashed outward with it, catching the ape by the foot. Igor tried to swipe at the whip with a sword, but I pulled as hard as I could.

"Squawk! Shout out to Wonder Woman!" I joked while spinning around in a circle, pulling the baboon around with me. Swinging him outward, I let go of the whip to send him flying into the ground. I shifted again as I rocketed toward Igor, the baboon still dazed from the impact.

 **"FOURARMS!"**

Still shooting at the ground with the force of Astrodactyl, a full ton of Tetramand slammed into the ground fist first and shattered Igor's attempt at a shield. My four fists slammed into baboon flesh, then through it, the sheer force of my impact cratering the ground and sending the corpse flying.

 ** _"I told you! Universe's best!"_** I crowed.

Just as I said that, Fantasma and the Magneto ape flew by. I leapt after them, ignoring the corpse of Igor to try and grab his orangutan buddy as he kept trying to kill my new friend. I shifted in mid-air.

 **"SWAMPFIRE!"**

Still shooting forward on the propulsion of Four Arms leg muscles, I hit the orangutan hard, wrapping a hand around his face to start punching him.

"OOK!" enraged, the orange furred ape surround himself in blue electricity. I took the current to my system and fought through it, ready to unleash fire, only for metal blades to start slashing at me. A small storm surrounded me when just a few blades didn't dissuade me for trying to break the giant orangutan's ribs.

My arms were torn off, my head was ripped in half, my heart was torn to pieces, I was basically the literal interpretation of every country love song.

"Dial!" Fantasma shrieked in horror.

I grit my non-existent teeth and regenerated, grabbing the orangutan with my left hand as my arms regrew, my plant fingers wrapping around furry legs. Swampfire wasn't about to die just from being torn to pieces. "I'm good! Let's do this!"

My right hand grew back as I lifted it up. I unleashed fire from my palm, engulfing the insane cyber monkey. The orangutan snarled. Didn't know these guys can snarl.

A metal wall of razor-sharp metal blocked my fire. With all that metal blocking me, it let Fantasma strike. She unleashed a bolt of violet magic, sending him to the ground as I let go. Fantasma and I landed side by side, both of us raising our arms to aim at the orangutan. We released blasts of fire and magic at the same time, the orangutan shrieking in rage as he was torn apart. After a few long moments where metal around us shook, he finally stilled.

Before we could relish in our win, Chernobog roared to our right. Spinning around, we watched a gorilla carried along by a ballistic xerox machine go flying past us, bouncing along the ground to roll back on to his feet.

I stared at the giant hunk of Soviet-era steel and plastic that had been used to launch a twenty-foot tall gorilla across a room. "Printer?"

"I ran out of desks and old school printers are giant fucks," Chernobog growled, stumbling toward us. He looked… pissed. Like, amazingly pissed off. His armor was scratched and beaten, practically destroyed, with pieces falling off.

"You, uh, want some help?" I asked curiously.

He growled low and hard, striding past us. "No. I'm **_killing him now!"_**

With that, the shadowy demon stalked toward his prey. When the gorilla rose, the beast roared, swinging a fist at Chernobog. Chernobog ducked under it, responding with an uppercut that send the gorilla stumbling back. The white energy around the gorilla glowed again, only for Chernobog to grab a section of floor from the crater Four Arms left behind and blocked the flash of light, smashing the gorilla with the concrete right after.

 ** _"NO! No more tricks!"_**

The two locked arms, shadows and gorilla flash struggling. The gorilla roared, flecks of spit landing on Chernobog's face. Chernobog roared as well, slowly overpowering his opponent and forced the gorilla's back to the wall.

 ** _"No more magic!"_**

Chernobog reared back his head, then slammed his helmeted head against the gorillas. The helmet shattered with the impact, dispersing into flecks of black ash. The gorilla's nose and jaw shattered, blood spilling on the dusty floor, dripping down black fur, splattering both of their armor.

Chernobog used his opponent's daze to snarl in his face. **_"Know this ape,"_** he grabbed the gorilla and lifted him up into the air above his head, slamming him into the ceiling. Twenty feet and thousands of pounds of mountain gorilla and armor lifted right off the ground. Then, as Fantasma and I watched in stunned silence, he put his hands to the gorilla's waist. The sound of flesh and metal beginning to tear slowly filled the room.

 ** _"I am CHERNOBOG! I AM THE BLACK GOD!"_**

Shadows in the room lengthened. The horrific sound of a gorilla shrieking in fear and pain bounced off the walls.

With one vicious pull Chernobog pulled hard. Skin and steel ripped apart in a line at the gorilla's waist. Muscle split with a disgusting sound. Bones shattered, spinal fluids mixing with the fluids. Another vicious tug, Chernobog ripped the gorilla in half.

 ** _"I AM THE STRONGEST GOD THERE IS!"_**

Chernobog roared in glee, tossing aside the halves to the ground as he was soaked in the blood of his opponent.

The gorilla was still. Then, the upper half slowly tried to force itself to move, fingers clenching slowly. It gaped at us. It reached for us. Anger was still in its gaze. Even after all that, it was still trying to kill us.

Then a massive foot slammed into the things head, shattering it apart. Chernobog raised his hands and released a primal sound, before eyeing us. For a tense moment, I thought he might turn on us.

"...I love my job," he said in satisfaction.

"Clearly," I said as dryly as I could. Fantasma held a hand over her mouth, then shook her head, turning to the hallway.

"W-We have work to do," she said shakily.

At that point, the Omnitrix beeped. In a moment, I was back in human form, still covered in my black/green armor.

"She's right," I said. I retched but managed to keep my lunch down when the smell of the… everything hit my nose. Swampfire didn't have any sense of smell, so it hadn't been noticed until right then.

Fantasma and I shared a hesitant look, then started running, Chernobog following.

* * *

 ** _Phil Coulson/Currently Horrified_**

Coulson stared at the screen in front of him. On entering the facility with the others, Skye had immediately found the connection to the various cameras that Kragoff was using to keep an eye on his forces, putting the ones that would have seen Coulson's little group in a loop and giving them a look at their allies. She'd been projecting two holoscreens at regular intervals as they ran, making sure they could see their allies.

Allies. Tough to consider. Vanguard, Mikhail, and Creel had joined the Russian military in the offensive battle against the servitors, and were doing a good job of it. Meanwhile, Fantasma, Dial, and Chernobog had fought Kragoff's little pet projects…

Well, Dial and Fantasma had done a solid job, Dial quick-shifting between alien forms while Fantasma had worked well with him. But then, Chernobog had just… god.

Coulson looked away from the screen at the rest of the group with him. Skye was getting patted on the back by Simmons after she had ejected the remains of her lunch in the corner, the British girl looking horrified as well. Fitz was still trying to make a computer in the corner give up it's secrets, but he too looked pale. May and Kraven were both unmoved. But then, they had experienced worse.

Coulson breathed in, then walked up to Skye. She spat out at the ground, looked up at him, then hesitantly nodded to show she was ready to keep going, her faceplate coming down. Good girl. Helping her up, Coulson watched her walk over to the computer to assist Fitz and took another deep breath of air.

Whatever happened, this mission would have one hell of a report.

Skye seemed to calm down as she and Fitz worked. "Okay. We can upload the virus, maybe shut down some of the apes.

"You don't have to do it from a central computer or something?" Coulson asked.

"Maybe in the movies," Fitz said softly.

"Yeah. These computers are all networked to the same thing, since, ya know, they kind of have to be so that they're functional for Kragoff," Skye explained.

"We should still find him," Kraven said firmly. "I have orders to attempt to capture him."

"Capture?" Simmons asked.

Kraven gave her a respectful nod. "They want to use the filthy урод if they can. Something about hunting down his suppliers. Personally, I disapprove, but that's what I've been told to do," he said with a shrug.

Coulson thought on that. Made sense. Granted, there might have been an alternative motive. Kragoff had made a hell of an army. In terms of power, only the exceptional abilities and skills of Coulson's own people and the Winter Guard had saved them. Most armies would have been torn apart. And he could see some in the Russian government being interested in that. Hell, BRIDGE would be interested on at least some level.

He left aside that thought for now. "How long will it take for the virus to upload-"

The computer shut off. Along with the lights for a few feet around them.

"...A little longer, now?" Skye said with a wince. "I think he turned off the power."

"Then we need to go after him either way," May noted.

"Let's go then," Coulson said firmly. "Galina can't hold off an army forever."

They took off down the halls, making their way to the center of the base. They encountered no resistance along the way. Which unnerved Coulson more than he showed. This whole thing was unnerving. Honestly, when he'd met Tony, he thought that was as weird as things would get. A rich spoiled weapons developer suddenly developing power armor miles ahead of any weapon on Earth.

And now he was walking along with his three proteges, one in power armor of her own, his best friend, the world's greatest hunter while helping a bunch of superstrong beings fight an army of monkey robots.

Skye leading the way, they came to a pair of doors. Back when the trainyard had been active the doors would have led to the room that those in charge of keeping it running smoothly would have used as their command center. Now, in some ways, it had returned to its purpose in a sad way. A trainyard once again being used to send machines out across the world by a conductor.

They took positions alongside the doors. May and Coulson shared a look, then nodded at Skye and Kraven. The hacker and hunter nodded back. Skye moved in front of the door, took a deep breath, then kicked the doors open hard, sending them flying inwards. The group rushed in, Fitz-Simmons waiting outside while May, Skye, Kraven, and Coulson raised their guns.

The room had been ripped apart and rebuilt. A large computer took up the center of the room, on with a dozen different screens surrounding it in a circle and a single desk with another computer monitor resting on it. And all around it were… parts.

On the right, where there might have once been desks and chairs, there were instead a bunch of tanks. They were orbs being held in the air by metal struts embedded in the floor, the orbs of glass filled with blue fluid and pieces of flesh. Dozens of tanks, at random intervals, like a forest made of trees filled with flesh.

On the left were dozens of tables. Small monkey servitors were roaming around the tables, their arms replaced with metal tools of various types. As they stood there, one of the monkeys hopped on a table covered in flesh and robotic limbs. It pulled an arm to a shoulder and began putting them together with mechanical efficiency. More monkeys were doing the same, putting together servitors together like some sickening version of Santa's Workshop.

Kragoff stood in the center of the mess, carrying a small pistol loosely in one hand. He was scowling up at them from the center of the room, eyes hard. Otherwise, he did not move.

"So. You came, despite my warnings. Like all Americans, you prove hopelessly stupid."

Fitz, Simmons, and Kraven all raised eyebrows of varying types.

"Skye, ice him," Coulson said simply.

One of Skye's shoulder mechanisms popped to reveal her turret gun. It fired a single ICER, the ammunition Fitz-Simmons had created to carry a chemical designed to knock out any opponent with a specialized tranquilize, at Kragoff, the small bullet flying in the space between them in less than a second.

Kragoff flickered as the bullet passed through him, hitting a monitor behind him instead.

"Hologram?" Fitz asked behind them.

Kragoff lifted his gun and started firing very real bullets.

"Nope!" Simmons yelped, ducking along with the others.

Kraven leaped forward while ducking another shot and slashed out at Kragoff, only for Kragoff to 'flicker' again, letting the hunter pass through him, then firing at his back. Kraven took a bullet to his back, only to growl and duck behind a desk as the bullet fell, revealing his vest was apparently bulletproof to some degree.

"None of you will stop this," Kragoff flickered again and again when Skye, May, and Coulson shot at him, ICER's, plasma shots, and bullets passing through uselessly. "Russia will rise!"

* * *

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

We ran down the hallway as a group, not saying a word. Except for Chernobog, who I think was still trying to freak us out, cause he kept licking the ape blood off of himself while giggling. Seriously, the dude was such an asshole troll.

We came upon the big room from the footage Kragoff had streamed. I stared at the bomb in the center, just as large as it had seemed in the footage. A small monkey with wings rested on top of it, a hologram emitter resting on its back. Apparently, that had been what Kragoff had used to project his image, explaining why my Grendel form had sensed four life forms in the area.

Fantasma immediately fired a magical bolt at it, turning it to ash.

We ran down the steps to surround the bomb. "Okay. Now we need to stop it. And I'm all out of time," I gestured to the Omnitrix, which was red. "Chernobog, can you eat this thing?"

"Maybe," he mumbled, looking over it. "But which part? I don't want to risk triggering it early. I mean, I don't really care if it explodes, but it would be embarrassing.

The sounds of hooting and running drew our attention to the entrance. Hundreds of monkey paws on asphalt filled the air.

"Looks like our friends upstairs have dug through the rubble," Fantasma said grimly.

I, meanwhile, got an alert from my suit. My helmet snapped into place around my head, and my HUD lit up. "Ah… shit," I said as the sight of my Geiger counter beginning to bounce came to my attention.

"Yeah, I felt it," Chernobog said. "This thing is leaky. Tastes kinda good, but it's probably not great for you."

"Radiation?" Fantasma said with worry.

...You ever have one of those moments where your mind catches up with reality? Cause one of those moments should never be when a leaky nuclear bomb is in front of you and you have an army of onrushing servitors at your back.

Fantasma walked up to stand at my right as we faced the door. "Are you going to be okay? I can shield you with magic, to protect you from the radiation?"

I was about to say yes when the army of servitors came in. I ripped my sword from my side and raised it to fight. The door was too small to really allow a huge number of servitors all coming in at once, but they still came at us five at a time. I cut one down with the thrusting technique May had taught me on the Bus all that time ago, Chernobog roared as he slapped another one aside to bite another, and Fantasma blasted the last.

But they didn't stop there. More and more came in several of the apes shooting at us. I winced in pain when a shot hit me in the chest, then got tackled onto the floor by another one, who clawed at me. I slashed at the guy with my sword, rolled to my feet to chop an arm off another, and took yet another plasma shot to my left side, the catoms of my armor melting together and casting themselves off to keep me from cooking in my own armor. We stood there as a trio, fighting as fiercely as we could against the army.

And that was when the bomb began to beep.

I'd have frozen if I hadn't gotten shot in the leg. "Fuck, really!?" I sliced another head off. "All at once!?"

"Of fucking course!" Chernobog roared in agreement.

Then the Omnitrix beeped green. I grabbed a servitor and pulled the snarling monkey close, wrapping my arms around it to use as a shield. I raised the Omnitrix high and started flipping through the menu as fast as I could. "Come on, come on Jury Rigg!"

Another plasma shot hit the servitor in my hands, killing it. I slapped down on the Omnitrix the second I saw Jury Rigg. As the servitors rushed through the door, I disappeared in a flash of green light.

Gray armor flowed across my body. As the hefty metal clasped over my form, I felt tingles across my body. My limbs and chest felt like I was disintegrating and coming together all at once. I roared as my form was fully covered by dark metal. The kind that could block all radiation.

 **"NRG!"**

I stared down at myself. Okay… so this told me two things. First, slapping the Omnitrix never ended in the right alien, though in this case it had turned out awesomely. Secondly, Clint was right. I really did need to trust the Omnitrix more. Much like the Tardis, it may not have given me what I wanted, but it did give me what I needed since this form was much better given the situation.

As I thought about, another plasma bolt hit me. It didn't do a thing to my tough metal armor, a suit that was tough enough to survive a hell of a lot more than that. A servitor leaped onto my chest and scratched at my helmet. I grabbed and smashed the servitor to the ground with my right hand, caving in the thing's chest with pure strength. I let loose with a beam of Nuclear energy from the slits in my helmet, sweeping it across the wall of enemies before us. Flesh ignited and metal melted in moments. I then turned to the bomb.

I could feel the energy from it resonating with me. I looked at Fantasma. _"Fantasma! There's about to be a hell of a lot more radiation! Raise a shield, now!"_

Fantasma gave me an odd look for some reason when I spoke, but floated up and made her purple shields, surrounding herself in a orb. Chernobog was chuckling for some reason.

The second I was sure Fantasma was safe, I reached for my helmet, grabbed it by the grill and pulled it back.

If there was a Geiger counter still around, it would have gone nuts. I didn't want to leave my suit open for too long, so I reached out with just my arm. A hand and fingers made of orange energy reached for the bomb, melting through the metal casing to grab the section that was actually capable of making the nuclear bomb 'nuclear'. I pulled it out and dropped it into my mouth, chewing on the delicious nugget of energy with a sigh.

The bomb stopped beeping as it slowly melted to nothing from the sheer heat of my arm having been inside of it. I snapped back my helmet and spun to face the enemies around us. _"Fantasma, stay up there. The floor,"_ I raised two hands, then slammed my palms into the ground. The energy inside me, joined by that of the bomb, exploded from my gloves and went into the floor. For a moment, everything was still. _"Is lava."_

Then the whole room shook as the ground blew up in a wave of melted stone. The room temperature blew upwards as the servitors around us melted in a series of screams, flesh and steel turned to ash and molten metal.

"Fuck me!" Chernobog roared as a geyser of lava rose next to him. "Damn it, warn me next time!"

The boiling lava filled the entire room for a moment, cooling quickly as I stood in the molten stone. More servitors tried to rush in, only to get lit on fire as well, weakly firing at us with plasma shots.

Fantasma, still floating high above the molten stone, winced, whispering something caustic. "Dial?"

 _"Hey,"_ I said up to her, blasting more heat from the grill of my suit. I had surprisingly high accuracy with those blasts, sending more servitors to the lava floor. _"Sorry, it was all pretty last minute. You aren't hurt, are you?"_

"No," she scowled at me. "Why are you doing that voice?"

 _"What-?"_ I stopped when I realized what she was talking about. Oh. Well fuck, I guess the Omnitrix really did have a sense of humor. _"I swear,"_ I said in a Russian accent. _"This isn't on purpose, this form just tends to sound like this."_

"I hope you don't find a way to stop then," Chernobog said with a grin as he scooped up a handful of molten stone in his right hand to toss it at a gorilla. "Because Vanguard is going to be pissed when he finds out."

And of course, that thought seemed to fill him with glee.

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ So this is a bit awkward. I've been writing this story for a little while and it's been a fun ride. But I'm in a bit of a financial situation, with hospital bills and other things piling. So I reopened my pat re on page and updated it quite a bit. I'm hoping that with enough I'll be able to take some time off work to focus more on this and other fanfics/stories while also taking care of the everything of life.

Anyways, the link to the page is at pat re on under the name DesertChocolate, and here are the tiers!

* * *

 _Grey Matter/Ant-Man:_ For just 1 dollar, you get my eternal thank you, sincere as can be! Any little bit helps, and I really appreciate it :D _Four Arms/Hulk:_ For 5 dollars, you get access to Google Docs holding the next chapter of each story four days before they are uploaded for normal stories! This gives you the chance to not only see the chapters early, but even suggest little changes before the rest of the world gets to see it! You also get access to a live podcast after every chapter, no matter with story is posted.

 _Rath/Tigra:_ For 10 dollars you get the same benefits as the Four Arms/Hulk tier, as well as a s only discord and access to outlines, armor/vehicle descriptions, all the supplemental materials I use to write on google docs at the suggestion level!

 _Diamondhead/The Thing:_ For 20 dollars, you first get a big thank you, cause damn! Second, the same benefits as Four Arms/Hulk and Rath/Tigra tiers, as well as access to a poll for which story I update next!

 _Alien X/Thanos:_ 100 dollars... uh, holy shit? Yeah, that is something I'm just at a loss to consider a good enough reward for. I think, first, you get to pick any story to get updated next for the month, and then we go from there? Because honestly, there is no amount of thank you I can think of that matches how this would make me feel. You are awesome.

* * *

Okay. That's the stuff. Now for the story.

First, the idea of Kraven applying hunting tactics to this is something that interested me, as did the idea of Simmons, bio-chemist, having some familiarity with animal behavior, getting some respect from the guy in the meantime. I was also convinced by my beta that Galina firing an ion cannon was fucking awesome. For some reason, I felt the same ;D

Second, Boris beating the shit out of dumb politicians and getting away with it because he's _right_ and has the right kind of pull with the government is badass to me.

Third, yep. I introduced and killed Ivan Kragoff's signature Super Apes in one chapter. And they'll neeeeeever return. That said, it was fun coming up with technological ways for their powers to work.

Fourth, NRG! NRG is so fucking cool man. And yeah, maybe it's a bit on the nose to have Dial unlock what is essentially the Nuclear space Russian of the team during all this, but damn it was fun! And he is POWERFUL.


	76. Chapter 76

**_Nikolai Krylenko/Vanguard_**

Vanguard roared in rage as a punch from an orangutan hit him in the center of his shield, the strength of the six foot tall ape lifting and throwing him dozens of feet through the air. Vanguard ground his feet until he came to a stop, then lashed out with a punch to a chimp's chin. Creel dropped down behind him to smack aside another ape. The former boxer/criminal was panting in his vibranium form. He looked exhausted.

Vanguard felt the same way. They'd been fighting against the enemy non-stop now. Many Russian soldiers now lay dead on the ground, and Creel and Vanguard were next to the remains of a tank that had been destroyed. Men and primates were dying in droves. But the real issue was that Kragoff wasn't running out of primates. He must have been developing the creatures for a long time to have so many to use as cannon fodder.

High above, several aircraft were battling it out with the apes and monkeys, gunfire and plasma shots flying hundreds of feet above the battlefield. Vanguard didn't have command over that particular part of the battle, but every once in a while a sudden explosion would mark a missile or bomb being dropped on the servitors.

Mikhail rushed by with a mandrill in his mouth, shaking his head like a dog with a toy in his mouth. The bear man had been through the ringer. His fur had been singed across his pectorals and back, brown fur burned black, skin scorched. Long claw marks had been scratched on his face over one thankfully intact eye, as well as his chest, with one especially painful looking one right on top of a burn.

And yet, Mikhail was still rampaging. He spat out the mandrill he'd been chewing on, rose up to his feet and grabbed a cannon turret that had been left on the ground. With a single pull, he lifted the large piece of steel into the air and turned to face a gorilla. **_"Come here!"_**

With great enthusiasm, Mikhail spun his newly stolen weapon to swipe, sending several apes flying through the air. More plasma shots hit him, but he only roared and dived back in to fight harder than before.

"How… is he… not tired!" Creel panted.

"The Major has endless stamina for defending the Russian people," Vanguard said. "It is inspiring. And also extremely annoying."

An orangutan dropped out of the sky to land in front of them. Vanguard didn't have time to react before the six foot tall ape grabbed him by the neck and lifted him off the ground. Vanguard snarled, trying to breath through the pain. The orangutan slashed at his chest with the long steel claws on its other arm. Vanguard watched in near slow-motion as four blades sliced through his costume and skin, sending up a spray of blood. Up until they were stopped by an extremely tough material.

Unknown to most, Vanguard's enhancements included a subdermal body armor made of a combination of several lightweight materials, one of them being carbon. The four slash marks across his chest revealed that layer. The orangutan, being more near-machine-like, showed no reaction to this except to claw at him again. Vanguard snarled as his armor, despite preventing the blades from slashing any deeper, were unable to stop the bruising from the hit itself.

Creel grabbed the orangutan before it could strike again, snapping it's arms with brutal force. Vanguard dropped to the ground and spun around, thrusting the sharp tip of his shield deep into the beast's chest.

The worst part of fighting the apes was how emotionless they were. They roared at times, made small noises, but that seemed more a result of instinct. As the orangutan died, it simply stared at him emotionlessly.

Another gorilla fired at Creel. Creel took the immense blast of plasma to his arm, the sheer heat of it burning off the remains of his clothes. Creel rushed the gorilla, grabbed it's head and tore it off.

Then he fell to his knees, coughing heavily. "Creel!" Vanguard grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him into cover, a soldier rushing past him to fire at their opponents. Vanguard held back a scream of pain when his hands met Creel's form. Creel was hot. Almost insanely so. Only with the determination given to him by years of training was Vanguard able to ignore that to get Creel to cover behind a tree that had been destroyed.

Vanguard eyed Creel, the superhuman still in Vibranium form, his shirt and pants scorched to almost nothing. "What is happening?"

Creel coughed, leaning his head back against the log they were using for cover. "I… I haven't really gotten this hot so fast before. Or for this long. I just need a sec."

Then Creel spun to his feet to stand behind Vanguard. Before Vanguard could say anything, the man was hit by more plasma shots. The temperature around Creel rose dramatically. Creel grabbed the log they'd been using as cover, lifting and tossing it at the shooters before falling to a knee.

"...shit," Creel whispered, staring down at himself. His metal carapace was unharmed. But anyone could see he was exhausted and in pain, panting heavily. His chest had noticeably taken on a slight red glow. Slowly, Creel rose up to his feet, still grimacing.

Vanguard stared in silence as Creel, despite his pain, went into battle again. The metal man defended a male and female soldier from an ape, fought alongside Mikhail, battled against his pain to keep moving.

Nikolai punched another opponent, ignoring the pain in his own chest from the claw marks that had torn through his skin.

"Vanguard!" Fantasma's voice came on over the radio as he continued to fight. "The nuke has been… _diffused_ ," he took a moment to feel relief at the good news. "But we're dealing with a lot of enemies. If this doesn't stop soon-"

Whatever she was about to say was cut off by another explosion as a plane from the sky crashed on the battlefield. Vanguard grit his teeth. Fantasma was right. If something didn't end this soon, quantity would end up overrunning quality, no matter the strength of the Winter Guard, the russian military… or, he thought as he eyed Creel, the strength of the Avenger.

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

"There's more coming in from the left!" Fantasma shouted. She was flying by while blasting out magic and slashing out with her violet sword. But I could tell she was flagging. Her face was red with exertion, and her magic was coming just a bit slowed. Each of her shields were faster to crack, forcing her to replace them faster. She was also casting illusions. I only knew that because, every once in a while, a group of monkeys were suddenly replaced by Russian soldiers and copies of my aliens. Then they would get jumped by their friends and get torn apart in seconds.

It was unnerving, seeing Big Chill and Four Arms getting torn apart by mad robot apes. "Somebody cover the left, I need to focus!" Fantasma shouted desperately.

"I got it," Chernobog roared, ripping apart a mandrill to dive for a shaved chimp. He looked stranger than usual. His black form was slowly emitting black smoke like a leaky chimney, and his smile was less evil and angrier than I was used to. Apparently, he was feeling the pressure.

I punched a gorilla in the gut, my huge fist crushing steel, then fired a nuclear blast to its face, melting its face off until I could see the skull.

Fighting as NRG was weird. For one thing, I was struggling to move in the heavy armor I was wearing. My actual energy form was damn strong, but I still got slowed down by the heavy containment suit. Then, there was how I sent my blasts out while in the suit. I simply blasted my energy out from my actual body, and with no other way out thanks to my very tough suit, it would fire out through the face slits. It was weird like I was doing push ups and pull ups at the same time. Two very different muscles working in opposite directions.

I raised a fist and slammed it on the head of another ape, crushing flesh and steel, then blasted another one. I was feeling great, to be honest. NRG may have been weird to move around as, but I was also **powerful.** It felt awesome, walking around in a badass suit of armor while firing blasts of pure energy. I punched another chimp, shattering it's jaw, then scooped of a handful of lava off the cooling floor and tossing it at another, ignoring the punch that hit me from a gorilla.

The big ape and I wrestled for a moment. His big belly and large arms were wrestling against my own bulky form. I eventually mimicked a sumo move Nat had taught me, pulling his hips in toward me while my upper half push. Taken off guard, he tumbled to the ground, where I blasted him in the chest, melting flesh and metal, finishing it with a footstomp.

We were winning. But it wouldn't last. There seemed to be no end to the servitors pouring in. Chernobog and Fantasma were both coming on the tail end of exhaustion, and while I was fresh thanks to the Omnitrix transforming me, I'd still time out sooner or later. Then, the lava heat around us would do the job. That or my newest frenemies would be dead.

Something had to give, soon.

 ** _Phil Coulson_**

"Guys, how is he doing this!? Is he like Ghost!?" Coulson yelled as he ducked yet more bullets from Kragoff. The Russian scientist had pulled out a AK-47 now, and was still going intangible in between shots. Hard to pin down too as he just ran through cover.

"Doubtful!" Simmons yelled. "He doesn't have the same sort of instability!" she yelped when another gunshot took out a vase nearby.

"I don't know, he seems pretty unstable right now," Skye quipped, firing her plasma shots. They passed harmlessly through Kragoff, leaving him untouched.

"None of you can stop this!" Kragoff shouted insanely. "The world will at last understand!" he fired his gun at Skye, then at Fitz, before aiming the assault rifle at May. "For Russia!"

"Would you stop shouting that!?" Coulson returned. "No one is this stupid patriotic!" he stopped thoughtfully. "I mean, most people aren't!"

May had stopped shooting in the meantime. She clearly saw how useless the effort was and had instead focused on keeping Fitz-Simmons alive. "Coulson, we need to disable the servitors. Staying like this isn't going to help the others."

Then Kragoff ran through her cover to stand in between them, forcing Coulson and May to dodge a hail of bullets. "Just die, damn you!"

"Not happening, Kragoff!" Coulson returned. Underneath the bravado, his mind was racing.

This was a waste of time. And that was the whole point for Kragoff, wasn't it? This power of his was insanely useful, as Ghost had proven a dozen times. Ghost had already been on Coulson's list of dangerous enemies he wouldn't want to fight. Kragoff was only marginally less dangerous due to his old age slowing him down. And even then, he was pretty spry for an old man.

But that was beside the point. The end point of all that was he was mostly just keeping them from doing the work that was important. Namely, uploading the virus that would shut down the servitors.

Every time they got close to the computers, he would fire bullets like a mad man while coming close to punch and kick his old man best to keep them away. He was trying to kill them, sure. But he was also keeping them very specifically from the computers. Did he know about the virus? Or did he have something else in mind?

Whatever the case, Coulson had a plan as he rolled alongside Kraven, who looked as frustrated as he felt. "Hey Kraven," Coulson said idly.

"Agent Coulson," Kraven returned in a low growl. "Tell me you have a way to kill him."

"I don't," Coulson admitted freely. "But we've gotten, uh," he tried to think of how to say it. "We've been distracted from our real 'prey'. The servitors as a whole."

Kraven's eyes widened in understanding. "...Agreed. We don't need to kill Kragoff. Just stop him from stopping us."

"Can you distract him long enough for her to get here?" Coulson asked.

"I think I can oblige," Kraven smirked.

He leapt over cover and ran for Kragoff. The old scientist raised his gun towards Kraven, firing away.

Kraven dodged. Nevermind that it was technically impossible to dodge bullets. Kraven still dived out of the way, reminding Coulson of footage of Natasha Romanov pulling off similar maneuvers. Less dodging, more anticipating.

The hunter dived in and sliced at Kragoff, who of course went intangible. Kraven kept slicing, forcing Kragoff to stay intangible while Coulson sent a message. Everyone watched as Kraven began to put on a master class in knife work. He sliced, dived, stabbed, and kicked. With insanely fast movements, he slashed down at the AK. His knife went through it, proving that Kragoff could at least make his weapons intangible as well.

Kragoff, in response, began firing his gun wildly whenever he had a chance to, clearly trying to tag Kraven with anything he possibly could. Kraven kept being anywhere except in front of the gun, while also carefully guiding him to shoot away from the computers.

Coulson watched carefully as he listened over the radio before finally shouting. "Kraven, now!"

Kraven moved with incredible speed, clear away from Kragoff, taking a bullet to the leg for his trouble. Kragoff didn't have time to enjoy that.

The ceiling cracked open above him, then shattered apart into chunks of rubble, raining down on the intangible form of Kragoff. The ancient communist scientist barked out in anger. Suddenly hundreds of pounds of metal enveloped in electricity dropped down from the ceiling. The Crimson Dynamo landed in a crouch before rising to her full height.

"Nice timing, Galina!" Coulson said with a grin.

 _"Thank you!"_ she said in a cheery voice. Kragoff ran out of the rubble and started shooting at her. Bullets bounced off of her armor. She chuckled. _"Really? Idiot."_

Fitz-Simmons and Skye used her entrance to get to the computers. When Kragoff snarled and tried to hit them, Galina stepped in his way, blasting at the man with a single beam of electricity.. Kragoff went intangible, but was unable to shoot around Galina's massive bulk to get to the others. For a moment, Coulson felt some relief that they had turned the tide.

Then a loud wailing siren began to sound out. Kragoff smiled. "Finally!"

He ran away from them, still shooting as he made his way to the other side of the room. May shot at him, Kraven tossed his blade, and Galina fired twin beams of lightning. All of it just passed through the man.

"Too late!" He ran up to one of the many tanks in the room, one of the few that hadn't been destroyed by random fire, and pulled a lever on it.

As Skye and Fitz-Simmons hurriedly hacked his computers, the tank Kragoff had pulled the lever on shattered before the floor beneath it snapped open, revealing a hole. He dropped in as Kraven swiped at his neck. Kraven seemed ready to follow him into the hole before his eyes widened, the hunter diving aside the minute he saw what was in the hole.

First, the nose cone rose out with slowly from the trapdoor. Sections of the floor around the hole began to fall inward. The sound of rocket engines filled the room with an insanely loud din, mixing with the alarms and Kragoff's laughter.

"A fucking **escape rocket!?** " someone yelled as the large gray rocket came out in full.

It was shaped like a simple rocket one would find in any toy store, with the exception of the giant Soviet Union symbol of the sickle and hammer on the side and the green flames sending it shooting up into the air instead of the normal red flames. It was also shrunken down, being apparently made for one person.

Galina fired her lightning bolts at it, scorching the side and making the engines flutter. But the rocket continued to climb.

 ** _"Goodbye foul capitalists and national traitors!"_** Kragoff crowed. **_"Die in the fires of my retribution!"_**

"He really is a Bond villain!" Coulson shouted, looking over at Skye and Fitz-Simmons. "Can you stop him?"

'We have bigger problems!" Skye returned as she typed at her holoscreen, a frantic look on her face. "He's activated a self-destruct! It's going to destroy the entire complex!"

"We've got seconds, and the computer is already working on the virus!" Simmons added.

 _"Here!"_ Galina opened up her armor, hopping out of it with a section of keyboard attached to the thing. The young engineer rushed over to them. "I can help with the self-destruct!"

"Then I've got the virus," Skye agreed.

All the while the rocket engine continued to roar as it ripped through the last section of roof. Kragoff laughing all the while. Coulson continued to watch.

After a while, he walked over to a chair and sat down.

"Coulson?" May in confusion. Kraven walked up to join them.

He looked between them. "Hey. What else can I do at this point? Might as well enjoy the show."

Kraven gave Coulson a long look, then looked around. Galina, Skye, Fitz, and Simmons were working frantically at the computers. The rocket, flying on jets similar to the ones the monkeys had been using, was now exiting the ceiling. There was damage everywhere, a tiny worker monkey still blithely working on making more servitors. He sighed.

"Yes. I suppose that is all we can do… A self-destruct and an escape rocket though?"

"Right? I'm telling ya, he's a Bond villain," Coulson leaned back in his chair as he watched the rocket finally disappear into the sky. "Shouldn't it be too hot for us to survive this close to a launch?"

"Not with the thrusters he choose to use," Fisk said idly nearby. Then he cursed, pressing frantically at a keyboard. "Damn it, damn it-!"

"Here!" Skye shouted back.

"Okay and… got it!" Galina crowed. Fisk collapsed backward in relief.

Meanwhile Skye watched while biting her bottom lip as a bar on her screen uploaded. For a long while, the bar seemed to freeze. Then she sighed in relief, turning to look at the others. The alert sound that had been ringing out stopped. The monkey workers, still working so diligently, fall to the floor like puppets getting their strings cut.

"...We're saved," Coulson said in awe.

 ** _Nikolai Krylenko/Vanguard_**

Vanguard looked around the battle. A servitor fell out of the sky to slam into the ground with an explosion of green. A gorilla, once so formidable, fell to its knees, then to its face, losing the green glow about it. The red-clad hero walked along the field. In the forests beyond, soldiers who had been fighting slowly walked out. Mikhail came up to him, the large bear-man panting heavily. Together, they watched hundreds of apes slowly shut down, dropping to land in the bloody dirt and remains of life that had covered the field. More fell from the skies.

Solemnly, Vanguard looked around. Then he sighted one of the warriors lying on the ground nearby. "Creel!"

Vanguard rushed over the taller man, turning him to face up. The bald superhuman was staring up with wide eyes as he stayed in vibranium form. "Creel!"

"N-Need a minute," Creel coughed. He looked down at his gauntlet. The device was mostly intact, but still had cracks all over the surface. "I-I-I can't risk changing back until I cool down."

Vanguard noted that as a possible weakness. On a much more important note…

"Here," Vanguard began piling some snow next to Creel. There wasn't much. A lot had been trampled or melted by the running feet and the plasma blasts. "For once, Russia's cold will aid an outsider, rather than her people."

Creel chuckled weakly. "Poetic."

"I am ever the soul of poetry," Vanguard said without a hint of humor.

Mikhail watched the team leader of Winter Guard tend to an American criminal turned Avenger, noting the soldiers gathering around and cheering for the victory won.

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

I watched the servitors fall to the ground around us, some of the molten stone splashing with the bodies that fell into it. For a long moment, it was quiet. Then I heard Fantasma panting, obviously exhausted. When I looked up, she was still floating over the battlefield, staring down in disbelief.

"...W-We're done?" she said softly.

Still in NRG form, I nodded.

She looked like she was about to pass out, but was holding back. Realizing the problem, I mentally shifted my form.

 **"Big Chill!"**

Back in giant mothman form, I released a cool mist. The molten stones around me quickly solidified, sometimes bubbling at random. After a few moments of this, the temp dropped enough that it was safe. Fantasma slowly floated down until she almost fell. I flew up to help her down, wrapping her arm around my shoulders to support her. As we came down to the floor covered in frosted over servitor corpses and formerly molten stone Chernobog flowed over to us as we landed.

"So, we're done?" he asked casually.

I tapped the Omnitrix, returning to human form with a sigh. "Yeah. I think we're done," I shrugged to get Fantasma closer so I could take more of her weight. My armor was much thinner than before, the prolonged combat having destroyed large chunks of catoms, Fantasma had a magically healing wound on her leg that was surrounded in purple sparks, and Chernobog looked like he was fading away. We'd been hit hard. I'm pretty sure if the Omnitrix hadn't been around, we'd have lost.

Thank you, Azmuth.

"Good," Chernobog grunted. We turned and walked toward the exit.

"I need a drink," Fantasma mumbled. "And a spa treatment."

"Never had one of those," I said as we exited to the hallway, passing the three super-apes we'd killed early.

"I can tell. You have terrible skin," she said idly.

Chernobog chuckled. Then he sighed. "Well… this has been fun. But I'm done."

Fantasma stiffened against me. "Chernobog..."

"Nope," he said with a note of satisfaction. "I don't give a fuck what those morons said about 'secrets of the nation', I'm done. I'm overdue for a nap, and the other guy can walk the rest of the way home."

"Wait," I said, starting to get an inkling of what they were talking about. After all, not only was I a nerd, I was also a friend of Bruce Banners.

Chernobog, the tall being that had been the bane of my existence for the past day, exuded smoke at a fast rate. The chilly black wisps blew past as he shrank down. I watched with eyebrows raised as the big inky black figure of nightmares disappeared, getting sucked into a pale form underneath. The man who stood there instead was almost disappointingly small in comparison. I mean, he wasn't tiny or anything, but he gave the same feeling as Bruce in some ways. All that power, itty-bitty living space. He wore a simple black button up shirt and some slacks, a pair of glasses, his head was balding at the top, and he had a short and well-groomed beard. He looked like someone's dad.

The man adjusted his glasses. "H-Hello. My name is Aleksei Smirnov."

"...Nice to meet you?" I said questioningly. We stood there awkwardly for a moment. Aleksei coughed. "I'd, uh, I'd better let everyone else know we're okay," I said, reaching for my Omnitrix and tapping it to open the comm.

 ** _Phil Coulson_**

"I'm glad you guys are safe, Dial," Coulson said through his own comm unit. He looked up at the others in the room and raised a thumb up. Skye was already sighing in relief, Fitz-Simmons smiling while Kraven nodded firmly. Galina and May didn't show much reaction that most would notice, but Coulson could tell May was satisfied, and guessed Galina was relieved.

"We heard from Vanguard's group a while ago," Coulson continued. "They're all right, but Creel was injured. Something about overheating? It's not something we've encountered with his abilities before, so he's being sent to the basecamp infirmary to make sure he's all right."

A series of loud yells came from the comm. Coulson swaed in place calmly as Dial continued to ask frantic questions before interrupting. "We'll be getting out soon Dial, and Simmons will take a look at him immediately. She's pretty eager to figure out what is going on."

"Because I'm worried about Creel!" Simmons protested.

Coulson gave her a look. She quivered silently.

"...And yes, because I'm thinking about the science as well," she admitted. "But it's mostly to help Creel!"

Coulson chuckled. "Well we will-"

"Wait," Galina interrupted. She was at the computer again. She frowned at it. "A timer just started on the computer."

Everyone snapped around to stare at the screen.

 **10**

 **9**

"Are you bloody **kidding me!?** " Fitz shouted in frustration.

"We have to go," Coulson told Dial calmly.

Outside, the trainyard was quiet. Dozens of servitors lay across tracks and rusted hulks, and portions of the walls and other sections were still smoking from the recent battle.

The quiet was ruined when two beings carrying others flew out of a shattered rooftop. For exactly six seconds, everything was peaceful except for the sounds of the group rocketing upward as fast as they could go.

Then a loud cracking sound filled the air. The explosion that followed started at the edges of the trainyard in a massive circle. Then they cascaded inward, over and over, the ground buckling, fire rising along with dirt and corpses. For a moment, the world was fire. Trees all around were blown back by the sheer force of it.

Coulson, hanging tightly to Skye's hand, grit his teeth as he was buffeted by the winds from the blast, May holding Skye's other hand getting just as battered. Skye screamed as she climbed higher and higher to avoid the shockwave. When it hit, she'd managed to get far enough away.

Once the world had stopped shaking, the group looked down at the destroyed remains of the former lab/nightmare factory.

Fitz-Simmons had been carried in Crimson Dynamo's arms, while Kraven had simply clutched to her back, the two scientists staring down in horror at the crater that had replaced the trainyard.

Coulson looked up at Skye. "Were you able to get anything from the computers?"

Skye gave him a stunned look, gulped, then nodded. "Y-Yeah! I'm not sure how much, but I still managed to download a lot!"

"Good," Coulson looked back down that crater. "Good. Because we aren't done with Kragoff. None of us are."

With that ominous note, the sun began to rise in the distance, illuminating the smoke trail left by Kragoff's ascent.

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

I helped Fantasma up the stairs with my new best friend Aleksei the dark god, the three of us slowly making our way up. When we got to the top, some rubble was blocking the way. New rubble, I mean, not the rubble from earlier.

"Great," Fantasma said sarcastically.

"I got it," I said with a grin. Flipping through the menu on the Omnitrix, I went through the options. "I just got NRG, so I kinda want an excuse anyway."

"Is, uh," Aleksei adjusted his glasses. "Is he really the most appropriate for this?"

"He'll work," I pressed down on the Omnitrix. Light surrounded me, followed by the massive grey suit of the nuclear alien.

 **"NRG!"**

With great enthusiasm, I punched upward, then pushed. Stones as large as cars were pushed aside with ease. I laughed. _"Yes! I am most impressive my friends!"_

"Now I know how you feel around Chernobog," Aleksei the secret keeper of evil said to Fantasma.

"No, he's not nearly as bad," Fantasma said, though not unkindly. Aleksei chuckled.

All of a sudden, the massive weight I'd been lifting got a lot easier to pick up. With another shove, we were free.

Mikhail and Vanguard were there to meet us. They helped me shift aside some of the stones to give room for the exhausted Aleksei and Fantasma.

 _"It is good to see you, comrades!"_ I said cheerily.

Vanguard and Mikhail stopped lifting stones. They turned to look at me.

 _"What? Is something wrong?"_

"...You had better not be talking that way on purpose," Vanguard snarled.

Uh oh.

Yeah. The rest of the day was a lot more fun after that, thankfully. And less scary.

 _Author's Note:_ Next chapter, the Russia Arc will end, and we take some time to decompress with the fam back in America. Notably, Dial has an emerald warrior to talk to, and it's not the Green Lantern. I'm also planning on making sure the Russia arc doesn't just have no consequences. Bill Foster and Ava Starr will be among those interested in the arc for example.

Speaking of which, damn that recent Death Battle disappointed me, particularly for how wrong the result was, or at least _how_ it came about. But that's all I'll say about that, since a certain person by the name of Kuro the Artist has already made a video analysis.

I'm more excited for the next chapter. Dial is going to hang with the Winter Guard one last time, head back to the states, and later hang out in a very specific location down south for the next arc :D

I also wanted to ask for help with two things! First thanks so much for editing the TVTropes page as time has gone on guys. Seeing that thing grow has been amazing :D I also made a wiki a little bit ago, for the little bits of information that people might need. It only has one page so far, but I'll start to fill it up as time goes on! You can find it by dial dot fandom dot com slash wiki slash Dial_Timeline

I also wanted to thank all of my Patrons on pat re on. I've only just made it, to help with some medical bills and other expenses, and you guys have already pledged so much. Starting June 1st, I'll be putting out the rewards I'd offered, among them being new chapters coming out 4 days ahead for patrons only, podcasts after each chapter, and access to a poll every month for one of my more neglected stories to be updated based on the vote. For those who would rather donate one time instead, I also have a pay pal! You can find it by typing pay pal dot me slash desertchocolate, and please know any support, while not necessary, is much appreciated!

With all that, I'm going to get to work! Hope you all enjoyed, and that you have a fantastic day!


	77. Chapter 77

_May 13, 2014_

We piled into an APC together. Vanguard, Creel, Fantasma, Mikhail, Aleksei the secret dark god, and me. Fantasma fell asleep as soon as she got into the truck, her head resting on Mikhail's shoulder. I had to admit, I was feeling the mental strain myself. Mikhail looked like he'd been through the ringer. He was covered in tiny cuts and burns across his bare chest and arms. Like he'd fallen through a rosebush that was on fire.

Creel was resting on a stretcher in between us, snoring slightly. I gave him a grin. He was all right now apparently, but the fact he'd even gotten to a state of being damaged had scared the shit out of me.

As the car rattled along, I looked up at Vanguard, who still looked miffed. "Hey, I told you man. NRG just sounds like that, I can't help it."

"You turned into a literal walking atomic reactor and immediately gained a ridiculous Russian accent?" he asked me with more than a hint of annoyance.

"Look, NRG is basically the closest equivalent to a Space Russian," I rubbed the back of my neck. "I mean, that is just how the Omnitrix translates him to Earth languages. That's all. I mean, if I was going to do a mocking accent, why would I do it in the middle of a battle?"

He sighed. "Boy, I understand that logically. But you should know that this isn't a logical emotion. It will take me time to get over how annoying this is."

"Fair enough," I nodded toward his chest. Some bandages had been placed under his red suit, some seepage of blood going through the white gauze. "You okay?"

He looked down at his wounds before nodding. "Yes. Seems you've also taken quite the hit," he nodded toward my armor, which, while technically intact, still had some scars. I nodded.

"Yeah, we've all had our beating. But hey. We won."

"Not yet," Mikhail said, scowling. "Not until we find Kragoff again."

Vanguard nodded while Aleksei adjusted his glasses nervously. Which just drew my attention to the small man.

"So, you," I said with a raised eyebrow. "You what, host Chernobog?"

"Uh, yes," Aleksei coughed. "But, um, that is confidential information." Mikhail grumbled something about "that horned _Debil_ ," the last word being a pretty common Russian insult.

"I'll sign the waiver later," I joked. "But why is it confidential?"

"If no one knows Aleksei exists, we have an operative that can stand in a crowd, as unassuming as can be, only to suddenly become a god," Vanguard explained. "And if no one knows Chernobog has a host, why would they look for one?"

And that was terrifying to think about. Chernobog, even against cloned apes running on computer brains, had been horrifying. Him suddenly transforming in a crowd, or god forbid being taken hostage. That would scare the shit out of anyone. Dude was a funny asshole. He was also sadistic as shit.

Aleksei winced. "Well, I wouldn't put it like that. I'm really not suited for all this violence."

I remembered the moment when Chernobog had licked a servitor gorilla's cheek before biting into it like an apple. Yeah, people might find that hard to believe. I leaned my head back in my seat and sighed. Things got quiet after that, all of us just resting. It had been one hell of a past few hours after all.

The APC bounced and jostled on it's way to the nearest military base, Creel snoring peacefully the whole way.

When we got to the base, Boris was there waiting for us. We didn't have much time to say hi. The smiling politician pulled us through a crowd of watching soldiers and personnel into the main base. Fantasma was woken up and followed along while yawning a bit, and Creel was sent to the infirmary on the base.

Coulson, Skye, May, Fitz-Simmons, Kraven, and Galina were all waiting for us.

A tight knot in my chest released the second I saw them. Skye and Fitz-Simmons gave me relieved smiles, rushing toward me. We wrapped each other in a hug, the four of us coming together.

Fantasma hugged Galina, who was smiling like an older sibling trying to seem cool, Kraven sharing a small nod toward the others.

"I have to go check on Creel," Simmons said once we'd all released our hugs, giving me another one. I chuckled as I wrapped my arms around her. "It's so good to have you back!"

"I wasn't gone that long, but I appreciate it," I said with a grin.

She gave me a happy look, then rushed toward the infirmary.

"I'm glad you're all alright," I said with a look around. "Man, I cannot wait to get home."

"It'll just be a day or so," Boris noted. He strolled over to join us. "I must admit, you all went above and beyond what would have been expected."

"That's what we do in BRIDGE," Coulson said.

"Save the world and look good doing it?" I asked.

"That's right," Skye smirked.

Boris chuckled good-naturedly.

"Well, we do have some issues to deal with," Coulson scowled. "Kragoff escaped. And he's enhanced. Has the power to go through objects and people. Like Ghost, but with less problems."

"Oh come on, seriously?" I grumbled. "He already had a monkey army. Intangibility is just cheating!"

"You're one to talk," Fitz pointed at the Omnitrix. "Don't you have over a dozen aliens with powers in that thing?"

"Yeah, but only one at a time," I grumbled again.

"Regardless, he's escaped," Boris said angrily. "And we will track him, and whoever has been helping him, down. He threatened the people of Russia with his foolishness. He is now our priority."

"Yay, more bad guys," I grumbled for the third time. I was hungry, sue me for being grumpy. And seriously, we had a whole bevy of enemies at this point. I was starting to feel real eager to start chipping that list down.

"By the way, can I ask about him," Coulson pointed at Aleksei.

Boris scowled. "Well-"

"He's Cherny's host," I said immediately.

"Cherny?" Half the room said incredulously.

"Yeah, Chernobog," I said idly. "By the way, how did that happen?"

Aleksei opened his mouth, then closed it. Then he sighed. "Yeah, that one is a long story."

"And your powers?" Coulson asked Mikhail.

Mikhail blinked. "That… is also a long story."

"And what the hell happened to your briefcase?" Kraven asked Boris. We all looked down at the massive dent that was now in the side of Boris' metal briefcase.

Boris laughed good naturedly. "Well, as my friends have noted, that is a long story!"

"Well hell, I have an idea for that," I said, thinking of Tony. Specifically, of a story he'd told me. "After Creel is checked out, you guys want to go somewhere together? Someplace with good food."

"...I know a place?" Mikhail offered.

A couple of hours later, we all piled into an APC and headed out, Boris convincing the commanders on base to look the other way.

I can't say why we all left. But my personal reason was simple. Because screw it. I'd had a long battle, filled with an insane number of twists and turns, I was hungry, and I wanted to have some fun. So, once Creel was cleared, I left with the others.

With a little drive out to certain bar called the Golden Grizzly, going through the snow until we reached the large wooden structure, we finally had a chance to relax again. Moments later, we were all sitting around a big wooden table covered in scratches and dents from years of rough treatment from drunk Russians, one of the top five types of drunks in the world.

" _Za Zdarovje!_ " We tapped drinks together with a riotous cheer, some of the soldiers who had already been at the bar joining us. They broke off respectfully, leaving just our core group to stay behind. Staring from my left were Creel, Skye, Coulson, May, Fitz, Simmons, Kraven, Aleksei, Galina, Vanguard, Boris, Mikhail, Fantasma, then me.

"Okay," Coulson said as soon as it was clear of people that weren't us. "We've got a few hours. Let's talk about confidential stuff."

Mikhail gave Fantasma a look. The Violet Witch raised a hand and clenched it. A mandala sprouted around the large table, surrounding us entirely, then shattered. The instant it did, all sound beyond that mandala's borders stopped reaching us. I leaned my head back until I could hear the bar again. Then forward. Damn. She'd made a soundproof bubble around us! Awesome.

"Oh, that is so cool," I said in awe. Fantasma flashed me a bright smile.

I patted Creel on the back next to me, my friend looking a hell of a lot better than he used to be. Creel gave me a grin, chugging his drink while ignoring Simmons glare. Apparently they'd had a brief argument about the merits of alcohol while recovering. He'd decided to drink a light beer instead, which in Russia meant very little.

"Okay, so we will talk now," Mikhail nodded. "Where do we begin?"

To that, we all looked over at Aleksei. The man sighed.

"Yes… well, I suppose I am the most obvious one to start with."

"Hell yes," Creel, Skye, and I said in unison.

He adjusted his glasses again, then leaned over the table. "Very well… Months ago, Rio had it's… what has BRIDGE called it?"

"Time Quake," Coulson said.

"Really?" Aleksei cocked his head, then shrugged. "Very well. As Chernobog tells it, the 'Time Quake' had released him. He'd been left in some other dimension, locked away. But then the Time Quake happened. And when he awoke, he went somewhere familiar to him."

I narrowed my eyes. The Time Quake. Looks like it had more repercussions than I had expected. But then, how could it not?

"So… I was a uh, a bartender in my village," I remembered Chernobog mixing himself a drink with some skill. "I worked for an old friend of mine, helping him with the accounts and everything else. One night I was walking home and… well, there were some old ruins, near the village. The kind of place the kids would go to hang out in, smoke, drink, scare each other with old stories. That night I… when the smoke entered my lungs, I didn't think anything of it. Then the voice started talking to me. Animals in the woods, small ones at first, then bigger ones like deer. Some people started showing up at our doctor saying they were very tired. And I started to feel better."

"Better," May asked.

"...I was dying. Lung cancer," Aleksei smiled bitterly. "The children in the village weren't the only ones smoking. But as time went on, I started to feel invigorated. Stronger than I was as a young man even. Then, Chernobog spoke to me."

"And you didn't decide the dark voice in your head absorbing people's life force might need to be kicked out?" I asked curiously.

"He wasn't hurting anyone," Alesei protested. "No one was dying, or even getting harmed! He… he offered me a deal. I-If I let him stay… he would cure me. Instead of the extra year that I had been given, I could live forever. I just had to give up half of my time. Let him 'run the show'."

May narrowed her eyes. "Run the show?"

"It's not that bad. I just let him use my body for a long time, leaving me to feel like I've been asleep for longer than usual, and then he gives it back whenever I like," Aleksei looked around. "H-He's been good. When the government offered him things in return for him channeling his powers to help, he agreed."

"...In return for what?" Coulson asked.

Vanguard narrowed his eyes. Mikhail coughed uncomfortably. Kraven looked unmoved, while Galina and Fantasma shared a look of annoyance.

"There are… people, in the prison system," Aleksei said uncomfortably. "Pedophiles, sex offenders, serial killers, etc. People who wouldn't be missed. And then, the one thing he demanded most heavily… an internet connection, and free access to every streaming site he wants."

If we'd lived in an anime, I would have face faulted.

"Food and internet," Vanguard said sarcastically. The various Winter Guard members chuckled, clearly in on a joke the rest of us weren't. "I don't approve of Chernobog… though recent events make me less inclined to let my dislike of my coworkers affect my job," his eyes flickered to my left. "And beyond that, he is incredibly useful as a warrior."

Coulson shook his head, the older man taking a swig of his drink. "Hard to argue that. But using a dark life force eating god to punish prisoners… that's a slippery slope. The UN is going to have some thoughts on that, especially in terms of ethicality."

"He only eats half! And it's entirely painless," Aleksei said.

I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one to remember the image of screaming monkey souls, or the feel of Chernobog's laugh tugging on our souls.

"When he choose for it to be painless, it is," Aleksei explained further.

"...so when he does that fucking laugh, that uncomfortable feeling of him tugging on our soul... is him fucking with us?" I asked.

"..." Aleksei chugged his drink.

"What an asshole," Creel and I said in unison.

"I-I can't really argue against that," Aleksei coughed.

After a moment of awkward silence Mikhail talked. "As for me, my story is far more simple. Well, at least, the beginning of it, is. As a young man I… well, I was involved in some clandestine operations. I found out around my teens during that time that I was able to… change. To become powerful. And I was used to fight the battles of those who my handlers deemed threats to us. Until I ended up destroying them," he smiled. And I suddenly realized who he was. Or at least, where he had come from. What the 'clandestine' operations he'd been doing had been.

Mikhail looked me in the eyes. I didn't respond. But I noted it as he continued to speak.

"As far as our scientists can tell from studying my genetics, I was born with an aberrant gene, one that has allowed me to change my form naturally. Something that we haven't found in others. I may be unique, or one of many. I'm not sure.

I thought about that. Aberrant gene. That sounded like-

Then Boris was talking, distracting me from whatever I had been thinking. "I believe it is my turn, yes?" he lifted up his metal briefcase, showing off the big dent in the side. "During the battle on the field, I gave Vanguard control of our forces on the ground. A move that I felt was best, as he is not only a skilled strategist and commander, but is also the one who had the most experience with the enemy at the time. Some of those politicians who have some pull over the Winter Guard protested, so I had to… persuade them."

It was only then that I realized that Boris kind of reminded me of Sammy. Overweight. But with big damn arms and knuckles covered in a few scars. His nose was also slightly bent from a former break. Apparently he was more of a former badass than I would have expected.

"Can't you get in trouble?" May asked, the super spy sipping at some very expensive alcohol.

"If I do, it'll just mean I have to buy another briefcase," he chuckled. "I have long since gained some clout, Miss May. I have worked hard for my government. So I am allowed some leeway in how much damage I can do to people, especially when they're being idiots."

"Fair enough," Coulson sighed, relaxing back in his seat. "Well, I suppose that's everything. Unless everyone else has a deep dark secret they want to reveal."

"Not in this chapter," I joked. "But hey, we're here. Let's have some fun!"

"Fun," Mikhail scoffed. "You came to a Russian bar, and ordered that? How can you have fun if you won't drink?"

I blinked down at my mug of kompot, a fruity non-alcoholic slavic drink the bartender had recommended, then smirked. "Hey, you haven't seen the kinds of parties I've been at. I throw a hell of a food fight."

 ** _Dr. Leopold Fitz_**

Fitz was not exactly the partying type. Or at the least, he wasn't the type to party the way this current crowd did. Skye, Mahmoud, Creel, Fantasma, and Mikhail were dancing together. Very badly, but the group was laughing as Fantasma and Mikhail tried their best to teach the Americans how to dance. Simmons and Kraven, surprisingly, were in a corner talking. Well, Simmons was. For some reason, Kraven seemed very fond of her. Simmons was showing him what looked like a series of graphs, and the muscular hunter was positively fascinated by what she was saying. Huh. What an odd couple.

Fitz, on the other hand, was sitting across from Galina and sharing some ideas.

"Okay, here," Fitz did a final edit to the schematic he'd been working on, then passed it over to her. "I can't share my actual notes, since those are classified, but this might be a good way for you to get your armor to be more compact."

"I'm not so sure," Galina scowled down at the schematic. "The problem is the material I use. Carborundum is good for running electricity through, it's part of the armor is so effective, but it's not very flexible."

"It doesn't have to be!" Fitz placed his drink down. "You've heard of graphene? Some of the work they've been doing on it?"

Galina nodded slowly.

"Well, it is one of the most conductive materials in existence. But it also has bloody amazing tactile strength! You can layer sheets of it wherever Carborundum might not allow for flexibility, use that to make lighter armor without sacrificing durability or conductivity. All you need to do is create a monolayer of carbon atoms to make the sheets, and you can do that by…"

Fitz stopped to think. Was it a good idea to try and help a technical enemy with this stuff… Well, she was going to hunt down Kragoff. Plus, if he helped her, that meant he could also make his own weapons against her. Just in case?

He leaned over. "Okay, so this is what my own research has shown…"

 ** _Dr. Jemma Simmons_**

Simmons watched as Kraven flipped through a series of videos on his tablet. "Okay, look here," the gruff man showed the tablet to her again. "I filmed this as a part of my show years back. I was hunting Black Mamba near a village, trying to get it before it killed anyone."

"You didn't hurt it, did you?" Simmons asked worried.

Kraven smiled. "No. While I do hunt, I avoid killing endangered species. I kill for food and honor. Not to sate some sort of bloodlust. But that is not the point," he pointed at the video. "There were several things I found disturbing about the hunt. Things that I found odd. The patterns of the herds, the predators. I believed at the time that it may have had to do with certain practices of the village."

"And you want to know what caused it?" Simmons asked.

"I want to see if you can discover the reason," Kraven gave her a slightly odd smirk. "You've shown some promise. I want to see how much skill you have in understand the heart of animals."

"You're testing me?" Simmons said, trying not to sound too eager. How exciting! It had been years since she'd had a good test!

Kraven nodded. "I rarely take students. But you interest me. Even if you don't wish to hunt, I can see some value in you learning some of my skills."

Simmons thought about that. In truth, she did have a background on the sort of things Kraven focused on. Despite what most thought, hunters and bioscientists often depended on one another to do their work more efficiently. In fact, whenever forests or jungles encountered some sort of issue, hunters were often the first to let scientists know. It wasn't a perfect relationship, but there was one worth pursuing.

And Kraven was a VERY good hunter.

"Well, give me a moment," Simmons watched the video, biting her lip thoughtfully. So the animals in the village were reacting some outside stimuli? Nine times out of ten, that tended to be man made, but there were some natural things that could have similar effects. The best indicator was what animals were being effected. Black Mamba… Hmm.

Kraven watched quietly as Simmons excitedly began to work.

 ** _Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD_**

"So your plane was destroyed," Boris said.

Coulson nodded sadly. He had liked the Bus. Loved it. That plane had been beautiful. Old, sure, but with all it's upgrades it had been one hell of a plane. And now she was gone.

May gave Coulson a sympathetic look (well, sympathetic for her, anyways) before turning to Boris. "And now we will need a ride back to the states. If need be, BRIDGE will fly over a quinjet, but we thought we might ask you."

"Not a problem," Boris chuckled. "After you helped stop a nuclear weapon and an army from killing our citizens, it would be rather crass of me not to aid you, would it not?"

"Thank you," Coulson said, trying not to sound to bitter about losing his sweet ride. "And Lola?"

"We've left orders to leave her in a safe location," Boris explained. "While usually she would be studied, we already have some models similar to her in storage, so she will be untouched and ready for you to take her to the states."

"I appreciate that," Coulson then looked over at the group dancing to the loud music. "And what about…"

"They already know," Boris sighed. "We'd long since planned this. But Kragoff ended up accelerating those plans. As I'm sure you can imagine. But we've been prepared. Nikolai's sister is ready as well. And this is most beneficial for us all… Do the Avengers know?"

"Everyone who wasn't here. So, Dial and Creel don't know," Coulson explained.

"Why not?" Boris asked.

"Because we were busy with other things," May said. "Dial and Creel are big boys, they'll understand why we kept it a secret."

"And I don't think they'll mind too much," Coulson noted. He was watching those dancing. May and Boris turned to look as well.

Fantasma was helping Creel dance, laughing as he grumpily tried to follow her. Mikhail was having better luck with Dial, Skye laughing at the two as Dial blushed. They seemed to be having fun. Soon they switched, Fantasma and Mikhail dancing together. There was a brief moment of warmth there. When Fantasma danced with Mikhail there was a closeness between. Nothing romantic. More like a proud father having a good time with his youngest daughter.

Skye looked over at Coulson and noticed him watching. She gave him a smile, and Coulson felt his lips turn up in return.

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

"Okay, here you go," Aleksei passed me a drink, surprising me. I'd taken a break by sitting on my own, watching everyone have a good time. Of all people to join me at the table, Aleksei had been just above-

"May I?" Vanguard, the bottom of the list for people I'd expected, joined Aleksei, the pair sitting down with me.

"Uh, sure?" I said hesitantly. Aleksei and Vanguard sat across from me. Vanguard looked a lot better, and had long since dropped his mask to reveal his rugged features (Getting really tired of being the only non-supermodel superhero). Aleksei similarly looked happy. I looked down at the drink he'd handed me.

"Don't worry, it's more kompot, an apple one this time," Aleksei said with a smile.

"Oh. Well, thanks," I hesitantly looked between them. "So. We've had a hell of a mission. I finally have a story that beats Tony's at least."

"It's certainly is not what I expected," Vanguard said gruffly. "I had assumed our missions would be more… realistic."

"Welcome to the world of superheroism," I said with a shrug. "It just gets crazier from here. Just wait until more aliens drop out of the sky."

He didn't seem to know how to take that.

"How about you?" I asked Aleksei. "You've got Chernobog inside you, he's probably seen crazier."

Aleksei frowned thoughtfully. "A few. But he never sees them as 'crazy'. In fact, pretty much every moment about the past few days has been par for the course for him."

"Makes sense he'd have a higher threshold I guess," I sipped at my drink.

Truthfully, while that whole mess had gotten a little nuts, the servitors hadn't been quite on the level of Rio. Which admittedly was tough to top.

"Enough men died during this mission," Vanguard said softly, looking over at the soldiers in the room around us. "I don't want things to be any crazier."

Fair enough. Crazy for superheroes usually meant death for everyone in our immediate vicinity if we didn't move fast enough.

"...I had to deal with that kind of thing a few times," I said sadly. "I mean, I try my best. But," the images of corpses in Rio, of body bags in the Triskelion, filled my mind. "Can't save everyone."

Goddamn, what a fucking sad thing to say. 'Can't save everyone'. Like that solved anything. Yay for damned platitudes.

I couldn't help my disgust at my own words. Vanguard apparently noticed. He raised his drink. "To those who were lost."

Aleksei raised his own drink. "And to those we saved?"

I looked between them. Then I raised my glass and struggled to think of what to add. "And uh… to the battles to come? The people we'll work to save?"

"I'll drink to that," Vanguard clinked his glass with ours and we all took a swig.

"Hahahaha!" Fantasma, smiling happily, dropped into the seat in front of me. She was clearly a little drunk.

"Heya, magic girl," I raised an eyebrow. "You okay?"

"Y-" she hiccuped loudly. "Yes. I'm all right. One moment," she waved her hand slowly, clearly using all the focus she could muster. Then she clapped. Some purple sparks appeared before her head and she sighed in relief.

"...Did you just… cure your drunkenness?" I asked.

"Not quite," she said, sounding more focused. "I simply staved it off. I'll still need to deal with the results of a hangover."

"How many spells do you know, anyways?" I asked curiously.

She frowned thoughtfully, resting her head in her hand. "I am not sure. My magic is very instinctual. I have to think about it, sometimes, but I often just need to have the focus and willpower to do the spell. I have to practice of course. I can't just make a new spell out of thin air, and I've spent hours perfecting them. But it's like I'm forcing myself to remember them, rather than making new ones."

"Sounds similar to my watch," I noted. I tapped the Omnitrix. "I uh, I've gotten pretty good with the watch. And I've got sort of a cheat code on how to use them," if you could call dozens of episodes of a kickass cartoon a 'cheat code'. "But I still need to get used to them. Figure things out and what-not."

Fantasma nodded slowly. Then she quirked her head to the side and looked closer at me. "You never seem… thrown when I talk about magic," when I looked confused she continued. "Even now, I still have the researchers calling what I do 'quantum displacement' something or other. Mikhail thinks I'm like him. Vanguard thinks I got my powers from radiation. Galina thought I was cheating with machines," she hesitated before continuing. "Chernobog was the first person to take what I do at face value. Why do you believe me as well? None of your friends do."

Well. Shoot. How was I going to explain… oh right, this basically had its own explanation.

"Last year, I wouldn't have believed how my life would go. Then I woke up in a world where a group of superhumans fought off aliens, my Omnitrix let me turn _into_ those aliens, and now I fight monsters and villains for the fate of the Earth," I shrugged. "Magic being real… that's not a surprise. That's another folder to be added to my file cabinet of super awesome but weird information."

She smiled. "I'm super awesome."

"Super awesome," I said with a grin.

Fantasma laughed, her eyes glittering before she gave me a soft smile. "Thank you, Mahmoud."

"You're welcome," I got up from my seat and held a hand out. "So. I've got a flight in the morning. Till then. Want to dance? As you know, I could use some practice."

She nodded and placed a hand in mine, rising gracefully, a little smirk on her face as her eyes continued to glitter happily. "I would love that."

 _May 13, 2014_

We hung out for a while before the Winter Guard had to be pulled to their duties. We were flown back to Moscow in a helicopter, where our newest frenemies got pulled into a series of PR bonanzas. I got to watch it from the Winter Guard base with the others, watching as Vanguard led the rest of his team for a series of photo ops and short interviews. They downplayed the role of the 'Americans' in the whole thing of course, so we didn't get any awards, but I wasn't too offended by that.

I took a nap at some point. Coulson woke me up from the bunks we'd borrowed on the base to start the trip back to the states a few hours later. Fitz-Simmons went to say goodbye to Galina, who had apparently spent the night designing things instead of sleeping. I found myself saying goodbye to someone who surprised the hell out of me.

"Now look," Chernobog placed a massive hand on my shoulder. "I don't want you to take this the wrong way. But I'm going to miss you. When you turned into NRG, I-I just," he shuddered. "My stomach was never in such turmoil!"

"Why is every conversation with you an awkward horror movie?" I asked, as uncomfortable as possible without literally crawling out of my own skin.

"Can you change into him? Just one more time?" the black skinned monster smiled down at me in what he probably thought was a comforting way. "Just so I can taste that… _power_."

"Okay, first," I pushed his hand off me. "Please stop talking in that… black speech you do. Second, I am going home now."

Chernobog sighed sadly. "Well. I suppose I'll have to visit you instead," he chuckled, my heart clenching painfully as he did. "It's too bad. But you should be proud, **_Mahmoud Schahed_**. You are now first on my list of people to visit in the United States. Just above the Bald Mountains and Disneyland."

I walked away as fast as possible as he laughed behind me. Yep. Not gonna miss that guy. And I was damn tempted to destroy the slip of paper he'd given me with his email address on it.

I went as fast as I could, headed to a location I'd found last night. I had sort of a… thing, that I'd been doing lately. And if I had the chance to keep it going, might as well extend it in a different direction.

I walked into the more public section of the base. While it wasn't exactly a tourist trap, it was made to accept those deemed safe by the government. And considering the skill they had with public relations, the Russian government had ironically embraced one of the best parts of capitalism.

And so I found myself in the gift shop, grabbing as many Winter Guard shirts of different types as I could.

As I was comparing a chibi Chernobog shirt and a heroic Vanguard one, Creel walked into the gift shop as well, quirking an eyebrow at me. "Of course you're grabbing more nerd gear."

"I have a style now man, I have to contribute to it," I said with a shrug. "Granted, it's mostly Tony's fault, but it's still my style now," I looked up at him. "How are you man? You scared the shit out of me."

Creel reached for the shirts I was looking at on the shelf, flipping through them. He was clearly not really seeing the clothes though. He was looking through the smalls, or the Russian equivalent anyway. The women's smalls at that.

"I'm all right," he said at last.

"Creel-"

"I said I'm all right," he looked at me with a scowl. "I got hit hard, I'll admit it. But I've been knocked down. And I've always gotten up again."

"Yeah, you have man," I scowled back at him. "I'm your friend, dude. I was worried about you. Sorry, damn."

Creel gave me a glare. Then he looked back at the shirts and finally realized what he was doing when he picked up a shirt that was clearly designed to reflect Fantasma's outfit. He stared at it, eyes wide. "Uh…" he said in confusion. Then my phone flashed.

When he turned my way I was chuckling as I sent the photo off. "Yeah, you'd look good in that. Hope Izzy agrees."

"You little-!" I ducked under Creel's outstretched arm, still laughing. Creel grumbled as he tossed the shirt back on the shelf. He walked over to another bunch of shirts. "Yeah. It sucked."

"I guessed."

"But I'll get over it. I'll figure out someway to get used to it, or maybe a way to cool down fast when I need to. I'll get stronger," he looked at me out of the corner of his eye. "Thanks though. For worrying, man."

I gave him a manly punch to the shoulder, then grabbed my manly chibi Winter Guard shirt and went to purchase a few extras.

"...What is this?" Coulson asked later. He was staring at the same thing we were. A plane. A big ass plane that actually put the currently destroyed Bus to shame in size. This thing was just stupid huge. Bright white with a blue stripe, it stood on the tarmac of the Russian airport like a dragon come to life, our group staring at it with wide eyes.

"This, is one Antonov An-124 _Ruslan_ ," Boris said proudly. He waved at it. "One of the largest and most powerful planes in the world! A marvel of engineering, a true testament to the craft."

"...There are cameras again," I noted, looking around at the media. There was a huge audience as well. Which kinda made sense, considering what an important goodbye this was. They weren't taking much more than some token photos, but the fact they were there was annoying. There was also a big stand nearby with a podium that had dozens of microphones on it. "I don't think we're going to like where this is headed."

Skye nodded next to me. "I can hack the cameras, maybe? Unless their tech is too old."

"I can always shoot them," May sounded a lot more ready to do that than I would have expected. Guess even the most stoic person had her limits.

Creel and Fitz-Simmons seemed to share our thoughts on the matter.

"Yep, really not going to like this," I decided.

"You won't," a female voice said. We turned to see Fantasma and Mikhail walking up to us. Mikhail was back in his military gear. Fantasma, on the other hand, surprised me by coming up with a blue blouse and blue jeans, carrying a large bag over her shoulder. I'd gotten used to her purple outfit and tall boots.

"Hey, Fantasma, Mikhail," Coulson said politely.

"Hey," I said with a small smile. "Kind of expected you in your superhero costume."

"I've been told I tend to distract in that uniform," she said with a smirk.

"Yeah you do," Skye said huskily. She blinked when we turned to look at her. "What? She's hot, I can accept that."

Fantasma opened and closed her mouth while blushing heavily, though she looked amused as well.

"Okay, Boris," Coulson turned to look at the badass politician. "You're going to pull another publicity stunt. Just go for it."

Boris had the good grace to look a little embarrassed. Politics. What are ya going to do?

...I got the Omnitrix ready.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Boris stepped forward to stand on the red stand, walking up to the podium, Fantasma and Mikhail giving us a look before walking up to us, his voice projected through the speakers. "Our dear Fantasma, hero of the Winter Guard, will now be leaving us!"

There were some sad calls out, several members of the media talking into their mics. I looked over at Fantasma. She was smiling sadly, waving at the audience of people.

"She will be joining the Avengers, representing the glory of Russia across the world! Fighting alongside the heroes of the world to defend our great nation overseas!"

Creel and I looked over at Coulson in shock. Skye and Fitz-Simmons did the same. Coulson looked over at us blithely, then smirked. May chuckled.

"What? You didn't think she was just coming with us for a trip to the states, did you?" Coulson asked casually.

"Do all superspies just love having more info than the rest of us?" was the best response I could give.

"It's one of the perks of the job," he chuckled.

In the meantime, Boris had been continuing his speech. "But as we say goodbye to Fantasma, we also greet two new heroes!"

He gestured to Mikhail. With a step forward, he began to grow. His muscles inflated, his Ivan Drago features became Smokey the Bear features. His military uniform was apparently made with easy tear away velcro or something, because it came apart everywhere. His pants stretched to match him. Soon, a big shirtless bearman stood and roared. The audience gasped in fear and awe. His fur shone in the sunlight as he posed proudly over everyone. Apparently Mikhail had a hell of a good conditioner.

"Ursa Major! A skilled warrior and esteemed soldier of our nation, now joining us to continue that fight!" Boris said proudly, Mikhail roaring, as though to punctuate the statement.

Coulson and May, meanwhile, shared a look. "Two?" Coulson asked.

From above us, she came. Surrounded in an aura like a starlit sky in the shape of a star around her body, the young woman slowly came down toward us. Dressed in a black leather armor with a yellow star in the center of her chest, her blonde hair flowing behind her. With the starlit aura around her and her eyes glowing with colorless energy, she looked like an avenging angel. Dark and powerful.

The blonde landed to a series of flashing cameras, walking up to shake Boris' hand and give a hug to a happy Fantasma, Mikhail speaking to her fondly.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Darkstar!" Boris cheered, the blonde stepping forward to wave happily at the crowd.

"Oh hey, new frenemy!" Simmons chirped. When I gave her a look she explained. "Fantasma said you kept calling the Winter Guard that."

Yeah, that was probably appropriate.

"And, last but not least," Boris continued once the cheering died down. "As a gift to our brave American friends for the aid they supplied the Winter Guard, we have decided to gift them this!" he gestured to the plane behind him.

So that was their game. And apparently the crowd was loving it. Good way to look good, giving a free plane to the Americans for the 'aid provided'. Instead of, you know, some of us almost dying to try and help.

Say what you will about the Russians politicians, they are really good at public relations.

As the cheering died down, Boris and the Winter Guard walked over to us. Boris looked apologetic as he clasped hands with Coulson. "I'm sorry Coulson, but it was the only way I could convince them to let it go."

"I understand," Coulson said. He didn't sound like he meant it. Boris didn't seem to mind that. He gestured to Darkstar, who was eyeing Creel and I curiously.

"Oh, this is Laynia Petrovna."

"Hello! It is very nice to meet you all!" Laynia said in heavily accented English. She sounded like a Russian Fluttershy.

"Petrovna?" May asked.

"Like Vanguard?" I asked.

"He is my brother," Laynia said with pride. She looked at Creel in particular. "He… say, that you saved his life. Thank you."

Creel looked surprised. When he smiled, I've never seen the big lug look more pleased than at that moment. Except for when he was with Isabelle.

"Well, we had better head out," Coulson said, looking closely at Laynia. "But I think BRIDGE will want to speak with you soon."

Boris was unfazed. "Coulson. Despite what others may say, the Winter Guard is thankful to you all. We know what you risked for us. So thank you."

Coulson seemed pleased by that. "Thank you for saying so Boris… now, we've got a hell of an exit to make. Ms. Petrovna, it was good to meet you."

"And you!" Laynia said.

Huh. Pretty chirpy young woman.

Fantasma and Mikhail were saying their goodbyes when Coulson pulled me aside.

"...Mahmoud," Coulson said icily.

"Yeah, Coulson?"

"Any chance you can change the paint job on this thing?"

I grinned slowly. "Sure. Just say the word.."

"Great," Coulson looked over at Boris, who had for some reason brought everyone to the front of the plane. "Now, I really want to get Lola into this thing. But Boris is wasting time at this point. What is he doing at the front of this thing? Is there a door we… missed?"

As Coulson and I watched silently, the front split open. Coulson and I walked slowly outward until we could see what was happening. The entire nosecone of the plane rose up, spitting out a long cargo ramp. Coulson and I shared a look.

"Dude… Russia has been really weird."

"It always is," the older agent said while we watched Lola the beat up convertible get gently placed inside the plane.

With that little statement, I raised the Omnitrix. "You know what though. We Americans can go all out too."

Coulson smiled at that.

I got to see the footage later. While the others entered the Antonov through it's weird nose ramp, I waited outside, some cameras focusing in on me. The second everyone was secure, Coulson let me know on comms, so the cameras caught me reaching a hand up to my head to reply. Then I pushed down the Omnitrix.

 **"Upgrade!"**

The second I had turned into that giant mass of nanotechnology, I merged with the Antonov, the sounds of surprise filling the air as I did so. As always, it looked like black liquid metal with green circuitry running through it encapsulated the entire surface of the vehicle until it was colored exactly the same color as me. I connected my body to the plane and took it over. In a matter of seconds I took control of the entire plane. Cameras flashed as the now super-advanced cargo plane turned it's engine to face the tarmac and fired up.

Hundreds of tons of steel floated upward. On the side of the plane, a massive logo appeared. The symbol of SHIELD. Not BRIDGE. SHIELD. I figured it was only appropriate.

"Peace out, Russia!" I crowed through the planes speakers. "It's been fun!"

I twisted the engines around again and blasted off towards home.

 _Author's Note:_

Okay, gonna try to make this brief. As those of you on my discord may know, due to issues with money and the lack thereof, I have no internet at home, so I am not able to reply to messages and stuff. Thanks to those of you who have supported me on , I've been able to take steps to fix that, but it'll take a bit longer. Until then, replies to these stories will take a bit.

That said, the next chapter of anyting with be one of my other stories, Saiyan In Brockton.

In the meantime, I hope you guys like this chapter. I especially loved writing the interaction between Fantasma and Dial, but I hope you guys liked it overall.

Let me know what you think, and I hope ya'll have a great day!


	78. Chapter 78

_Ivan Kragoff_

Ivan watched from his secondary base on a small tv as his decayed nation celebrated the efforts of their new circus clowns, the Winter Guard. The old communist clenched at the arms of his chair, scowling angrily at the tiny screen before him, the tv illuminating his face in blue. The damned fools even rewarded the Americans with a plane!

But that was Ivan's fault. He had failed. He had underestimated them all. Not just the Winter Guard, with their false god and witch. He had underestimated BRIDGE.

And Dial. Dial, who had devoured a NUCLEAR BOMB. Such power in that watch. Ivan had paid the Avenger little mind at first, believing him to be nothing but brute force in battle. But enough brute force had overwhelmed his forces.

Of course, the BRIDGE members had managed to hack his superior technology, destroying his wonderful super-apes. Ivan needed to be more prepared. Even with all the enhancements he'd made to the apes, all the deals he made with HYDRA… with that new American organization, to test their technology in combat. He'd made deals, compromised where he wouldn't have otherwise, all out of his impatience. And now, here he was. A failure!

The tv was suddenly broken. Ivan blinked at the culprit. Large black knuckles had slammed down on the Soviet era technology, shattering it apart while Ivan had been slowly stewing. For a moment, he wanted to shout. Then he sighed.

"Miklho. I understand you're upset on my behalf, but the tv was not the issue."

From the shadows, a gorilla stepped forward. A gorilla that was untouched by cybernetics, and unlike the 'Miklho' that Chernobog had fought, this gorilla was normal sized. But he carried himself… differently. More intelligently. More confidently.

"Ohoh," Miklho walked up, shaking his head. His hands flicker between different signs for a few moments, then shrugged.

"Yes… I suppose I have been rather foolish old friend," Ivan sighed.

The gorilla was joined by an orangutan and baboon. Same as Miklho, they looked normal. Same as him, they carried themselves with intelligence. They swung down from the rafters to land before Ivan, eyes filled with concern.

"I rushed things," Ivan said forlornly. "I compromised my morals, forced myself to work with monsters. To create rush jobs. And now? My enemies are celebrated by the country I love…" Ivan swallowed. Tears fell down from his eyes before he could stop them. The apes looked at each other, worried looks on their faces. Mikhlo sighed, nudging at the baboon, Igor. Igor rolled his eyes and stepped toward Ivan to comfort him.

Then the orangutan hissed, spinning to face the door to the large room. The gorilla and baboon turned as well in alarm, while Ivan snapped to his feet.

"Peotor!?" Ivan snapped toward the orangutan. "What is it?"

There was a knock on the door. Ivan stared at it. No one knew about this place. That was the point of a secondary base, that even when the primary one was compromised you could still have somewhere no one could find.

"Excuse me?" someone said through the door in very rough Russian. "Dr. Kragoff? My big headed asshole of a boss wanted to speak with ya."

"...Mikhlo. Get the door."

The gorilla nodded, walking up to the door. With surprising gentleness, he opened it.

"Jesus, you're even hairier than I expected," the man behind the door said. "Been hitting the Bowflex too, eh? I mean, I try, but I'm a lazy fuck, to be honest."

"Urgh?" Mikhlo said in confusion.

"Yeah, I have that effect on people," before Ivan could say anything, the man slipped around the gorilla.

The man was rough looking. His hair was shaved at the sides and spiky on top, a tattoo on the right side of his head. His beard was rough, peppered with salt, and his eyes were wide, filled with glee. As though he was always in on some joke no one else had heard yet. He was wearing a warm grey jacket lined with fur and a ballistic vest made of some material Ivan didn't recognize on top of that. He had a large futuristic rifle on his back that had some sort of sea-green crystal where the barrel should have been.

He was also familiar to him.

"Klaue?" Kragoff asked, surprised.

"Hey, Terrible," Klaue teased happily. "You look good."

Ivan scowled. "That nickname was never funny."

"Ah come on," Ullyses Klaue grinned. "Ivan the Terrible doesn't like his name?"

"What do you want, Klaue?" Kragoff scowled. "What does a dead man want with me?"

"I come with gifts, Terrible," Klaue grinned, reaching for his pocket. Mikhol growled, Klaue stopping the motion for his pocket with a frown. "Hey. Can you call off Joe Young over here? I come in peace and all that shit."

Ivan thought about that. He thought about that for a very, very long moment. Klaue's smile widened and widened, his fingers flickering. Mikhol, Igor, and Peotor glared at him. Violence seemed to tinge the air.

"...Klaue. If you kill me. You will face horrors unimaginable," three apes growled, filling the room with the sounds until they seemed to bounce off the walls and reverberate off the bones.

"Fair enough," Klaue continued to reach into his pocket and pulled out a round device. He flipped it open. "My boss said you would appreciate this. The big headed bastard is usually right about that."

A hologram floated in front of Ivan. And his jaw dropped. "Where… how did you do this?"

Klaue laughed. "Oh, you think that's good! Just wait, Terrible! We're about to have a hell of a time!"

All the while, the sea-green crystal in Klaue's rifle continued to hum.

 _Antoine 'Trip' Triplett_

Walking through the halls of a base in a secret location in Siberia, Trip led Sharon and Laura to a room in the center of the base. He ignored the various scientists and guards that lived in the base. None of them mattered.

He soon strode down a set of metal stairs in a room with monitors and machinery all over, scientists looking up at him as he entered. Then they met eyes with Laura and quickly looked away again.

Laura had that effect on people. The young woman was always eyeing people in a hostile manner, always looking as though she was moments from embedding a sea-green blade deep into your throat. For some reason, Trip had never seen her giving Sharon and him similar looks. But the fact was that the leather-clad woman was anti-social, to understate things massively.

Trip stopped before the man at the center of the room.

"Sir," Trip said slowly.

Wolfgang Von Strucker looked up from what he'd been doing, which was typing at a computer while listening to music apparently. He was standing while doing so. As always, the Scepter was at his right hip in a holster. On his left was a small table holding a red glove. Once used only to let him use the Scepter without worrying about being manipulated in turn, the glove was larger now, more armored. Behind his back, it had gained a name of it's own. The Satan Glove. He smiled when he saw Trip. "Ah. Agent Triplett. It is good to see you are well."

Trip eyed him. One punch to the larynx. That's all he wanted. Just the chance to do it would be worth the whole world to him.

Von Strucker seemed to notice the intensity of Trip's gaze. He didn't seem to mind at all. Instead he lifted up his glove and put it on his left hand, then gestured for the three warriors to follow him, walking toward a dark hallway with Trip, Sharon, and Laura in tow.

"How did your mission go?"

"Successfully," Trip said as coldly as he could. The image of the helpful Chinese scientist he'd killed flashed into his mind.

"I see you were forced to kill innocents again," when Trip gave Von Strucker a startled look, the scientist smiled. "I have been inside your head, Agent Triplett. I daresay I know you better than you know yourself by now."

That was… galling, to hear. Still, Trip couldn't even deny that. Deep within him, in a sunken place where the last of himself fought to be heard, he tried to scream. But he did not. He breathed while drowning, staring out from eyes that weren't his own. He tried to speak his true thoughts. To raise his gun as they walked, fire it into the leader of HYDRA's face, and find his way home to the people he loved.

Nothing. He was only able to follow silently.

"That is what I like about you, Agent Triplett," Von Strucker said in satisfaction. "Even with the conditioning we've done, you still manage to hold onto your will. It is impressive. But it is also valuable to me," Von Strucker sighed sadly. "I am surrounded by sycophants. Once, I might have liked that, before the events of last year. Now I find your naked hatred rather fulfilling. It keeps me from being arrogant. What is it the youths say? 'My haters are my motivators'?"

He chuckled at the look he got from that. "It is true. I find you enjoyable, Agent Triplett. Funny, even."

Trip tried to reach for his gun. Von Strucker smiled when Trip continued to follow him obediently instead. "You have the chip?"

"Yes, sir," Trip patted the pouch on his left hip.

"Then we can complete the Project," they entered a room that was strangely empty. There was only a table, a large metal armchair, and a tarp covered object resting in the chair. There were dozens of wires stretching from it's back and into the wall. The room was extremely chilly, tinged with a bit of frost. Von Strucker held out his hand. "The chip, please."

Trip opened the pouch, reached into it, and pulled out the computer chip. Von Strucker stared at the innocuous device as though it was made of gold. In many ways, it might as well have been. He took it into this gloved hand and walked around to the tarp covered objects back.

"Months of research, thievery, and work. All to recover what we lost. HYDRA's greatest weapon has always been science. Not the worship of dead deities or dependance on alien powers. Always the science we could use," he slipped the computer chip under the tarp. A small click could be heard. He pulled his hand back out sans the computer chip and nodded when a green light shone from under the tarp. The wires quivered for a moment.

Then the tarp shifted slowly as the object underneath rose up. The sound of fans filled the room, moving the chill air around them.

 _Snickt!_

The sound of Laura's claws popping out of her knuckles filled the room.

"Don't you dare!" Von Strucker shouted angrily.

"..." Laura's claws slowly slipped back into her hands as she stared at Von Strucker. He glared at her, then looked back at the object.

The tarp slipped off, revealing black metal underneath. Gears twisted around, wires curled, and the being beneath rose completely. It was shaped like a man, but instead of a face, it had a metal block with a red lens that glowed. It lifted hands of steel and twisted the fingers around, staring at them through the red lens. Then it reached for it's 'stomach' with it's right hand. It's cool metal fingers met a screen.

It hesitated before speakers on the machine spoke. "What… is, this?"

"Your return," Von Strucker said in satisfaction. "After 42 years your mind truly lives again... Doctor Zola!"

Trip watched the screen in the center of the robot, flashing the green image of a confused Arnim Zola. Then the robot stared at its own hands again. And Arnim Zola slowly smiled.

 _Luke Cage/Bartender_

"Back again," Luke walked up to the woman who was lying her head on his bar counter. He smirked at the growling sound she gave him as she lifted her head to look at him.

Jessica Jones was gorgeous. It was the first thing someone would notice about her, the long black hair, big eyes, and general beauty. She was also-

"What, you wanna send me to an AA meeting?" Jessica growled.

Abrasive as hell.

Luke chuckled. "No, just noting a fact."

"I'm pretty sure your job is to pass be drinks," Jessica drawled.

Not one to be put off by rudeness, Luke only smiled. "Only when someone actually orders a drink, as opposed to using my bar as a pillow to sleep on."

Jessica scowled, but Luke thought he could note a hint of humor in her eyes. She pointed at a random bottle on the shelf lazily. Taking that as a request, he took the whiskey down and poured a shot, passing it to her. She downed it immediately and gestured. Chuckling slightly, he passed her the bottle, watching with some fondness as she started to drink.

With no one else in the bar, he was able to lazily walk around the bar and enjoy the quiet.

Then a vehicle outside went spinning past with a squeal. Luke and Jessica both looked out at it. The red van was speeding with no regard for any rules of traffic. They both watched curiously as it spun around the corner. Then another squealing sound filled the air. Luke turned to look at it.

A man was leaning out of a lowrider from the back passenger seat. In slow motion, Luke got a good look at him. He was a big man, with skin as dark as Luke's, and a smile filled with gold. He was clearly laughing as he hefted the weapon in his arms.

For a moment, Luke stared at the weapon the man was leveling. A rocket launcher. An honest to god rocket launcher. Pointed right at them.

"Down!" Luke dived over the bar to pull Jessica to the ground. She rolled with the movement and yelled out indignantly when he shielded her with his body. He ignored her, closing his eyes as he braced himself.

The rocket flew in and exploded against the bar. Fire and shockwaves surrounded them. Luke roared as the building fell on top of him. He could hear Jessica doing the same in his ear.

When the shaking stopped, Luke opened his eyes. He was surrounded by rubble, gray dust falling about their heads. He could smell smoke beyond the debris. Rising slightly, he looked down at Jessica.

"You okay?"

"Fuck no I'm not okay!" she shouted. "What the hell happened!?"

Luke scowled. "Someone was trying to blow up that van."

"Well they fucking missed!" Jessica shouted. She stopped moving. "Do I smell smoke?"

"I think a fire started," Luke looked around again. The rubble had fallen around them in a small pocket. He gently pushed upward and felt the building above him move. "...I think I can move this."

"You?" Jessica scoffed. "Yeah, no. Move out of the way, I can get us out."

"You?" Luke replied right back. "Jessica, let me-"

She raised a fist and punched upward. Her fist embedded into the rock behind his head like a nail into wood. Luke stared at her as she smiled smugly. "See? I got this. Just move out of the way and I'll-"

Luke pushed upward, his large palms on either side of her. Slowly, tons of weight was lifted up in a complete disregard of reality. Jessica stared at Luke's face a few inches from her as he smirked. "Yeah. I think I can't help you there."

She continued to eye him. Then a slow smile came to her lips. Together, the pair began to push together. Stone, wood, metal, and glass were moved with little to no effort by the two superhumans. Soon they had dug their way out of the rubble. The pair rose to their feet, Luke's yellow shirt and Jessica's black leather clothes covered in dust.

"Goddamnit," Luke stumbled as he walked off the pieces of what had once been his friends bar. "This is just-"

He stopped speaking, clenching a fist in anger. Jessica was standing behind him, watching silently as he stared at the remains of his workplace. All gone. Burning to nothing. Along with everything that had mattered about it. The time he'd spent making sure it was clean and cared for. Wasted.

"I'm sorry," Jessica said, drawing his attention. When he looked over at her she looked away but continued to speak. "I-I know it meant a lot to you."

...For some reason, he could believe that.

The sound of someone laughing drew his attention. He froze.

Further down the block, he could see the red van had been overturned. He could also see that his wasn't the only building hit. Four more had the signs of an explosion, a window high on one billowing out flames, another shuddering, people screaming. The man laughing was tossing aside his rocket launcher as more men were rummaging in the red van. Six men grabbing boxes from the van, two carrying guns, and one insane lunatic laughing as he stood on the roof of a lowrider, another one parked nearby.

"Come on boys, get a move on!" the large man in a gray tank top laughed from the roof of his car. "Avengers ain't going to be distracted for long!"

"..." Luke stared at the mess before him. People were screaming, running out of burning buildings. The group of men were still working on robbing the truck. The man on the lowrider saw the running people. He smiled, a gold tinged, deranged smile, and gestured to one of his men, who tossed him an SMG. The man raised the gun to aim at those running away.

"Hey!" Luke heard. It took him a moment to realize he was the one who had yelled. The man heard him, looking over at Luke.

"Luke," Jessica protested, moving to stand next to him. "What are you doing?"

"...I can't let them hurt anymore people," Luke said slowly.

He wasn't a hero. He'd never claimed to be.

But apparently, there weren't any Avengers coming just yet. So how could he stand aside while others might die? How could he not step up?

"Well, lookie here now!" the man hopped off the lowrider and grinned at Luke. "What is this nigga!? You wanna piece of this with yer white girl there? Maybe let us have a piece of her too?"

Luke scowled at of one of his most despised words being used, then strode forward. He was surprised to find Jessica joining him. "You don't have to do this," he whispered to her.

"Yeah, I do," Jessica sounded positively enraged. She pointed down the street, where two more buildings a long way down had been hit by more fire. "I'm pretty sure that fuck hit my building."

...Well shit, what were the chances of that?

"Get behind me if they start shooting. I'm bulletproof."

God bless Jessica for not being as fazed by that as he would have expected.

"Oh now look at this," the man sounded almost polite as he strode forward with his men. "Muthafucka, what exactly do you think you're doing?"

"No one has to get hurt!" Luke called as he and Jessica strode toward the group. "Just leave these people alone!"

The man blinked. "Fuck man, you serious? New York's changed since last time. Used to be muthafucka's ran from Barracuda! And explosions, come to think of it," he grinned. "Well fuck, I like you! Hey, how fast can you dodge!?"

He raised his gun and started shooting. Jessica ducked behind him as the bullets started hitting him.

Small bits of metal rained down on the asphalt along with bits of yellow cloth. For a long moment, the sound of gunfire filled the air.

When it was over, the man was staring in shock at Luke. His men lowered their weapons in sheer awe as Luke wiped at his chest, more bullets falling on the ground. "What the fuck is this nig-?"

Before he could complete that sentence, Jessica spun out of cover and grabbed the hood of a car. With a twist and an ear-wrenching pull, she ripped the hood off, then spun to toss it at the group.

The hood spun like a disk across the space between them, then hit two of the men like a giant frisbee, both men screaming as they were sent flying.

"Shit, light 'em up!" the man yelled, his gold teeth flashing as he spoke. The other men, who hadn't been knocked down by an enraged woman with a car hood, unleashed hell.

Luke ignored the bullets, instead running toward the group. Jessica ducked behind the car, only to come back up and toss a piece of the engine, shattering one of the men's legs.

The leader of the group ran for one of the crates, opening it up. As Luke ran toward him, he came up with a large RPG, one with the words 'Hammer Tech' written on the side. "All right you tough muthafucka, lets see what you got!" he screamed as he pulled the trigger.

The RPG flew towards Luke before he could make a response. He tried to dodge. But contrary to what some thought, dodging a rocket-propelled grenade was impossible. It hit him hard and exploded in a burst of fire, sending him flying. Luke rolled after his airborne flight, shouting as he bounced off the pavement before slamming into a parked car with the sound of shattering glass and steel.

"You fuck!" Jessica, enraged, pulled out the engine block from the car she'd been using as ammo.

"Oh damn," one of the men said in awe as the small woman lifted 300+ pounds of steel over her head.

"Raaagh!" Jessica tossed the block. It flew with baseball pitcher speed, bouncing once on the ground.

"Oh goddamn!" the leader shouted as the engine block barely tagged one of his mens arm, then hit the red van, sending it skidding across the pavement.

"GRAH!" Luke roared as he exploded out of the car he'd been embedded in. Soot rested on his pectorals from the recent explosion. He stared at the leader of the man who had shot him, who was hopping into his car. The leader smiled a gold toothed smile.

"Damn, muthafucka, you tough as shit!" he said jovially. He laughed while revving up his engine. Jessica and Luke rushed toward to try and chase him. "Catch you later, bulletproof muthafucka! HAHA!"

Jessica poured on the speed, outpacing Luke by a wide margin, but she still was unable to catch up as the car began to speed away. She stopped to crouch, then exploded upwards. She cleared thirty feet, reaching out for the car as she fell towards it. The leader gunned the engine further. Her fingers stretched out.

And barely smacked the back of the car. The strength of the impact ripped off a chunk off the trunk. Jessica hit the ground hard, cursing loudly as she rolled with the impact but still scraped her cheek against the asphalt.

"Damn, that girl is hot!" Luke could barely hear the driver say over the roar of the engine and Jessica's caustic cursing.

She looked up at him she rose to her feet, her eyes flashing with rage, blood dripping slightly from the scrape on her cheek, an ugly thing that had him wincing in sympathy at the sight of a patch the size of a round playing card that had been scraped to the muscle.

"...So, you can fly, huh?" he said as she glared at him.

Her glare faded just a bit before she could control it. Luke would have said more, but the sounds of sirens in the distance drew his attention.

"God damnit," Jessica said as the sirens came closer. She turned to walk away.

"Where you headed?" Luke asked.

"Well," Jessica glowered. "I was going to head to my apartment. But now I need to see what the hell is left of it."

"Let me help," Luke immediately said, following her.

"Don't need it."

Luke chuckled, his eyes following her. "No, you don't. But I still want to."

She didn't turn to acknowledge that. But that was fine. He could live with that.

 _Author's Note:_ Yeah, I know. An Interlude of all things? But it is necessary to the story, and does continue some serious plotlines.

In the meantime, I'll be posting the next chapter on my later today, and it'll come out a few days later on the various sites. So have a good day everyone, and I hope you guys had fun reading


	79. Chapter 79

_Author's Note: Pa t re on s got to read this and comment on it June 28th!_

* * *

The second we'd lifted off, I put some work into the plane itself. I couldn't do much since, despite Upgrade being able to live up to his name, I still needed to work damn hard to make sure my changes were permanent, and even that was optimization, repairs or other superficial stuff. Later I might work to get some more interesting stuff done, but based on what I could see of Coulson as he wandered around inside me, a new plane might be better. I also shut off several trackers that had been left inside the Antonov, repaired some smaller issues that would have been missed by a human mechanic, and added little things to make the plane more fuel efficient and faster. Not as good as Tony or Jury Rigg, but damn good for a few seconds of work.

Then May twisted the controls. I spun in a little daredevil maneuver in accordance with that. Curious, I sprouted my head in the cockpit. "Hey May. Everything okay?"

"Hm?" May looked at me idly, as though random heads sprouting out of the wall was an everyday thing. I swear, we're all getting so jaded on this job. "Oh, sorry. I was just testing her out."

"I get that," I said thoughtfully. "Tell ya what. What about I manipulate the gravity in the rest of the plane so they don't get affected, and I let you go nuts."

"You can do that?" May asked in surprise.

"May, Upgrade is stupidly overpowered sometimes," I said, my round green eye turning up in an Upgrade smile. "Seriously you wanna have some fun?"

She smirked. Then she pulled back on the controls, bringing the Antonov into an insanely fast climb, before spinning at high speed. I manipulated the gravity in every room except the cockpit to keep the others from feeling the sudden speed and spin, then let out a whoop of joy, May smirking just a bit wider.

"Mahmoud!" Someone yelled inside the section of the plane that could be called the lounge. I pulled my head from the cockpit and sprouted it in there. Coulson was standing in the center of the black and green space, while Skye and Fitz were sitting nearby.

Coulson looked at me as I rose out of the floor in front of him. "What's up?"

"Are you responsible for that?" He pointed at the window. Outside, one could see just how much fun May was having.

"Uh… yeah?" I said with a small chuckle. "May wanted to go all out."

"Can you at least change the view? Some of us are feeling a bit queasy seeing the world twist outside while we're all standing still," Coulson looked over at Simmons, who was holding a hand over her mouth as Fitz rubbed her back.

"Ohhhh, ohhhhh," she said weakly.

"Sure thing!" I manipulated the windows to show a normal sky.

"Thank you very much," Coulson smirked. "Now, can you check on our Russian guests? I'll join you in a moment."

I nodded my tendril head, then flowed through to the ship to where Mikhail and Fantasma were. Then I stopped when I realized they weren't the only ones there.

Creel and Skye were with them, the foursome sitting around a large metal barrel with a spigot on the side. They all had some clear drinks in small shot glasses, apparently coming from the metal barrel.

"Where did that come from?" I asked as soon as I saw the barrel.

Mikhail cursed in surprise when he noticed my head popping from the floor, then looked me over. "Dial? What in god's name?"

I blinked a circular eye. "Yeah, what's up?"

"You're a head," Fantasma said weakly. Mikhail tried to poke at me in fascination, recoiling when I shifted my form back.

"Don't do that," I said, twisting my eye to stimulate a frown.

"That is so… strange," Mikhail mumbled.

"Yeah, he does this sometimes," Skye sipped her drink, giving me a fond smile.

"Where did you guys get the vodka?" I asked, cocking my head tendril.

"This?" Mikhail looked down at it. "Oh. I requested it," he tapped it with a chuckle. "I figured it would be a while before I got real Russian drink."

"He means," Fantasma grumbled. "He's the drunkest bear in Russia and he loves proving it."

"You want me to take that back?" Mikhail pointed at her drink. Fantasma took another lazy sip, smiling at him. "Also, what was that earlier?" he pointed at the window. "I know I didn't drink that much-"

"Could have fooled me," Creel mumbled.

"So why was the world twisting?" Mikhail continued.

"May wanted to have fun," I tried my best to shrug, Fantasma and Mikhail staring at the odd image of a head 'shrugging'.

" _May_?" Skye said in sheer disbelief.

"She can be pretty fun sometimes."

"We aren't talking about the same May, are we?" Skye said again.

Coulson came in right about then carrying a bunch of files. He stopped when he saw the barrel. "...I'm going to just assume that's your fault," he said to Mikhail. The part-time bear grinned, chugging back his drink and pouring himself another.

The leader of Team SHIELD smiled, walking up to join us. "First, pour me a glass," Creel politely reached for a glass. "Second, I have your papers," he held out the papers to Fantasma, who rose and took them.

"About that," I said. "She's an Avenger now?"

"Yeah, when were we getting the memo?" Creel added. He looked over at Fantasma. "I mean, I like you. And I'm the last person to judge how ready someone is to be an Avenger. But it's unexpected, ya know?"

"Zat is understandable," Fantasma said in slightly accented English. She was once again sitting as calmly as a queen in her court, one leg draped over the other as she lifted her lips just a bit. "It was a surprise to me as well."

"Apparently, the Russian government was always planning on doing this," Coulson added. "They weren't sure of who would go, but the decision to send a Winter Guard member to BRIDGE was in motion for awhile. But recent events accelerated that."

"Kragoff," Fantasma needlessly explained.

"And you're okay with that?" Skye asked incredulously. "Just being traded off like a baseball card or something?"

Fantasma glared at her. "Of course not! ...I finally found a home. And now I must leave it…" she looked over at Mikhail. He gave her a sad, but proud, smile. Skye looked over at Coulson, who I noticed gave her the same smile.

"However, it is for my country, and the world," Fantasma continued firmly. "I will work as hard as any other Avenger, this I promise."

"And spy on us on the side," Coulson added wryly. While Fantasma looked offended at the insinuation, Mikhail nodded.

"That is side benefit, true."

"Mikhail!" Fantasma seemed aghast.

The part-time bear chuckled. "Do not worry. It is a mark of respect among spymasters to acknowledge the fact we spy on one another. I imagine that you left a few bugs in our base?" he added to Coulson.

Coulson shrugged. "Felt rude not to," was his shameless reply, the older man smirking.

"As well it would have," Mikhail chuckled. "As well it would have!"

"...You guys are weird," I said, at last, Creel, Skye, and Fantasma all nodding in agreement.

* * *

 ** _Phil Coulson_**

Coulson strode through the Antonov, trying to get used to the makeup of the plane. Despite Dial mixing together with the plane and making some changes to the interior, like SHIELD symbols on a few of the walls and a shiny black finish with green circuitry lines, the Upgrade trademark, the plane still didn't feel right. Granted, he'd only been there for a couple of hours. But this little gift from the Russian government wouldn't feel like home for a while.

For one thing, it was ninety percent cargo bay. Felt like it, at least. There were some thin walls, sure, but there was still a lot less privacy here than there had been on the Bus.

And that was the crux of the matter. No matter how long he walked through the ship, he couldn't help but remember his former home. Best to get used to it. The Bus wasn't coming back. Better to move on.

Of course, the old plane hadn't been the only casualty of the little war in Russia.

Coulson stopped near the back of the plane and eyed Lola for a moment before sighing. She'd been secured nice and tight toward the right. She was also still covered in pits from where plasma had melted the car across her surface. The wheels had also been melted, the windshield shattered, and the upholstery covered in bear fur and large scratches. She'd had much better days.

"I'm sorry about Lola, sir," someone said behind Coulson. He turned to see Fitz standing there, the young man looking more than a little nervous.

"She'll be all right," Coulson said sadly. "You know, these old SHIELD vehicles… they were made to fight in an emergency. To save the day at the last minute," he patted Lola's red hood, careful to avoid one of the holes that had been burned into her. "I think she appreciated the chance to do it again."

"We'll get her up and running again soon, sir," Fitz said kindly. "Just like new."

"Thank you, Fitz," Coulson looked over at him. "So, did you need to speak with me about something?"

Fitz winced. "Y-Yeah. It's just… I've been thinking, I mean, Simmons and me were thinking, ever since we started this, we love working for you," Fitz was now speaking a mile a minute, crossing his arms nervously. "So we wanted to talk to you, but then all that stuff with Kragoff and Russia, and we didn't want to-"

"Fitz," Coulson said kindly. He smiled at the way Fitz cut himself off immediately. "I already know."

Fitz's arms fell to his sides. His eyes widened as the rest of him stilled. "You do?"

"How could I not?" Coulson chuckled. "I've known you for this long, haven't I? It's not like I can blame you. You've been doing a lot of good work with Stark, of course you'd want to continue that. I want you to be happy, both you and Simmons. If you have to leave to do it, I don't think I'd mind that too much."

The British young man sighed in relief. "Thank you for understanding sir… Can we still come on missions with you, every once in a while?"

"Well, that's up to the director," Coulson shrugged. "But if it was up to me, absolutely."

Fitz's face lit up happily. "Thank you, sir!" Then he let out a little sound. "Oh, right! I uh, I have some recommendations for replacing us! Would you like to go over them with Simmons and I?"

"Sure thing," Coulson said.

"Great!" Fitz rushed off, turning to run backwards so he could face Coulson. "I promise, the people we've picked are the best, perfect- oop," he stumbled back into a crate and nearly feel, righting himself to continue his sentence. "They'll be perfect replacements, I promise!"

Fitz ran further in excitedly. As he did, Coulson's smile sank away. He turned to Lola, resting his palms against her. "I doubt that… I really doubt that."

New plane, new team members, new organization… Phil Coulson was really tired of losing things.

* * *

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

We got home in record time, considering our plane was late Soviet era tech. Wonders of alien nanotechnology enhancements. When we got there we landed on the _Enterprise_ , the Helicarrier in it's usual spot floating high above New York with her camouflage panels on.

The second that the front of the plane rose up, Director Maria Hill was there to greet us along Nick Fury, both dressed in their best clothes. As we walked down to greet them, Fury was the first to speak over the winds of the skies around us.

"I hear you broke my plane!" he said to Coulson.

"Take it up with Kragoff!" Coulson smirked.

"And whose fault was it that crazy monkey-fucker destroyed it?" Fury said grumpily. "Had a full superhero team and you couldn't keep the damn plane intact? She had a _bar_!"

Director Maria rolled her eyes. "Fury, if we can get to the important part?" Fury gave Coulson another cyclops glare then nodded. Honestly, he looked sadder about the Bus than Coulson.

"Fantasma, Mr. Ursus, it's a pleasure to meet you both," she said with a smile. "Fantasma, I believe you already know about the rules that have been set in place for provisional members of the Avengers?"

"Yes, Director Hill," Fantasma put her hands together in front of her and nodded with a serene smile. "I promise to follow all those rules for the duration of my time as an Avenger."

Maria seemed satisfied with that. "Then I'll have Dial show you and Mikhail to your rooms on the Tower for the time being. Welcome to America."

After a quick trip to the roof involving Fantasma floating us down to the tower, I led my Russian friends into the elevator. As the doors closed, Mikhail hummed to himself thoughtfully. "Things have changed. Once there would have been many security checks before I would have been let on American soil. I had assumed some security protocols at least to make sure we are who we say we are."

"What makes you think there aren't?" I cocked an eyebrow at him. "Hey, X, you guys still at it?"

Over the speakers, X replied. "Yes, sir. It is good to see you, by the way."

"X?" Fantasma asked curiously.

"One of my best friends," I replied with a shrug. "Right now, the first thing he's doing is reading the Omnitrix's unique signature to make sure I'm me, while also comparing my weight, gait, DNA, and brain scans all match what we have on file. He's also tracking any other energy signatures."

"That I am, sir," X said politely. "I wanted to mention that Fantasma has a strange energy around her. Her 'magic' perhaps?"

"You don't believe in magic?" Fantasma asked as though the idea was no surprise to her.

"I have no opinion on the matter, ma'am," X said politely. "I reckon trying to make assumptions without any proof would be a mistake on my part. Pleasure to meet you by the by."

"See, yer making friends already," I said to Fantasma with a grin while still facing the doors. "But yeah, this place has more safety protocols than most any building on Earth. We've been working on everything from Quantum physics to superhuman genetics, stuff lots of people would like to steal."

"Don't you get uncomfortable with that?" Fantasma asked while quirking her ruby red lips in a frown. "Being under constant watch?"

"I do. But then I think of all the assholes in the world who would want to sneak in here just to touch Black Widow's hair or try to steal an Iron Man suit, and suddenly I'm a lot less worried about it," I snarked.

"...her hair?" Fantasma asked worriedly. "You don't think, now that I'm an Avenger-"

"No," I said reflexively, narrowing my eyes. "You're one of us now. I was mostly exaggerating, but if anyone thinks of messing with ya, we're kicking their asses either literally or metaphorically in all the ways possible."

"...That is comforting to hear," Mikhail said softly. "I admit, I was-" the elevator came to a stop. When the doors opened, all three of us were surprised to see who was standing there. "Natasha?"

"Nat?" I asked at the same time. Then I looked over at Mikhail, who was looking a little… I don't know. You ever see someone you cared about years after the last time, but your last memories of them are connected to something you'd rather forget? The combination of sadness and fondness, where your eyes narrow but a smile comes to your face all the same?

That was the face Mikhail had.

And Natasha Romanov had the same look on her face. "Mikhail. It's been a long time."

"...yes, it has," he said softly.

We all stepped aside to let Nat inside. As we did, I gave Fantasma a confused look. She returned it, apparently just as lost. The doors closed behind my redhead mentor. For a moment, Mikhail looked down at her with that look. "You look good, young one."

"Not so young, these days," Nat said with a smirk.

"Oh please," I gave the buxom redhead a sarcastic look, the kind I'd learned from her. "You'll outlive us all and look damn good doing it."

Nat gave me a smile.

"So… you've taken on students?" Mikhail said, eyeing me.

"Yes," her gaze on me became thoughtful as I started to wonder if there was something much deeper going on here. "Him and another."

"That is good," the rough man said. "The Red Room… it should be forgotten. But to see it's teaching being used to help the world seems a fitting vengeance."

"You know about the Red Room?" I asked in confusion.

Mikhail's teeth showed, his eyes flashing the same color as his bear forms. "Oh yes… I destroyed them, in the end."

Oh damn. There really _was_ something way deeper going on here.

"You never talk about it," Fantasma said softly.

"...It was a monstrous place," Mikhail said softly.

Nat seemed to agree.

"You," Mikhail eyed me again. "You have taken on a legacy that you may not have realized… I hope you are ready for it."

I looked over at Nat. "I don't know. I don't think I mind taking on Nat's legacy. After all," I lifted the Omnitrix, the green hourglass symbol glowing. "We do have the same symbol."

Nat's Black Widow symbol, a red hourglass in a black circle, was resting in the center of her belt. She looked down at it and tapped at it, a little 'clink-clink' following the motion. "Yeah. Guess we do," she said softly.

"Natasha," Mikhail said. "There is something we must discuss in private."

The doors opened then. I stepped out and gestured. "This is our stop. Who's coming?"

Fantasma, Mikhail, and Natasha all filed out. Then Nat took a hold of my left arm with a grin. Before I could say anything, she twisted my arm and twisted around, sending me stumbling with a kick to the butt.

"Nat, what the hell!?" I yelped as she sent me through an open door. I stumbled into one of the empty conference rooms that were set up through the tower and turned to look at my grinning mentor/friend.

"Sorry, Mahmoud," Nat chuckled. "But I doubt you'll mind too much."

I gave her a confused look as she shut the door, Mikhail and Fantasma looking just as startled behind her. Then I looked to my left. I suddenly realized what was happening.

"...Jen," I said softly.

Jennifer Walters, the Incredible She-Hulk, was standing before me with her arms crossed. She walked up to stand very close, nearly a head taller than me, and smirked. "Hey. Heard you had a hell of a trip to Russia."

I didn't say anything. I just looked up at her for a moment. Her green hair was loose around her shoulders, her eyes flashing that familiar emerald. It's weird, ya know? Trying to figure out if how gorgeous she was had to do with her in general, or if I just kept thinking of good moments we had together when she smiled.

"Nice shirt," I said at last.

She uncrossed her arms and cocked a hip confidently, letting me get a good look at it. The Omnitrix symbol rested across her chest, the black shirt stretched very tightly across her form. "Thanks."

Before I could say anything else, she rested a hand on my chest and pushed me back against the wall behind me, biting her bottom lip. I let her do it, still looking up at her. "You know, you've been getting pretty big. All that time in the gym has been working for ya."

Her right hand flattened against my chest. For all her strength, the way she curled her fingers to stroke her palm against me was gentle. And possessive as well. I didn't say anything as she stepped closer, stooping down toward me. She smiled just a bit as our foreheads touched. Her hand moved from my chest to my back.

I'd like to say I was confident and cool. That as Jen held me there, I managed to be as suave as Tony was around women. But I could feel my heartbeat speed up in my chest as my eyes widened, my palms getting sweaty. God, how sad that Jen being so close to me made more nervous than armies of HYDRA and super-apes ever had.

But there was more to it

She didn't move any further, just keeping me against the wall. Her left hand wrapped up in mine. "So. You going to do anything?" she asked confidently. Her gaze was so steady on me that I almost didn't catch the slight catch in her breath. She pulled me closer. "Or just keep waiting?"

I couldn't take my eyes off hers. They were green with flecks of brown like chocolate chips floating in mint ice cream. Right up until my eyes closed and I leaned in, wrapping my arms around her waist, my brown skin resting against emerald. Our lips met slowly. She sank down towards me, pressing me against the wall.

We held each other close. After a long moment, she pulled back, panting heavily with a grin on her face. "Took ya long enough, you dummy."

"Sorry," I was breathing slowly. I leaned my head forward to touch my forehead back to hers. "I was… scared. Hard feeling like I was worthy of ya."

"Isn't that up to me?" she whispered softly.

I pressed a hand to her cheek and went for her lips again. She met me in the middle, and we slowly sank to the floor.

* * *

 ** _Natasha Romanov/Black Widow_**

"What was that about?" Fantasma asked curiously as Natasha led Mikhail and her away.

Natasha smirked. "Nothing too crazy. Just Dial working on the interpersonal relationships of the team."

Fantasma didn't seem to know what that meant, while Mikhail didn't seem to care. Natasha led her fellow Russians down the halls of the Avengers Tower, ignoring the sound of something heavy falling behind her.

"I believe Dial already mentioned our security measures, so you can be assured of your safety while in the tower," Natasha said. "Your room is going to be in-between Alloy and Hawkeye's. And don't worry. Tony Stark doesn't skimp on rooms."

Natasha stopped in front of a door and opened it.

"I am sure it will be-" Fantasma stopped short to stare in awe.

The room was massive, like the others in the tower, large enough to be a penthouse suite. The kitchen was well made and shone with new hardware, the living room had an entertainment system and couch all set up. The big surprise was the library set up in the near center, just behind the living room. Bookshelves made of some sort of wood that had a purple sheen surrounded the center, which had a soft looking carpet with Arabian style designs sewn across it. A large desk stood in the center as well and on it sat-

"Harry Potter," Fantasma narrowed her eyes at the books that were stacked on the top of the desk. She strode across the room to glare down at the books as though they had personally offended her. Then she looked at the paraphernalia surrounding the books. "A fake wand. A 'time turner'. A snitch. And wizarding robes…"

Natasha smirked at the annoyed look on Fantasma's face. "I think he left a note."

Fantasma lifted the piece of paper on the desk and read it silently. Then she burned it with a pulse of purple flames. "I have yet to meet Stark, but I do not like him."

"He called you Hermione, didn't he?" Mikhail said with a sigh.

The violet witch growled in a perfect imitation of Mikhail's bear form.

Natasha, still hiding her amusement, gestured to the bedroom. "Go ahead and leave your bags in the bedroom so we can continue the tour. In the meantime, let me show you where you will be staying Mikhail and then some of the important areas."

Fantasma, still scowling, went into the bedroom and left her bags, coming back out with another glare. "I prefer Dresden Files," she grumbled under her breath.

Natasha led them to Mikhail's room, which was more of a generic but very nice hotel room than anything, then toward the laboratories.

It was there that Fantasma met another Avenger.

"Bruce," Natasha said as they met the scientist in the hall directly outside the various labs, which could be seen through the glass walls all around them.

Bruce, dressed in a lab coat and warm looking hoodie, gave Natasha a smile, then nodded toward Fantasma and Mikhail. "Hey Nat. You giving the tour?"

"I did pull the short straw," she joked. "I believe I don't need to make any introductions?"

That was true. All the Avengers had watched the Winter Guard's introduction and read the files BRIDGE had immediately created on every member so that they could learn about their new 'counterparts'.

"It's good to meet you both," Bruce said, eyes slightly wider than normal as he smiled just a bit crookedly.

"It is good to meet you as well," Fantasma responded with a bit more enthusiasm. "I've heard good things about you."

"That all you've heard?" Bruce asked, giving Natasha a bit of Deja Vu.

Fantasma paused for a moment, biting her bottom lip before speaking. "It was all that mattered."

A chuckle from behind the Russians drew their attention. They turned to see Steve Rogers walk up to them with mirth in his eyes. "Now that sounds familiar."

Bruce and Nat shared a pleased grin as Steve walked up to hold a hand out to Mikhail. "Good to meet you. I'm-"

"Steve, everyone on Earth knows who you are," Nat interrupted. It was cute that Steve didn't realize how famous he was, because he honestly looked a bit befuddled.

"She is right," Mikhail shook Steve's hand with a bit of an awed look on his face. "I am a fan of your work, Captain."

"You are?" Fantasma, Nat, Bruce, and Steve said in surprised unison.

"Of course! I have his collectible cards!" Mikhail chuckled.

Well, Nat was getting some serious flashbacks now.

Fantasma gave the older man an odd look as she shook hands with Steve, who seemed both touched and slightly uncomfortable all at once.

"Well, I'm honored. And it's a pleasure to meet you both," Steve looked Fantasma in the eyes. "I'd also like to welcome you to the Avengers. While it might take some time for everyone to get used to the idea, I want you to know we're at your disposal. If you need anything we'll all pitch in. All we ask is that you fight alongside us honorably."

Fantasma straightened up, her face firming with determination. "Do not worry. I will comport myself as a valued member of your team."

Steve looked down at her a moment longer. He towered over the shorter girl, looking almost gigantic in front of her. Despite that, Fantasma continued to glare up at him with pride, not shifting her stance at all. Steve seemed to note this. He nodded firmly. "Great. Good to have you on the team."

"Same here," Bruce chuckled. "Well, half, anyway. The Other Guy might feel different down the road, but I'll keep him as calm as I can," he joked.

Nobody seemed to know how to take that. Bruce's amusement faded at the awkward silence and he coughed awkwardly. "Well uh, I got to get back to work. It was uh, nice meeting you all."

He turned and walked into his lab as fast as he could, Nat smiling at him. Bruce being able to joke about the Hulk was good, even if he wasn't a natural comedian.

"Anyways, let me show you to the-" Nat stopped when a loud clanking sound drew nearer. They all turned to look.

Jarvis and X, both in their android forms, slowly approached them. Jarvis was still dressed in a suit, looking very dapper, while X was wearing a BRIDGE t-shirt and some blue jeans.

"Mornin," X said politely, passing the group as they watched.

"Morning X, morning Jarvis," Natasha responded calmly.

Jarvis's eyes turned off and on in a simulation of a blink. "Good morning. Apologies for the briefness of our greeting, but we must attend to our duties. Mr. Uriokovitch, Mrs. Fantasma, welcome to the United States," with that, Jarvis continued on, leaving Fantasma and Mikhail staring after X and Jarvis.

"...Are they in suits?" Fantasma asked.

"I don't believe they are," Mikhail looked over at Natasha.

"No, they're androids," Natasha said easily. "They built themselves bodies so they could help the team. Don't worry, they're officially employees and quite friendly."

Mikhail and Fantasma didn't seem to know what to think of that, while Steve rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably.

Natasha hid her own feelings on the subject. She knew Tony had some countermeasures on the back burner just in case some non-friendly AI showed up, and she'd long since made him promise to share. She spun on her heel and started walking. "Come on. Let me show you the recreation area."

After showing them around for the next few minutes, Mikhail and Nat finally got a chance to speak in private. Or at least as private as things could be in the Avengers Tower. While Natasha liked Mikhail all right, he was still technically a superhuman capable of turning into a massive bear that worked for a government that had pulled a rather duplicitous stunt recently. Hard to have complete trust without having the naivety of a child.

So they stood in a large and empty room made of black material with computer systems connected to X and Jarvis' network, one set up to bring out automatic turrets in case brown fur started to fly.

"I was not lying earlier. You look good, Natasha. Happy," Mikhail said fondly in Russian.

Natasha eyed him. She wasn't exactly the cuddly type, so having Mikhail looking down at her like an uncle proud of his favorite niece was an odd experience. She didn't like it much. Considering what they had gone through together, she was willing to let it go.

"Thank you, Mikhail," she said magnanimously, using her home language as well.

He seemed to realize she wasn't feeling it and changed tactics. "So… have you taken any other students?"

"Does that matter?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

To her surprise, he frowned. "...It might. The Red Room may be better off left in the past."

"I'm not using their methods," Natasha scowled. "Beyond the morality of it, it's also damn wasteful."

"Natasha, I know that," Mikhail crossed his arms. "The problem isn't you training them. I am not the only one who recognizes how Red Room recruits look in a fight. Dial has little to nothing of the instincts of a true killer and I still recognized it."

She rolled her eyes. "You recognized it because you've seen it up close. He uses more boxing than anything else."

To her displeasure. He was willing to learn everything else but he never seemed to absorb the more athletic moves that could have helped him in combat. Then again, she may have been biased in that regard.

"And the other students?"

Natasha thought of Ruby. The former HYDRA student was coming along very well, absorbing every lesson she was taught with impressive speed. It wasn't as though she hadn't shared a few of her skills with SHIELD operatives. But Ruby and Dial were the only ones she'd put real work into, and Ruby was the one who took to her lessons.

"Mikhail… what are you so worried about?" Natasha asked at last.

"I'm not sure… there have been some-" he cut himself off, worry creasing his brow. "Let me think on this for now. I don't want to overly worry you."

Mikhail turned around.

"Mikhail," Natasha snapped.

He stopped immediately. "...Not today, Natasha. Today, my Fantasma is joining you. This is a good day. We have time for worries later."

He left her with that.

Natasha crossed her arms and turned to look at the wall behind her. The Red Room… That place was never going to loosen its grip of her, was it?

She walked out of the room a few moments later, walking aimlessly toward the labs. As she passed, Bruce popped his head out. "Hey, Nat? Have you seen Jen?"

"..." Natasha felt a mischievous smile grow on her face. "Oh, yeah. She might still be busy. You want to see her?"

Bruce nodded, sighing in relief. "Yes, thank you. I just wanted to ask her about her dad coming over soon."

Her smile widened a bit more. "Well, let me lead you to her!"

What do you know? Looked like the day was going to end on a high note!

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ Natasha... you're mean.

Well, Dial, dating a superhero has its risks mate. Good thing you've improved your cardio. Still... worth it.

Anyway, hope you guys liked this chapter! It was fun to write! Let me know what you think, and please update the TVTropes page, because seeing it grow is so damn cool.

Oh, and please consider supporting me on Pat re on! I've been posting new chapters ahead of time on there, as well as supplemental materials and polls, and thanks to my Patrons I managed to get out of a real tight spot ahead of time!

So yeah, hope you guys have a good day!


	80. Chapter 80

_Author's Note: This chapter was released on my P at re on on July 7th!_

* * *

 _May 14, 2014_

Yesterday had been exciting. First, because… Jen. Just, Jen. Holy damn, Jen was amazing.

Second, because Bruce walked in on me and her making out. That was bad enough. But Jen had also ripped my shirt off and had pulled me down on top of her as she lay back on the floor… Not a good look.

Did you know an angry Bruce is fast as hell? Not an angry Hulk, an angry _Bruce_. He'd rushed after me through the halls for a full three minutes yelling at me.

That was all sorts of stressful.

* * *

 _Yesterday_

"Bruce, come on man!" I shouted as I leaped over a table in the recreation room. My shirt had been ripped off, so I was running around topless while I dodged at random.

"You were making out with my cousin!" Bruce tossed a random potted plant, one that had to weigh at least 10 pounds, at my head. I ducked it, letting it explode on the floor behind me.

"Dude, you really think I kissed her without permission?!" I yelped the last part because I had to sidestep a sudden plate that came at me with what felt like super-speed.

"You were on top of her!"

Bruce grabbed some kind of steel sculpture off a table. I booked it toward the door we'd entered through. He threw it at me.

A feminine green hand snatched the sculpture out of the air before I could get brained. Jen had entered the room. Her hair was still mussed up and her shirt was still off, leaving her in just a bra. She looked amused and angry all at once. Amangry? Anused?

"...Brucey," Jen took the sculpture in her hands. As Bruce and I watched, she began to squeeze. "I think we should have a talk," under the immense pressure, the sculpture began to compress. It was fascinating. Seriously, look up a video of metal under a hydraulic press sometime. The steel structure basically gave up without a sound and started to fold in an almost artistic way, slowly compressing, her fingers leaving small divots in the metal.

"I love you, Bruce, and I love that you're so protective of me," with a couple of twists, she crunched the thing into a ball, then tossed it behind her. "But I was dating people even _before_ I got the superpowers. I took down a mob boss! You have no right to get mad at any of my dates."

"I know, but-" Bruce began to say.

"Bruce," Jen stopped him. Then she gestured at me. "You realize he isn't exactly a 'bad boy'."

They both looked at me. I tried to channel as much nerd energy as possible and waved hesitantly.

"Plus, you aren't even the slightest bit green," Jen pointed out.

"Only cause the Other Guy keeps giggling," Bruce grumbled. Then he sighed. "Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry Jen, I just…" he trailed off and walked up to me. I kept still as he placed a hand gently on my shoulder. I sighed in relief when he didn't go green and turn my shoulder to dust. I mean, I knew he wouldn't, but it was still nerve-wracking after Bruce "Smash" Banner had chased me through the tower. "Sorry… Ah, damn it!"

Jen and I blinked in surprise. "What, what happened now?" I asked.

Bruce looked up towards where I knew one of the tower cameras were hidden. "Tony absolutely has footage of what just happened."

We all stared at each other. Jen and I were still shirtless, Bruce had just chased me through the halls, and Tony was the world's best at editing footage to be as embarrassing as possible _without_ actual embarrassing things in it already.

"Jarvis, X!" I shouted, running for the door.

"Mr. Stark is attempting to save the footage and post it to Facebook," X responded over the speakers.

"He has added Korean pop as background music. I believe he's also 'cackling'," Jarvis added helpfully.

"TONY!" Bruce roared, Jen laughing behind us as we ran for Tony's office.

* * *

 _Present_

Yeah, we were too late to stop him from posting it. Thankfully we kept him from adding anything other than the music, and X and Jarvis deleted everything after.

I still don't know how in the hell Tony managed to post it before two AI managed to stop him but I guess he was just that damn good. Dick. I'm gonna use Jury Rigg to get even later.

Still… Worth it. Worth it, even for all the pranks in the world.

Anyways, today I'd flown out in my Astrodactyl form to meet with Fitz in the base Tony had made into our new Research and Development center. We'd been working together on and off with Tony and Shuri on a bunch of different stuff. Simmons worked there as well, but I didn't work with her as often since Jury Rigg and Upgrade, my current 'genius' forms, were more specialized toward technology.

I walked into Fitz's 'Idea Room'. And yes, that was the official title of the room. Fitz was messing with a hologram that took up most of the space in the center. Like a lot of the rooms, it was set up to project the interactive holograms Tony made use of. I had gained a lot of familiarity with it as well.

Fitz was currently working with a dark blue life-sized car, one of the standard ones SHIELD used. You know, the evil black SUV's all governments used. He was digging around the engine with the hood tossed aside so it was floating about a foot off the floor.

"Hey dude," I said as he was working on the engine. "What you working on?"

"Hmm?" Fitz looked up at me, blinking owlishly. "Oh, hello Mahmoud! ...Were we supposed to meet?"

I grinned. "Yeah, we were. You playing absent-minded professor again, dude?"

He scowled, though I didn't feel any real heat behind it. "No, _dude_. I just… got distracted by science."

"You know that's exactly what an absent-minded-"

"Yes, yes, I know," he sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his right hand while waving at the holographic car with his left. "I've just been working on this since we got back. I was repairing Lola, and I got to thinking about the MDX and Fury's SUV, and the Catom tech."

I looked over the hologram. It looked like a car. I had been trying to learn as much as I could from the geniuses around me, so I could at least figure out when something was odd. Okay. SUV, like Fury's. Yeah, I could see the parts connected to the flight system from the engine. I imagine it had the turret as well. "So you want to make a car?"

"Sort of," he scratched the back of his neck. "The standard model MDX's have been fitted with flight systems based on the same ones from Lola's era of technology, but they aren't a replacement for a true combat vehicle. I was thinking of what I could do to change that. Simmons and I have been working on a new type of fighter jet, and I figured this could be a good prototype before we started on that."

"So you're making…" I said as gently as I could. I liked Fitz. Fitz was insanely cool in my opinion. But he also went on tangents that only Simmons could track, so you had to bring him back to earth every once in a while.

"A transforming car," he said, as though that wasn't an awesome pair of words when put side-by-side. "One that can change to fit a different role whenever we want."

"Doesn't Lola technically do that?" I asked while 'opening' the holographic cars door to poke at the center console, raising up the turret that rested between the driver and passenger seat.

"She can, but she isn't designed for prolonged combat," Fitz explained as he watched me turn the turret gun to point at a nearby wall. "I wanted to make something that could."

"That would be pretty awesome, to be honest," I noted. "You want some help?"

"A little," Fitz said with a shrug. "Not for now, but I'll need it when I have to do some redesigns. It's more planning stages… I'm hoping to gift it to Coulson. The first one, I mean. Since I had to transfer," he said slowly.

Oh right. Fitz and Simmons had left Coulson's team recently. Which… I didn't have super-strong feelings on, other than knowing Fitz-Simmons seemed okay with it.

"Well hell, if it's for Coulson, I'm down. I like Coulson. Even if I sometimes forget he has a first name."

Fitz chuckled.

"Maybe we should redesign that Russian plane, too, make up for the Bus getting tossed across the Russian countryside. Seriously dude, half the stuff on the plane ended up in the trees. I'm pretty sure most of it was-"

"You know, you don't have to," he stopped me, holding a finger up while closing his eyes.

"Just… please stop."

"Sorry."

"It hurts too much."

"You uh… want to talk about it?"

"No, I'll just," he took a deep and shuddering breath. "I'll work through it."

"So, then we'll redesign the plane?"

He nodded. I could almost see that big brain sparking to life. "Yes, I think… well, besides the various amenities, there are upgrades I could do for the engines, the security system, maybe add in some weapons. If we use the prototypes we've been making for your spaceship? Would that be okay?"

"For the Defiant?" I thought about that. While we were still a few weeks from actually building my spaceship, we'd already started on some of the beginning stages.

Shuri had been a big part of that. I'm pretty sure it was a big hit to Tony's ego to see that Wakanda had made propulsion systems for aircraft more advanced than he'd even thought of decades before. If so, it had been quickly buried under sheer scientific curiosity followed by coming with improvements to the Wakandan design's efficiency that made Shuri and Fitz's jaws drop.

Anyway, the point was that we had some devices ready to go already. Prototype big guns, something that could turn base ingredients into different foods, and an EMP shielded battery backup, among our attempts to make an alloy of Vibranium and other materials.

"Nothing Wakandan based," I said slowly as I thought. "But the Jury-Rigged tech is fair game. Probably better to ask Tony and Shuri about the rest."

"Fair enough," Fitz nodded so fast his head became a blur, then stopped. "This should work unless we have to replace the plane again."

"Eh, bridge to cross later," I joked.

He nodded again, looking more cheery. Then he seemed to realize something. "Oh, by the way! I have to introduce you to two of our new coworkers!"

He moved toward the door. I followed curiously. "New coworkers?"

"Yes!" my Scottish friend said brightly. "They'll be replacing Simmons and me on the Bus. They're brilliant! Absolute genius! Honestly, if BRIDGE wasn't around, I don't know where they'd be working, but I'm glad they're here."

"You sure have a high opinion of them," I noted. I tried to think of Marvel scientists. I drew a blank on any that weren't supervillains or already known to me besides Reed Richards or Sue Storm… wait, why hadn't I looked those two up-

"They deserve it," he said, interrupting my chain of thought. I put a pin in it. "Here, they've been setting up a lab while we were in Russia."

We entered the room. Immediately I was reminded of Simmons and Fitz's workspaces. Half-Engineering parts everywhere, half-biological formulas and organic material held in tubes inside fridges along the back wall.

Inside, an older man wearing glasses was arguing with someone digging in a section in the back.

"Dr. Kusuma, you really must be more logical than this," he said in a very sophisticated tone. "We are sharing our work now, so-"

"Buzz off," a feminine voice said.

He sputtered in shock at the rude comment. The man was pudgy, wearing a lab coat over a warm looking wool sweater and khakis. He had thick brown hair and when he looked over at us his eyes were-oh shit, it was Alfred Molina.

Who had played a character in the Raimi Spider-Man movies… as the villain. The best villain, some would say, out of all the Trilogy.

"Dr. Octavius!" Fitz said excitedly, confirming my suspicions.

"Ah, Dr. Fitz!" Otto turned around to face us completely, giving me a curious look before smiling warmly. "It is good to see you. Who is this young man?"

I kept my face as neutral as I could when Fitz turned to look at me, trying to hide my internal screaming fit.

Come on, come on, think logically, Mahmoud. Otto usually turns evil. Doesn't mean he has just yet. In fact, he's usually an okay guy before something happens to mess with his brain. Mostly. I had to keep my cool. If I went Diamondhead and punched him through a wall just to stop something that might not happen, all sorts of bad would follow. Damn it, why'd I forget to look him up?! Now I had to check in on every other Spidey villain, just to make sure a 12-year-old Peter wouldn't have to fight them. Oh, and check in on Anna Maria Marconi, aka one of the newest 'best' girls of the Marvel Universe.

"This is Mahmoud Schahed," Fitz introduced me with a wide grin. "Mahmoud, this is Doctor Octavius!"

"Yes/Yeah, I've heard of him," Doctor Octavius and I said at the same time as we reached to politely shake hands. We gave each other surprised looks and spoke again in unison. "You have?"

Thankfully I'd gotten used to people being confused when I recognized them by name. "Well, of course, I have, you're one of the world's most well-known scientists. You're an absolute legend."

"That's what I said!" Fitz sounded almost giddy.

"O-Oh. Well, thank you so much. I'm n-not sure what to say," it was really weird seeing Alfred Molina's face, one I had seen a million times as a little kid, give me and Fitz a warm smile, seemingly honest to god touched. Spider-Man 2 was one of my favorite movies. This Otto in front of me reminded me of the one at the beginning of the movie. You know, before he lost his wife and the robot tentacles started talking to him. Yay, more things on my plate to manage.

"And I suppose you've made a name for yourself as well!" Otto (I didn't have the heart to think of him as 'Doc Ock') chuckled. "The superhero Dial. I must say, that little device of yours caused quite a stir in the scientific community," he said with a gesture toward the Omnitrix.

I looked down at it. Oh right. I didn't have a secret identity… Maybe I should look into what exactly the rest of the world thought of Dial at some point.

Just then, the person in the other room spoke up. "Is that Fitz?"

"Yes, it is!" Otto yelled behind himself. Then he leaned forward. "Listen, she's not self-conscious about her appearance, but it is a shock if you aren't prepared for it."

"Just remember, you've seen stranger," Fitz hissed.

The woman in the other room stepped in.

I immediately felt a 'fuck' from the depths of my heart try to erupt from my throat.

She was short, wearing a lab coat over a pink tank-top and torn up jeans, a pair of flip-flops on her feet.

Also, her skin was green. I was used to that. She had scales, sharp claws on her fingers and toes, a fin on the top of her head instead of hair, and a tail trailing behind her. She gave me a look like I was going to scream. I was, but most likely not for the reasons she thought.

"Hi," I waved with a sigh. "I'm Mahmoud. You?"

She seemed surprised at my underreaction. "Uh, hi. Melati Kusuma."

AKA, Komodo in the comics.

"Nice to meet you," I said with no real emotion behind it.

"Actually, we already met," she walked up to join us, the steps giving me time to regain my glowingly positive attitude. "I was at the Graveyard."

"Really?" I asked blinking. Then I looked down at the Omnitrix. Oh no. The Omnitrix had ended up 'fixing' everyone in the Graveyard. Which had worked out great for most, but what if she'd-

"Oh, no," Komodo seemed to realize where my train of thought was going. "I actually did this to myself afterward."

"I, really?" I cocked my head to the side. "Well, at least you look cool."

She seemed to positively glow at that.

"Cool?" Otto scoffed. "More 'irresponsible'."

Melati scowled. "Oh please, I knew the risks, and I knew I'd still get what I wanted."

"You took a chance on unnecessary mutations when a year or so of research-" Otto began to say.

"Yeah, because another year without legs vs a life with scales is such a tough choice," she scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"And what if-"

"I can't believe you-"

They suddenly began to argue at high speed, surprising the hell out of me. "Uh…"

"The research that you did has promise, but not if you take all these risks!"

"Oh what about you, mister 'plug-robots-into-your-brain'!?"

"Cybernetic research has made incredible strides!" Otto argued.

"Nobody wants robot arms!"

"They're even better than the real thing!"

For some weird reason though… Otto still seemed warm. I don't know, maybe it was the little glimmer in his eye, but I got the sense he liked Melati. There was a fondness in the arguing if that made sense?

Still, as Fitz and I looked between them like spectators at a tennis match, I resolved to add them to the **list**.

The **_list_** was too damn long at this point.

Also, gonna need to look into Peter Parker again, just to make sure the kid was all right. Starting to feel creepy about it...

* * *

 ** _Clint Barton/Hawkeye_**

It had been a while since the Avengers had a meeting on their own. No SHIELD/BRIDGE members, no big group of newbies, no bad guys. Just them.

Well, and Sam and Rhodey, but Sam lead one of the teams and Rhodey probably should have been an Avenger from the start, so they didn't count. Bucky would have come as well but he was currently training with Ruby on Natasha and Steve's behalf.

Clint leaned against a wall in the back of the room. They were all inside the rec floor, the same place he'd fought a food fight in oh so long ago. Steve sat at the head of a round table with the Avengers logo embossed on it.

Clint wasn't sure _how_ Steve's spot was the head of a round table (wasn't the point of them being round that there _was_ no head of the table?) but it was. Starting from his left sat Natasha, Bruce, Thor, Rhodey, Tony, Sam, and right back to Steve.

"Clint, you sure you don't want to sit?" Steve asked politely.

"Nah, I'm good," Clint said. "I like a good view."

"Barton, I'm more than just a fresh piece of ass to stare at," Tony joked.

"Oh please, like your's is the ass I'd be staring at," Clint chuckled.

Tony blinked. "Wait, whose would…"

Clint looked at Steve. So did everyone else.

Steve coughed uncomfortably, Natasha and Sam grinning at him. "Okay. We have work to do guys."

"Right, enough about Cap's glutes," Tony said, sounding just slightly offended.

Captain America rolled his eyes. "Okay. Let's discuss what's been happening for the past few months."

Everyone hesitated. Clint hid a smile. Yeah, there had been… a lot. Seriously, a stupidly huge amount. Clint had a lot of trouble keeping things in perspective these days. SHIELD becoming BRIDGE, HYDRA, Rio, Graveyard survivors, Winter Guard… Really hard to be the guy with the bow and arrow. Used to be that being effective with a bow and arrow in a world of modern weapons was all he needed to feel special. Now he was getting jokes online about being the 'useless Avenger'.

Real easy comment to make from behind a screen.

"...Let's start with the most recent one," Steve said at last.

"Ugh," Tony and Thor said in unison.

"Yes, I know your opinions on the Winter Guard," Steve said with the patience of a saint.

"That Crimson Dynamo is a hack," Tony said.

"And Chernobog is a raging psychopath that once raised a wolf specifically so that it would only eat the eyeballs of depressed widowers," Thor added.

Clint, personally, had to hold back a sigh at that. Thor was bad enough with all his claims of being a god and being over a thousand years old. There was the fight against the aliens a little after that and the forming of the Avengers, finding out from Cap about HYDRA infiltrating SHIELD and a kid who could turn into aliens. Then, in Rio, Clint had ended up shooting arrows into literal demonic monsters, knights from 1600's Germany, and a troll. And now, they had someone claiming to be a Russian witch switching from a team that had a 'dark god' on it.

Yeah, he was feeling way in over his head. Hard to feel useful as an Avenger with all the aliens and superpowers running around, at least not without seriously upgrading the Hawkeye armor and gear.

While he mused on this, Steve was talking. "-so we now know that Russia is getting themselves ready for the eventuality they may need to kill us. Which means-"

"That I start figuring out how to hack the hack's armor so that I can make her hit herself over and over again," Tony said.

"That I raise an army of warriors and kill the Dark Lord Chernobog as his lands burn and his armies scream in pain," Thor said.

Steve sighed.

"It means we should take in as much information as we can and prepare," Clint said helpfully.

"Thanks, Clint," Steve said. The team leader looked around. "Now, I'm hopeful that it won't be necessary, but I can't ignore the idea that other governments might be making their own countermeasures. I'd rather focus on the real bad guys. But we can't leave the idea that we aren't just dealing with HYDRA. World governments are preparing counters for us. What do we do about that?"

"..." Rhodey rubbed his eyes, looking like he was having a moment of crisis. "Are we seriously worried about the possibility of our own governments coming after us?"

"Are you not?" Natasha said calmly. "I hate to break it to you but governments killing their own people happens all the time."

Rhodey opened his mouth to say something, maybe a rebuttal. Then his mouth snapped closed. He let out a little sad sigh and closed his eyes. "I'm not doubting the idea. I'm not naive. I'm just saying that I'd rather hope that, as long as we keep staying on the straight and narrow, as long as we focus on the mission, the smart ones will see that we aren't something to be afraid of."

"We aren't under the control of any nation," Tony said. "That's going to be enough for some people. I mean, I'm as American as anyone who isn't currently wearing the flag," Steve smiled at that. "But I know a few senators who don't like the fact that I didn't put every soldier in a suit the second I made the Iron Man armor," Tony spoke fast, as though he was trying to get ahead of anyone. "Now granted, I love the idea of good soldiers getting armored up. But more suits out in the world means more assholes who can get them or reverse engineer them."

"You don't have to justify it to us, Tony," Rhodey said in the voice of a man who had heard an argument multiple times. "In the end, you guys are right. We need to prepare for the eventuality we might end up fighting… I mean, what do we even call them? Government heroes? Sponsored heroes?"

"Well, if all goes well, magic girl is going to stick around," Tony said. "By the way, is she for real Thor? You said Wanda wasn't really magic, right?"

Thor frowned thoughtfully. "...Maybe. I would have to speak with her directly, but the footage I have seen of the lass does resemble spells I once saw my… my mother practice. I can try and contact my father again, maybe see if this is really magic or not."

"Well, great, gives me time to prove it for myself," Tony said. "Ask if I can run some tests on her powers, see what makes them tick."

"If you wanted to do that, you shouldn't have started off with such a bad first impression," Natasha noted.

Clint smirked. "So you did the Harry Potter thing?"

"Yeah, of _course_ I did," Tony rolled his eyes. "She's a magical witch, I'd have to be insane _not_ to do the joke."

"What is… Harry Potter?" Thor asked curiously.

Tony's eyes lit up. But before he could say anything, Steve interrupted. "As long as we have some knowledge on this, I'm happy. I do remember some old legends when I was in the war. Maybe worth looking into," he said with some disquiet in his voice. "We also have to talk about team make-ups. I think we should be ready for smaller groups."

Sam leaned forward, drawing the attention of the others. "I've been speaking with Maria about it," Clint hid another smile at the familiar way he said Maria Hill's name. "We both agree that making smaller team units to deal with more threats is a good idea. We don't want to spread ourselves too thin, of course, but it makes sense to cover as much ground as we can. Plus, some of us can fulfill multiple roles, and we can all start working with BRIDGE guys to fill in any gaps."

"Is that really a good idea?" Rhodey asked. "I mean, we were just talking about people gunning for us, should we be splitting up like a bunch of morons in a horror movie? Because it usually doesn't end well for you and me, Sam."

Sam chuckled but quickly became serious again. "There are a lot more bad guys than there are heroes right now. We have quality, sure, but we need to start covering more ground. Besides, we can't start grouping up just because we're scared. After all, we're saving people. That's the real goal we have to focus on."

Rhodey nodded slowly. "...Then we have to plan it out. Make sure we can account for everything. What sort of teams were you thinking?"

"Dial once told me, 'One Riot, One Avenger'," Sam said. "Said he heard it somewhere. I'm not saying we do anything like that since I'm not _that_ confident. But groups of three to five would be good."

"As long as I don't get teamed up with a newbie," Tony said with a shrug. "What about X? He says he wants in on the Avengers."

Steve crossed his arms thoughtfully. "I personally don't mind the idea. X has always acted in our best interests. He's a good person."

"For someone born out of the mind of a Nazi and an alien mad-engineer," Tony said wryly.

"You don't want him on the team?" Natasha asked.

"I do," Tony sighed. "But you know we get enough flack for having Point Blank on the team."

Thor frowned. "Truly?"

"You didn't notice that Norse religion has been on the rise since you showed up?" Clint asked.

"I did not," Thor frowned, looking as though he didn't know what to think of that.

Meanwhile, Steve rested back in his seat. "We have something else. Last night, in Hell's Kitchen, there was an attack. A group of assailants attacked a van carrying Hammertech weaponry, stealing some of it and firing RPGs in the middle of the street, destroying several buildings and killing four people, injuring many others," Steve said seriously.

"What the fuck?" Clint asked, feeling shocked. "Some lunatic used RPG's in the middle of New York City?"

"Yes," Steve said grimly. "Apparently, BRIDGE is investigating, since two Enhanced were reported to have driven the gang off."

"Do they need our aid?" Thor asked. He had a dark look on his face.

"Not yet, but they'll let us know," Steve said. "There's also the question of the van. Hammertech says the weapons had been stolen weeks ago, and they have no idea how they got to New York."

"Figures that even after he got arrested, Justin Hammer is still causing problems," Tony said. "Hey, you still have that party popper he gave you?" he asked Rhodey.

Rhodey rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, that never gets old."

"We'll let BRIDGE take that on," Steve said. "But I was hoping we could keep an eye on New York. I know that we have a responsibility to the whole world, but New York is our headquarters. We can't let people get hurt here… four people are dead," his eyes were hard. Clint felt his own match Steve's. "I want to make sure whoever did it doesn't get away with it."

Bruce suddenly spoke. Clint realized he'd been quiet the whole time. Not surprising, since Bruce wasn't the sort to just interrupt a meeting, but it was noticeable. "I also wanted to talk about something. Thor, you said you might have to go back home soon?"

They all looked over at Thor, who nodded. "Yes. My father will want to hear about all the things that have happened on Midgard. Ulik's return and disappearance are worrying, as is Chernobog joining a Midgardian team. I also wish to take Dial. I've been speaking with Heimdall. He worries about the implications of Sandrass."

"Dial's Asgardian form?" Natasha asked.

"Indeed," Thor said gravely. "Heimdall is worried about it. And that worries me."

"Wait, wait, wait," Bruce said, waving his hands with each 'wait'. "What do you mean? Isn't it just a new alien form? Why would it be a problem? I mean, you didn't seem to mind when he got Ulik's DNA."

"Ulik is not a god," Thor looked around. "I try not to make a big deal about it. But I am thousands of years old. I have the power to destroy cities and raze continents, given enough time," his voice seemed to deepen. Clint felt his heart clench just a bit. "That sort of power, it doesn't simply 'appear'. It can't be replicated. Asgardians of my strength are few and far between, with Sif and the Warriors Three being among the only ones from my generation. And yet, this Omnitrix has made another. I must discover if that will cause problems down the road."

"Sam," Steve asked, as though every word Thor had just said wasn't testing his world view the way it was for Clint. "You okay with that?"

"Sure," Sam leaned back in his seat and rubbed his chin. "We do need to reach out to Asgard anyway. Maria has been talking about making treaties with other planets. Might as well start with the one we have the best relationship with."

"She wants to make treaties," Bruce said thoughtfully. "Well, that would be a good reason to bring an ambassador along. Thor?"

"I'm sure I can accommodate at least one person," Thor rubbed his chin. "I'll have to ask my father first. If he disagrees, then Dial will have to suffice as Earth's ambassador."

"That's a terrifying prospect," Clint mumbled to himself.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, I guess," Bruce sighed. "Oh, in the meantime, we got confirmation that the Graveyard survivors that are joining BRIDGE have been approved. They're starting training next week. A few have been interested in joining the Avengers."

"I saw," Steve smiled. "I'm more than willing to give them the chance. We should get some files and decide as a group?"

When no one seemed to mind the idea, Steve smiled a little wider. "Great! Anything else we should cover?"

Clint watched in silence as the next topic was brought up, thinking quietly to himself about how crazy his life had become.

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ Huh... Was someone important introduced in this chapter? Eh, maybe not.

Oh well! Let me know what you guys think and please update the TVTropes page and consider supporting me on Pa t re on where the chapter after this is currently up! Hope you all have a great day!


	81. Chapter 81

_Author's Note: This chapter was released on Pa tr eo n July 8th!_

Jen and I were dating now. So, as part of this new… thing, she and I were hanging out in my room. We probably should have been making out again, something I'd come to love doing. Maybe going out on a date. But at heart, we were nerds. So instead, we were talking about something a little less exciting. Well, for most people.

"Okay, so the way things have been looking, a lot of states are trying to pass bills attacking superhumans in one way or another," Jen passed me some files, which I opened up. She walked up to my kitchen drawers and pulled a pair of bowls out as I flipped through the papers. "I'm working with Matt to make sure people are informed about how to fight back against those laws. You know, letting everyone know their constitutional rights."

"How's that been going?" I asked, accepting a bowl from her.

"It's been a lot of research, to be honest," Jen sighed. "We have BRIDGE helping, but I'm trying to keep myself in the loop. Doesn't help that I've been getting a lot of weird clients since we went public."

I looked up at her. "Weird like you and me?"

"Weird like offers from guys wanting to buy locks of my hair," Jen poured some Captain America Patriot Flakes into a bowl. I could practically smell the sugar even three feet away. "And those are the tame ones."

"You should sell it," I said with a wide grin, putting down the files to grab milk from the fridge. "I mean, if they're offering enough, you could make some mad money off of it."

"Didn't you get mad when someone tried to buy the Omnitrix off of you?" Jen asked, watching as I poured milk for her.

"He offered a million for it. The Omnitrix is worth more than solar systems, and that's a cheap price. A lock of your hair has to be worth maybe half that."

"I can't tell if you're flirting with me, or insulting me," Jen said with a smirk.

"Can't I do both?" she took a milk-soaked flake of cereal from her bowl and tossed it at me. It bounced off my chest as I grinned. Then I scowled. "But seriously. If you want, I can track any creeps down, give you somewhere to punch?"

She smiled. "No, it's fine. I've dealt with these guys before."

"Before your powers?"

"...yeah," she started eating. Her hesitance drew my gaze.

I watched her. She was wearing a black tank top and a pair of black leather pants. Her skin was still that emerald color I'd gotten used to, her hair reaching down to the middle of her back. She was eating her cereal with unusual aggressiveness. Impulsively, I decided to push.

"Jen… how come you never try to change back?" she stopped eating. "I mean, ever since we met, you've always been-"

"Insanely gorgeous?" she teased. There was no real humor in it though.

"Hulked-out," I continued. She straightened up, staring at me with a neutral look in her eyes. "I mean, it's not like you always have to fight, but you've been-"

"Does it matter?" Jen cut me off. "I like being this way. Why should I have to change back?"

"I'm not saying you have to-"

"Then why even bring it up?" her eyes were getting greener. "Maybe this is the real me. Why shouldn't I be this way?"

"Jen, I just wanted to-"

"To what?" she glared at me. "You feeling a little emasculated? Maybe you want to reassure yourself by seeing me at my weakest?" her fingers had curled into fists, the sounds of her knuckles cracking sounding like gunshots.

I watched her fists clench up. I tried to think of what to do or say. My mind was racing as I stared at her. I'd known that bringing this up would piss her off. In the comics, when she was first trapped in She-Hulk form, her response had been delight. She loved being She-Hulk. And who could blame her? Having superpowers was… I felt that everyday. Going from a weak human form to being stronger, smarter, or more everything than any person could ever be.

But Jennifer was important to, right? Wasn't that important to a person, loving all the parts of yourself?

Instead of responding, I reached for my cereal and put a spoonful of cereal in my mouth. I chewed it, swallowed, then spoke. By the time I'd begun to talk, I felt like I regained a bit of composure. "Jen. What's wrong?"

She stared at me. Then she looked down at her hands, still clenched into fists. When she opened her fist, my marble counter now had two large cracks where she'd been pressing down.

"Think you can pay to fix that?" I asked idly.

"Shit," Jen winced. She traced a crack with her right index finger. "Mahmoud, I-"

"Jen, I like you, so I'm going to be honest here," I pushed my cereal aside. "If me asking why you haven't tried to turn into your human form is making you feel this way, that might not be the most healthy reaction. For the sake of my countertop at least."

She looked up at me smiling a little bit now. "I guess I really should talk to a therapist."

"Group counseling, remember," I said sadly. "I'm pretty sure we all have some problems."

"...I don't want to be weak again," Jen shook her head. "Everything is so easy now. It's not just the super strength, I mean-"

"You're more confident," I finished for her. "You can take on the world now. And thinking of going back to normal again, losing all that confidence," I walked around the counter to stand next to her. "I feel that way every time the Omnitrix starts to go red."

I tried to feel confident about what I was doing as I slowly reached out to stand behind her. I clutched her hands in my own. She squeezed gently on my fingers. "It's not perfect. But I do get feeling like you can finally do everything you ever wanted to, and knowing at any moment it could all go away."

Her hair was in my eyes. I leaned around it to look at her face. She looked thoughtful, which made me feel like maybe I was saying the right stuff. "But I like being me, nowadays. Being human is actually pretty good… I mean, you seem to like me well enough."

She smirked. "Nah, I'm just into you for your money and magic watch."

"And I'm only dating you for your law degree," I took the risk and tried hugging her close. She was warmer than normal humans were. I didn't mind that. "I mean, I'm a dangerous vigilante, who knows when I need a good lawyer to represent me?"

She chuckled. "Dangerous huh? Maybe I should hold off on letting my dad meet you. He's a cop after all," she turned around in my arms and smirked down at me. Her smirk faded a bit, her forehead dropping to meet mine as her eyes closed. "I don't want to change back. Not yet."

"Okay," we stood a moment longer. "I'm not great at this stuff, but I want you to know that I really like you as you are. I don't want you to think otherwise."

"You gigantic softie," she chuckled. "You know, we're supposed to be enjoying cereal."

"If you don't want to hug, you know you can tell me."

"Nah. I'm good."

That was a very good way to start off the morning. I left my room with her a little after.

"I'm going to wait for my dad, he should be here soon. He uh, probably saw me on the news a few times," Jen said as we strolled through the halls. I was proud to say I kept any giggling at the fact she was holding my hand entirely internal. Granted, it was a little awkward, since she was a foot taller than me, but still good.

"Is Bruce going too?" I asked.

"Of course. Been awhile since he got to see him," she frowned. "My dad kinda threatened to kick his dad's ass… While holding him in an armbar."

"Knowing Bruce's dad?" I thought of… David? No. Brian. Brian Banner. He wasn't the worst dad in comics. But he was still a monster. "I really should throw your dad a party," I said with a slow smile, satisfaction filling me at the thought of that weak-willed bully getting armbarred.

"If you do, invite Sammy and Lauren," Jen said. "They were sweet."

"I'll let him know you think so later," I joked.

"You're seeing him today?"

"Yeah, I'm hiring some of my old construction buddies for a job," I explained, the two of us turning a corner to come to a junction. One side would lead to the hanger bay, while the other headed to the recreation room. "I mean, first I have to check to make sure I'm not stepping on any legal toes. You know, the permits, the deed, all the boring law-" the lawyer I had just started getting close to gave me a look. "I mean, extremely exciting, law stuff."

"Nice save," she said with a smirk. "You need any help?"

"Nah, Tony is technically buying this on my behalf, even though my names on the paperwork, so he has a bunch of his guys overlooking the paperwork. So Pepper and I are gonna go out to the site, figure out what we need to do first. Should be fun."

She nodded. "All right. Just, don't end up fighting another monster without me, okay?"

"What does it say about our lives that I can actually see that happening?" I asked rhetorically.

Jen chuckled, leaning down to give me a kiss on the cheek. "It means you're still sane. Call me when you're done, okay?"

I nodded, a dopey grin on my face. Like I said. A damn good morning.

A while later, I was in a car being driven through New York. Since it was New York City, we were currently stuck in traffic, which gave my fellow passenger plenty of time to give me every detail of the paperwork I had to sign.

Every. Detail.

"Okay, so take a look at this," Pepper showed me another piece of paper. "This is a permit for construction. Well, it's more complex than that, but I figure you don't really want to get into it too much."

I blinked, feeling a bit offended. "I mean, I don't mind reading it…"

Pepper gave me an odd look. "Really? I'm not trying to insult your intelligence, but there is a lot of technical parts to these documents. If your worried about getting scammed-"

"Well, not really. I mean, I trust you. Plus, X is kind of awesome at reading paperwork if I need him too, and I have Matt, Foggy, and Jen if I need legal help."

Pepper smirked at that. "Well, at least you know how to use what you have," she leaned forward toward the driver. "Excuse me? How much longer until we get there?"

"Should be about fifteen minutes, ma'am," the non-descript man said.

She nodded in satisfaction. "Okay."

"Plenty of time to get to know each other," I said to Pepper. "I mean, since I made your Rescue Armor, we haven't really interacted much."

Pepper looked over at me, the thin redhead looking a bit surprised. "That's true, I suppose. But we never really have a reason to beyond business."

She had a point. Pepper and I weren't exactly the sorts to share interests. She'd always struck me as extremely business-orientated. Granted, she had a hell of a snarky attitude sometimes. But we weren't exactly able to resonate with each other.

"I mean, we might as well give it a shot?" I asked. "Like uh, what sort of things are you into? I'm a giant nerd, personally."

"Um, I like art?" she said hesitantly. "And some music," she seemed very unsure of herself, twiddling her fingers slightly. "I'm allergic to strawberries."

"Sorry, am I making you uncomfortable?" I had to ask, because I felt like she was feeling awkward now.

"No, no, I just… I'm worried about a few things," she said slowly. "I mean, Tony was supposed to come along, but he said something about getting a bear drunk? And I'm not sure how serious he is about that."

I thought of Mikhail and decided not to tell Pepper anything.

"And I've also been looking into some of the laws on vigilante justice in New York," she said quickly. "Trying to see what rules there are against it. Lately some people have been accusing you, Tony, Jen, any of the Avengers who have been stopping crime on the street, of breaking the law. Since I've gone with you guys a couple of times, I might be an accomplice, and I need to figure out what that means!" the last was said in a near panicky tone. "So far, it looks like it's just a few neigh-sayers, especially since Rio boosting the superhuman communities reputation, but a lot of people have been turning more and more anti-enhanced. People are saying that having superhumans arrest people without being official law enforcement is-"

"Wait," I frowned. "You think I might be arrested? Didn't BRIDGE-"

"Any deal BRIDGE made doesn't cover activities outside of official operations," Pepper cut me off.

I thought about that. People trying to arrest me for stopping muggers and robbers in New York.

There was a moment in the movie the 'Dark Knight' where Batman ends up meeting some vigilantes who'd mimicked his style. He arrested them, and one of them asked what the difference was between Batman and him.

I was kinda in the same boat. Why should I be allowed to run around fighting crime without a badge while others couldn't? I had the advantage of the Omnitrix, but people wouldn't care about that. In the end, it was one tiny thing that a lot of people would hate me for.

Come to think of it, I hadn't really made any sort of real social media account when I got dropped into this universe. Maybe I should look into that, see if it could help me find out what people hated me for this week?

Pepper was still speaking, covering the numerous things that could affect a vigilante. I sighed. "Mrs. Potts, I don't think we'll have to worry about this whole thing."

She stopped mid-sentence, giving me an irritated look. "Mahmoud, I'm just trying to keep us all out of prison."

"We'll be fine," I said with a smile. "I'm not trying to be… what's the word?"

"Lackadaisical?"

"Gesundheit."

The look she gave me was positively scathing.

"But yeah, that. I'm just saying, I can't think of anything people legit can go after us for. We haven't been beating up anyone who doesn't deserve it, I always made sure to repair any damage I did, and no one innocent has been hurt. From here on out, we'll do things above board, but we should be fine."

"Thank you," she said sarcastically. "But I'm going to keep preparing for the day hopes and dreams aren't enough to protect us from a lawsuit."

Traffic cleared up about then, letting the driver move forward. We sat in silence for a bit.

"...I feel like you're worried about something else."

Pepper was quiet for a moment longer. Finally, she sighed and looked over at me, meeting my eyes. "I've been thinking about going on patrol too. About… helping people. Not a lot, but it won't leave me alone."

"Dude, that's awesome!" I said excitedly.

"Not if I can't do it legally," she huffed. "I might have to join BRIDGE in some capacity, or the Avengers," I held in a squeal. "But I'm not sure I want to do that. Not to just go around firing ICER's into muggers. It seems like such a petty reason. I still want to help people. Seeing you and Tony do it made me realise how much good I can do. I mean, I've seen our charities and fundraisers do a lot of large scale assistance. And it's great! But there's also the help I can give on the small scale. Keeping people safe in person."

"...Then do it," I said, keeping my eyes on hers. "It's not petty to find some niche in BRIDGE or the Avengers so you can help with small-time crime. It's just you taking the easiest avenue so you can do the most amount of work. I mean, It's not like we're going to get offended or something if you join up just so that you can legally fight crime in New York."

I kept the fact that I didn't actually know the legal rules to what I could and couldn't do as an Avenger to myself. If I knew Pepper, she was going to study the hell out of them anyway.

She did look thoughtful at least. I decided to clarify things further. "Here's the only thing I need to explain," she turned to look at me. "Helping people is… well, it's awesome. But it can also suck. You'll end up seeing things that will change you. Meeting monsters. Not the fun kind. People that are willing to do horrific things."

Pepper didn't speak, but she also didn't stop watching me.

"When I was first patrolling… I ended up running into some things that I didn't want to. One of which was… I mean, a lot of times, muggers prefer not to get in a fight. They just want the money, then they run for it. Usually, when I stopped guys like that, it was an afterthought. Same with robberies of stores. But there were two times where someone was planning to-" I choked on my words. Swallowed.

"Mahmoud, if you don't want to-" Pepper began to say.

"No, this uh… this is important," I swallowed again. "Once, I found some homophobic frat boys trying to mess with two gay men. I got there a little after the fight started. I managed to protect them. The second time-" I swallowed again. After a shaky breath, I forced "I uh, was in Wildmutt form. I was running past one of the big motels. And I heard a woman screaming. The walls must have been soundproofed or something, because I think I was the only one who heard her. When I came into the room, well, when I smashed my way in… Later she said they'd been at it for hours. I lost myself. All three of the men ended up in the hospital. The woman I saved is doing fine now. She… she handled it better than I did. I never really told anyone about this," I said the last quickly. "But if you get into this… Rio and it's monsters are the least of the issues you'll face. Regular people doing horrific things to each other. Those are the ones who've stuck with me."

"...Tony hasn't told you about it, but I've gone through a few things over the years," Pepper said. As she spoke, her eyes narrowed, her face firm. "I'm not saying I've seen anything as bad as what you saw or had to do. But ever since Tony first put on the suit, I've been right there with him… This feels like it would just be the next step."

The car stopped. "Ma'am, sir? We've arrived," the driver said.

"Thank you, James," Pepper said politely. Someone walked up to the car and opened the door on her side. I quickly opened mine before someone could do it for me. Didn't feel like getting pampered today.

Sammy was speaking with Happy when Pepper and I walked up. They were standing in my old courtyard. Well, it had really been just an empty lot, but I called it my courtyard when I lived there. The second we walked up, Happy and Sammy looked toward us.

"Hey, kid," Sammy grinned. He was wearing his 'uniform', a beat up old jean jacket with the sleeves ripped off over a white shirt. "You didn't tell me you knew Happy Hogan!"

"Wait, you know Happy?" I didn't even try to hide my surprise that Sammy was familiar with Happy. The bodyguard/chauffeur/forehead of security looked a little bashful.

"Yeah, he used to box years back!" Sammy said with a wide grin at Happy.

"Yeah, until I perfected losing," Happy said sarcastically. Still, he looked pretty pleased. "Those were good days. I'm actually surprised anyone remembers me."

"Well, you weren't exactly Ali or Foreman," Sammy shrugged. "But damn, you really could take a hit and give one back!" Sammy swung a playful punch at Happy, who took it on the shoulder with a grin.

Pepper was smiling as she shook her head. "You never talk about those days, Happy."

"They never really come up," Happy shrugged, then looked around. "Anyways, Sammy and I have some guys roaming around. This is where HYDRA threw the grenade at you, right?"

Sammy and Pepper looked at me in surprise as I nodded. "Yeah, right over here," I walked up to my former home, the others following. The destroyed remains of my door and the wall attached to it made me smile. Sammy sighed.

"Kid, if I'd known you were living like this-"

"I had the Omnitrix, Sammy, I was fine."

"You should have told me."

I decided to ignore him. Instead, I looked up at the warehouse that had once been home. "What are you thinking? Can we save it at all?"

"Oh, sure," Sammy shrugged. "I've got the guys looking at it. Johnny," the name of an architect we worked with a couple times. "Says that it's still a pretty solid building. Some remodeling, we can probably make something out of it. Especially with the new gear you gave us."

"The power loaders are here?" I asked with a grin.

"They're called exo-lifters," Pepper said with a sigh.

Sammy, Happy, and I looked at her.

"...I mean, I know that, but-" I began to say.

"It's a power loader!" Sammy finished. "Seriously, the guys are calling it the 'Ripley' already."

"Have you never seen Aliens?" Happy asked.

"Of course I have," Pepper scoffed. "But we can't call it a power loader because 20th Century Fox would sue us to oblivion. Or try to, at least."

Fair enough.

Sammy tapped on his wrist. "Hey. Any chance you can get us started by clearing? I kinda want to see your old place."

"Sure thing," I reached the Omnitrix and flipped through the menu for a bit.

"I mean, you don't need to use that," Happy said as I went through my options. "We can bring one of the-"

I pushed down the dial. In a flash of light, my skin turned red and thick enough to bounce bullets off of. My eyes split into four, and two arms erupted from my obliques. Just like that, I was Four Arms again.

"FOUR ARMS!"

Sure, might be basic to pick my go-to super strength alien for this, but he was still awesome and damn useful for this.

"Wish I could have done this back in the day," I said to myself as I stepped forward and grabbed a piece that had once been my wall. With a little toss, I sent it flying to the side. As I did, a heavy set of footsteps that weren't mine came around the other side of the building. Soon, a yellow robot came around to join us.

In truth, despite my joking around, the exo-armor was much smaller than the power loaders from Aliens. It was about eight feet tall, made of steel and pistons, with a large power unit on the back. Inside was someone I didn't recognize in tough jeans and a wool sweater. The armor moved with him. It was ponderously slow, but he was still able to walk up to us with relative ease. He stopped to stare at me. "Uh, boss?" he asked Sammy.

"Just start picking up rocks, Dan," Sammy said with a shrug. "Stop acting like you've never seen aliens in New York before."

"I'm from Jersey!"

"...well, we all have our weaknesses."

He gave Sammy a sour look. Apparently the insult was enough to make him feel like things weren't that weird or something, because he walked up to join me. "Uh, do you need-"

"You take that side," I said, lifting four rocks. "And we can dump the debris over here."

"And while he does that," Pepper said elegantly, ignoring the sight of a Tetramand and construction worker in a personal super-suit lifting hundreds of pounds of steel and stone over to a spot in the courtyard. "I have some final paperwork for you to sign," she held out a folder to Sammy, who took it with some trepidation. "We're making sure to offer you some substantial benefits for the job of course. I believe you've already agreed with the NDA?"

"Yeah, don't tell anyone anything or else I'll get shoved into a prison so deep I never see anything but the Abomination's ass."

Pepper blinked. "I… well, really, it would mostly be us suing you or anyone else who breaks it."

Sammy frowned. "That's a lot less exciting. Can I tell the guys the thing about the Abomination's ass? I like that line."

I walked past with another bunch of rocks, Dan in his armor coming by with some more. "Okay, right here."

"This is going to be a bitch to clean up," Dan mumbled, the sounds of rock crunching as I dropped it filling the air. The pile of concrete that had once been my home was pretty big at that point. Dan brought another block about nine cubic feet over and tossed it on the pile.

"Nah, I got that part too," I tapped the Omnitrix on my chest. Red skin turned to green gelatinous flesh in a flash of light.

"Goop!"

"...He's the incredible snot monster now?" Sammy asked.

"That's offensive," I said from my Anti-Grav unit. Then I raised a hand and sprayed out green acid over the concrete. The liquid melted through the stone, leaving it bubbling. I sprayed it again as it came down to the dirt.

"This is so weird," Dan said to himself.

"You get used to it," Happy told him.

"Really?"

"...Okay, that's just something I say, but honestly, everytime I get used to things, the goalposts move. Just roll with it as best as you can."

Dan didn't seem to like that answer. Once I finished melting down the concrete we'd lifted enough that I had room to put more down, I reached for the Omnitrix again.

"FOUR ARMS!"

I went back to work. Didn't have much time, but I could get as much done as I could. Plus, I did have a melted super-computer somewhere in the rubble. Useless to anyone, but I kinda wanted it for nostalgia's sake.

And hey! Work was finally being done on the new super awesome secret base!

Progress, baby!

"Mahmoud!" Pepper called as I pushed another few tons out of the way. "We'll be signing the rest of the paperwork!"

"I'll join you guys in a bit," I called back to her. Grabbing the remains of a stove in my bottom two hands, I tossed it toward the pile, then gripped a pillar of concrete wrapping around a steel girder.

"You gonna stay like that?" Sammy asked incredulously.

I chuckled. "Well, I do have four hands. Twice the paperwork!"

Nobody laughed.

"This is why I like Tony. Tony would have laughed," I tossed the pillar at the still bubbling pool of acid like a javelin so that it stabbed deep into the ground.

"That's not really an accomplishment," Pepper snarked.

After a quick run through all the official stuff we had to do, I helped Sammy and the old crew for a few hours of work, then joined them at a bar nearby.

"To Mahmoud!" Sammy cheered, holding a giant mug of beer in his right hand as he clutched me close. "For one hell of a job!"

"Hear hear!" the guys around us cheered. We were all sitting in a booth with a couple of guys having pulled over chairs. I hid my dopey smile in the non-alcoholic beer I'd gotten as everyone took a swig of their various poisons. Putting mine back down on the table, I grinned at the guys around me.

"So how've you idiots been?" I asked jokingly.

One of the guys, a dude named Marcus who'd been raised in Harlem, scoffed. "Well, not as good you, brotha. I'm amazed you still know how to work for a living after spending all your time with millionaires!"

I laughed. "Dude, I spend most of my time either getting my ass kicked, or kicking ass, my whole life is working for a living."

Sammy laughed. "You sure it counts when you can cheat with the aliens? Face it man, you're living large!"

"Hey, when some kind of super-troll is using your head to de-asphalt a road, then you can talk to me about living large," I snarked right back.

The guys laughed, Sammy ribbing me in the arms. As I was chuckling, I hid how uncomfortable I felt all of a sudden. Sammy was joking. Marcus was joking.

But a couple of the guys looked like they were a little sore at me. I remembered what Pepper had said, and my own thoughts on how the relationship between superhumans and regular people was getting shaky. Luckily I could think of a few things to help bridge (heh) the gap.

"So how'd it feel piloting the suits?" I asked carefully, looking at Lauren, a Chinese guy who'd helped Dan and me on one of the rooms.

The sour look on his face faded. "Oh man, felt awesome!" he started smiling. "Just looking at a giant ass rock and lifting it like it's nothing! Best I've felt in my life."

Dan nodded. "Hell yeah, the Ridley was awesome. And we get to keep them?"

"Well, yeah," I shrugged. "You guys always had my back when I needed it on sites, so this way I get to help you out too. So, Sammy's new company," I clasped his shoulder. "Is the first in the world to have exo-suits backing it up."

The guys I was less familiar with didn't quite soften, but overall the vibe toward me seemed to be a bit better. Luckily, even though I couldn't quite participate on the alcoholic side of things, I still knew the five words every hard working human in the world loved.

"Next rounds on me, boys!"

Every body immediately cheered, any bad feeling wiped away.

I got up to go pay for said drinks. Walking through the crowd of people in the bar, I was dodging around a very drunk biker when I bumped into someone, spilling his drink on his shirt. I winced. "Oh damn dude, I'm sorry."

"Ah, it's cool, man," the short Hispanic man I'd bumped into said cheerily. He looked up at me. For some reason he seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place him. "Oh damn!"

I realized that while I was trying to recognize him, he'd already recognized me. "Oh man, you're Dial, dude!"

"Uh, yeah! And you're…" I asked hesitantly, waiting for him to say a name I knew from Marvel comics. Why did he seem so familiar?

"Oh, I'm Luis man!"

"..." I had no idea who the hell he was. Was there a guy named Luis in the comics? Must have been my imagination.

"Well, let me get you another drink, man."

"Oh damn, thanks man!" He said cheerily. As I passed some cash to the bartender, he continued to talk fast. Like, really fast.

"Man, what are the chances I would meet you, a superhero, in the middle of a bar! Oh wait, are you casing the joint? Are there bad guys here?" I shook my head for a nano-second before he kept talking. "Well, besides me, cause I used to steal stuff," wha- "Don't worry though, I already spent some time in prison, paid off my debt to society! Oh, but my girl left me. And my mom died. And my dad got deported," wha- "But he left me his van, which is pretty tight!"

Dude, let me get a word in-

"Oh man, but it's so crazy meeting you! I remember when I first saw you on the news, and your were fighting next to the Avengers, and I was with my cousin Ignacio! Ignacio was like: "Yoh man, this is crazy, this dude can turn into anything, you know what I'm saying!" And you were on TV like: "Man, I'm an Avenger now and shit, and I'm taking down HYDRA!" Oh, thanks man!"

He stopped long enough for me to pass him a drink. "So uh, you sound pretty familiar with superheroes."

"Oh, well I dabble, cause when the Avengers came on there was this superdope documentary on superhumans in legend, and I wanted to compare it to some works I read about Howard Carter and his own theories on the gods of Egypt, though I find he's a bit of a hack."

Wait, when did we get to Howard Carter?

"Oh, that's not the point though!"

His eyes lit up. I leaned back. And just like that, he was off.

"But man, I love the history behind it! So, like, Captain America wanted to join World War 2, but all the guys recruiting were like: "Boy, you are way too skinny to help, get back to Brooklyn." So then your boy Steve was like: "Oh man, but I really want to fight alongside my boy Bucky and beat up those Nazi dickheads, how they gonna let that skinny dude Audie Murphy join when I have like two pounds on him but not me!?", and Doctor Erskine was like: "Bruh, come join me, I don't care how skinny you are, you seem like a chill dude, come with me and I'm gonna make you awesome!"

I was fairly sure none of them had said that exactly. I sat down on a stool in awe and continued to listen.

"And then he did, but then that punk HYDRA dude snuck in and was like: "I'm a racist asshole and I'm gonna kill him!" but when he did, Steve was already all sexy buff and he was like: "Oh, you messed up, I'm gonna take out all of the Nazi's!"

"So then Tony was like: "Oh, you want me to make weapons, then I'm about to make a bad, super-fly kinda weapon!" So he made a sweet ass suit and he blew them all away, then did it again when his super-evil former mentor tried cramp his style! And then he stood in front of a crowd and was like: "I'm Iron Man, bitches, you gotta deal with it!"

Note to self, never let Tony meet Luis.

"And then the Avengers are in New York, and a big ass snake comes down to attack them, and the Hulk goes: "Welcome to Earth!" like my boy Will Smithy, and punches them! And they all take out the aliens!"

Sammy, Dan, and I all took a sip of our drinks, watching in fascination.

"So then the Avengers are flying around, and Hawkeye keeps shooting them saying: "Yoh, you may have alien weapons, but I got bitchen arrows, and he blows up Loki, who goes: "Ah man! You ruined my pimpin helmet!" And the Hulk finds him and takes him with: BAM BAM BAM," he smacked the table with each hit. "You got nothing on me homie, I don't care if you're a god!"

"Thor was like: "Elf-man, you came to the wrong neighborhood!" and his fine-ass honey was teleporting his people around while they were flying, and that hammer, Mjolnir the legendary weapon formed by Brokkr and Sindri according to some accounts in Skáldskaparmál," he said as though that last word was easy to say. "Was like: "You ain't gonna mess with homie Thor, we're like family!" and Thor blasted that Elf dude in the face with a giant lightning storm like a boss while his crazy stupid fine girl was kicking ass with science!"

Note to self, never let Thor meet Luis.

"You're coming down out of the sky and you went: "Hey man, if you guys want to mess with Captain America, you gotta mess with me!" and you dropped a whole bling mountain on top of them!"

"How long has he been going that we managed to get to this part?" Sammy whispered to me.

"About ten minutes," I whispered back. When he gave me a startled look, I shrugged. "Dude, he covered a lot, very quickly."

"And then you mixed with a spaceship and were like: "Hey HYDRA, you move an inch, I'll put a spaceship up your butt, homie!""

Sammy and Dan looked at me in surprise. Before I could be indignant, Luis continued.

"Oh damn, and then there was Rio, and you and your homies were like-"

"So you were like: "Damn Fantasma, you a stupid crazy fine badass in that suit, and you should be an Avenger!" and she was like: "You know, I'm a Russian, but you a straight badass, so I'm gonna be an Avenger now too!" And now you're here!" Luis said at last, giving me a pleased smile. Then he started sipping at his drink, ignoring the crowd of people surrounding us, including the stunned bartender.

"...Yep. Here I am," I said hesitantly, blown away by the most incredible summary of both the Avengers and my own life I'd ever heard. A bit rambling, but daaaaayum.

"Yeah!" he grinned. The crowd around us slowly drifted off when they realized the story was over. "Man, I'm glad I came to New York City!"

"You're from out of town?" Sammy asked, grabbing my now empty non-alcoholic beer and replacing it with another one in my hand.

"Oh ya man, I'm from San Francisco!" Luis said cheerily. Then again, he said everything cheerily. "Yeah, I came out here to visit some family."

Michael Peña! Luis looked like that actor, one of the ones who had been in The Martian as an astronaut! Man, that had been bothering me the whole time!

"Hey man, thanks for the drink by the way!" he lifted his glass. "Good looking out!"

"Uh, no problem man," I chuckled. I found myself genuinely liking (uhh what?) the guy. He could tell a hell of a story. "How long are you in town for?"

"Couple of weeks, then I gotta get back," he grinned. "Oh hey man, if you ever come to the Bay Area, we should meet! I could give you the hookup, show you around!"

"I'm down for that," I said, not having the heart to tell him I was born in Oakland. "Here, let me give you my number."

As I did, I had to wonder how Luis would describe our meeting down the road.

 _Author's Note:_ The best MCU character has Dial's number. I mean, he's one of the best (THE BEST). Plus, can't forget he's got a hell of a right hook. Please let me know if I did him right :D

Anyway, let me know what you guys think, and it'd be awesome if someone could update the TVTropes page. It's been dope to see that thing grow as the story has, and I'd love to see what new stuff I've hit.


	82. Chapter 82: Comedic Interlude

_Comedic Interlude_

 _ **Fantasma/Fantasma**_

Fantasma lifted a dress off of her bed and gazed at it for a long moment. Hm. It wasn't one she'd worn before. But since this was her first night in New York City proper, it did feel like a good night to try something new.

She put the black dress on and looked at herself in the mirror. Perfect.

Just then, a knock came at the door. The Russian woman frowned. It was a little early, but maybe they'd wanted to get a head start?

She left her bedroom and walked toward her door, forcibly ignoring the library on her way, where the Harry Potter memorabilia had been replaced with Dresden Files novels and a wooden staff. Apparently Tony Stark wasn't one to give up.

When she opened the door, she was surprised to see Mikhail standing there.

"Oh, good evening, Mikhail," she said while cocking her head in confusion.

"Fantasma," he said with a proud smile. He was holding a large bottle in his hand and displayed it to her. "I thought we could celebrate your new team with a drink?" he said warmly. Then the part-time bear frowned at her, looking her up and down. Fantasma had already put on her makeup, worn some simple hoop earrings, and brushed her hair back, which, along with her elegant dress, gave Mikhail the correct impression.

"Oh, are you going somewhere?" he asked, confused.

"Y-Yes," Fantasma smiled up at him, reaching down toward her high heels on the floor next to the door and putting them on while she talked. "I have been invited for a girls night out! It is quite exciting!" she couldn't contain her glee. "I've never done such a thing before!"

"A… girl's night out?" Mikhail asked in confusion.

"Hey, Fantasma!" Mikhail turned at the voice that had spoken down the hall. Isabelle Hartley, the Avenger known as Warrior, was walking toward them, wearing a pair of blue jeans, a light blue blouse, and carrying a small purse in her right hand. She was made up as well, and had a strangely ornate bracer on her right arm that went from her wrist to the middle of her forearm. Isabelle gave Mikhail an odd look.

"Oh, bear guy. What's up?"

"B-Bear guy?" Mikhail sputtered. Fantasma hid a smile at her father figures confusion. "I was uh, visiting Fantasma."

"Oh, that's nice," Isabelle smiled, then noticed the bottle in Mikhail's hand. "Oh hey, you brought vodka?"

"Y-Yes, I-" Mikhail was interrupted when Isabelle snatched the bottle out of his hands.

"Cheers!" Isabelle snapped the cap off the bottle, then lifted it to her lips.

"...Wow," Mikhail said in shock as Isabelle continued to drink. After a long moment, Isabelle finished chugging and passed the bottle back to Mikhail. He lifted to bottle to eye level to prove to himself that, yes, Isabelle had somehow finished off the entirety of it in moments. "... that was expensive."

"Not bad for a party starter!" Isabelle said. "Fantasma, you ready?"

"Yes!" Fantasma grabbed a purse of her own, closed the door to her room, and gave Mikhail a wave as she wrapped arms with Isabelle. "Goodbye Mikhail! See you tomorrow!"

"G-Goodbye?" Mikhail said questioningly.

Isabelle and Fantasma went off laughing together as Mikhail watched, a complicated look on his face.

The pair walked down the halls together as Isabelle spoke. "So, excited?"

"Yes! Where are we going?" Fantasma asked.

"Well, there's a club Jen wanted to check out," Isabelle said with a shrug. "But after that, who knows? Maybe we'll end up getting in a fight with someone!"

Fantasma gave Isabelle a confused look. "Are… you hoping for that, Isabelle?"

"You know how long it's been since I punched someone?" Isabelle gave Fantasma a smile. "And call me Izzy, okay?"

Fantasma smiled widely.

They entered the garage to see Natasha and Jennifer waiting there. Nat was wearing a white blouse and a black skirt, while Jennifer had her hair pulled up into a ponytail and a while dress, still in her green Hulk form. In fact, Fantasma had never seen Jennifer in any sort of human form, strangely enough.

"Hey guys!" Jennifer waved at them cheerily, Nat turning to smile at them. "You're early!"

"So are you," Isabelle said with a chuckle. "Bobbi here?"

"She's getting the others," Nat said with an elegant smile. Fantasma blushed a bit at the sight of it. Natasha was so… _elegant_.

"Who else is coming?" Fantasma asked quickly.

Jennifer answered. "We invited the Grapplers," when Fantasma looked confused, she explaned. "They're some former wrestlers from another team. They're busy, but Wanda can come thankfully. Simmons asked to come along, which is so adorable. Then there's Bobbi, and also-"

She was cut off by a convertible squealing into the garage. It sped toward them at high speed before drifting around to stop in front of the group.

" **That was unbelievably reckless!** " a British accented voice shouted.

Fantasma watched with her head cocked to the side as Simmons climbed out of the red convertible in a black shirt and blue jeans, looking very panicked. "I didn't even know a car could _do_ some of those things!"

"Is that a compliment?" Bobbi asked with a chuckle. The tall woman, second only to Jen in height, stepped out of the car as well, wearing a black leather jacket and pants. She flipped her hair as she left and gave Simmons a smile.

"No, it was me asking if you're insane!" Simmons rested her hands on her knees.

"Didn't you fall out of a crashing plane recently?" Jen asked as Simmons hyperventilated.

"Yes, you weren't as panicked then," Fantasma said with mild surprise.

"It wasn't as bad as that! Why are you fine?" Simmons asked the final passenger, who Fantasma recognized as the Scarlet Witch. Someone she'd admittedly been _very_ curious about meeting.

Wanda stepped out of the car with a shy smile at the group. She was wearing a red dress and black jacket, and moved to pat Simmons on the back. "Well, it was not as bad as what Pietro puts me through when he picks me up. It is close."

"What does it say that her baseline is that high?" Jen asked rhetorically.

"Hey, so, do we have a car ready?" Bobbi asked. "Mine is too small?"

In answer, Natasha nodded toward the entrance. A long limo rolled into the garage. "I figured we'd want to make the most of our little adventure, so we have a driver for the rest of the night."

"Nice!" Jen cheered, looking over Nat, Bobbi, and Isabelle (Izzy, she'd said she wanted to be called Izzy). "You super-spies going to be able to let your hair down tonight, party with the rest of us?" as she spoke, she pulled Simmons into a one armed hug, getting a surprised squeak out of the British scientist.

Isabelle smirked. "Man, give the girl a green tan and she suddenly thinks she's a party animal."

"Hey, can't blame me. I mean, I'm pretty sure I have more _talent_ than the rest of you," She-Hulk said while thrusting her chest out.

"All right, Sailor Jupiter, tone it back," Natasha said with an eye roll. "Everybody in, let's go cause some trouble!"

Fantasma looked up from a concrete floor the next day to look up at the Ex-Director of SHIELD, Nicholas Fury. He was looking the group over through the cell bars, wearing a long coat and a scowl.

"Ladies," Fury growled after a long moment. "I've currently got your teammates asking a lot of questions, so I'm going to need answers before they break down the walls and bust you out. Let's start with She-Hulk… What happened to that building, and why were you on fire?"

Jen looked up at him. Her face was covered in soot, and her clothes had burned off long ago, which was why she was wearing a sweatshirt and gym shorts. She grinned. "Well, when we got to the club, I found some guy offering cocaine to people. Well, Nat did."

"I thought they found traces of meth in the building," Fury said.

"Well yeah, but that was a later thing," Jen explained.

"It was after the music concert," Fantasma said helpfully, only to wince at the look Fury gave her.

"Yes, the DJ has decided not to press charges, since apparently you and Wanda ended up making quite an interesting light show. Says he got enough tips to set him up for a month," Fury said.

Wanda and Fantasma shared a smile.

"And the reason for the light show was that you decided to take out the biker gang that had followed you to the concert?" Fantasma and Wanda winced. Fury looked over at Bobbi and Isabelle. Izzy had a new haircut now, the side of her head tied into dreads to give her a very tough look. "And that part in Harlem?"

Someone coughed. They all looked at the woman in question.

Jessica Jones was wearing a tank-top and blue jeans. She smirked at Fury. "Yeah, that was me. I got into a drinking contest with her," she nodded toward Jen, who chuckled.

"You decided to get into a drinking contest with a _Hulk!_?" Fury somehow sounded both incredulous and intimidating all at once.

"She won, too," She-Hulk giggled.

"Which is crazy," Izzy shook her head. "That was when those guys came in to shake down the owner."

"Yes, I saw," Fury looked over at Nat. "So was that when you-"

"Hey, they weren't using the car," Nat grinned. The redhead was somehow just as impeccable as she'd been at the beginning of the night. "So we took it for a ride."

"And that's when you crashed into the Dairy Queen," Fury rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Nope!" Bobbi said cheerily. "Actually, that was because of the boat."

"What?" Fury said.

"The boat that the biker gang had. Someone turn off the lights, please?" Simmons, the only one of them fighting a hangover, said with a grimace.

"I just-" Fury sighed. "Okay, and that was when Jennifer ended up on fire?"

"Well, no. I only lit on fire after Wanda-"

"I didn't do it!" Wanda scowled at Jen. "Natasha threw the grenade!"

"Technically that's true," Natasha said calmly. "But Jessica is the one who threw the guy through the window."

Jessica grinned.

"And the reason why police picked you up at that Barber Shop?" Fury asked.

"Jessica said we could rest at Pop's after we left the Dairy Queen," Bobbi explained.

"And he did my hair!" Izzy said cheerily, pointing at the side of her head. "I think I might keep it like this, if I'm honest."

"...Okay, well, at least I don't have to deal with you for the moment," Fury said with a wave toward Jessica.

"Yeah, fuck you too," Jessica said with a shrug.

Fantasma and Simmons squeaked in shock, while Fury rolled his… eye.

"Okay, we're going to have to go over it later then. Maria has managed to convince everyone that instead of a 'drunken rampage', it was instead you lunatics somehow on a mission to take out gang members on orders."

"But that is what we did?" Simmons mumbled.

"Okay, you're in the most amount of trouble here, so I'm going to need you to stop," Fury gave Simmons a disapproving look. "I know for a fact that you're the reason I have so many people knocked out by ICER's to deal with, and the meth lab exploding wouldn't have been half as bad without you to help it along."

"You can't exactly blame her," Natasha said as blandly as she could. "We were all fighting meth dealers and their guards and she wanted to help."

"She made explosives out of-" Fury sighed. "Okay, fine. Did you idiots have fun at least?"

Fantasma tried to hold it back, but she started giggling. Jen joined in, followed by Izzy, Bobbi, and Wanda. Simmons moaned, still hungover, while Jessica and Natasha smirked.

Fury shook his head. "Well, what about Sif? Wasn't she supposed to be going with you?"

Jen stopped giggling, frowning a bit. "Huh… Where is Sif?"

" **Forward!"** Sif, the Goddess of War, yelled as she held her sword out before her, the ocean spray hitting her face with refreshing chill. She stood on the bow of a white yacht, dressed in pale blue robes and silver armor, a wide smile on her face.

"Why are we following that lady!?" A man shouted over the storm echoing around them. He was wearing a poncho over an expensive looking suit, and was watching Sif as she cheered over the echoing rain above.

"She said she knew where treasure was!" another man shouted. "She was very convincing!"

Two hours ago, Sif had taken over the yacht from the tourists who had chartered it. Since then, she'd worked the group of spoiled rich Scandinavians, who looked positively exhausted by that point, to travel to a seemingly random spot in the middle of the ocean.

"Onward, gentlemen! The ship is just ahead!" Sif cheered, breathing in the fresh air. Warmth filled he when the scent of ozone in the distance filled her nose. A familiar smell, one she connected with a certain blonde. She brushed the thought aside to focus in front of her. Soon, the battle would begin!

If only she could figure out why she felt like she was forgetting something…

 _ **Nicholas J. Fury**_

Fury scowled at the group. Wanda, Fantasma, and Simmons looked back at him with varying levels of contrite. Jen didn't seem to care what he thought of her, but then, it was tough to intimidate her. Jessica Jones, much like She-Hulk, didn't seem to care what he thought, though she looked as if she was also moments from flipping him off. Natasha, Bobbi, and Izzy didn't surprise him when they showed not the slightest bit of guilt, though they did give a respectful nod. Well, Natasha and Bobbi did.

That was the problem of no longer being director. Sure, he could do even more now in the shadows, but he didn't have anywhere near the amount of authority he'd once had.

Natasha did give him a small nod and a slight smile. "Sorry. We just wanted a night out. Didn't expect all that mess."

Fair enough. Fury shook his head and simply walked toward the doors that led out to the main precinct. On exiting, he couldn't help but smile at the cacophony of sound that surrounded him. Dozens of criminals were being booked, shouting and complaining to the officers currently putting them away. Many were bruised and covered in scratches, a few were handcuffed together, and ninety percent of the police officers in the room were being yelled at by the group of meth dealers, gangsters, and one unlucky purse snatcher who had tried to rob Fantasma and Jen.

The last was shaking silently in his chair. Apparently the combination green superhuman and violet witch had been too much for him.

Fury walked up to the police captain, a man who was looking at his precinct with impressive stoicism. If one ignored the clenched fists and the slight twitch in his eye.

"Captain," Fury said with a raised eyebrow. "Am I free to go with my agents?"

"Considering everything they've done?" the captain scoffed. "Since SHIELD-"

"BRIDGE," Fury reminded the man.

The captain rolled his eyes. "Fine. Since _BRIDGE_ is giving us these guys, I'm pretty sure a lot of my detectives are about to get some commendations for all the arrests that are about to follow. So yes, you can take them, even though we both know it's bullshit that they were sent on a mission wearing nothing but dresses and high heels."

Fury looked over at the captain. The captain looked back at him.

"...S-Sir," the captain stuttered, his face visibly paling as he finally seemed to realize just who he was being so flippant with.

A muscle in Fury's neck twitched just a bit. The captain acted like a gun had been fired. "I-I'll just get those ladies out of lockup, shall I?"

Fury nodded.

The captain spun on his heel and left as fast as he could without actually going into a full on sprint, feeling as though Fury's single eye was burning a hole in the back of his head.

Fury, meanwhile, kept his chuckle internal.

Still got it.


	83. Chapter 83

**_Director Maria Hill of BRIDGE_**

Maria and Fury sat in her office, the sun shining down on the Triskelion making interesting patterns as it shone through the Diamondhead crystal that sat in the center of her office. They had a holographic screen in front of them, displaying the varying topics of conversation between them.

"You want me to reach out to a mystic?" Maria asked Fury with a raised eyebrow. "Isn't that the same as reaching out to one of those psychics that work out of their living rooms?"

"Considering the world we live in now, we might end up hiring one of those psychics one day," Fury snarked. "But in the meantime, I pulled this woman's file out some of the more unknown and classified ones. The things that SHIELD kept under wraps from even the top-level agents. She was one of our top consultants."

"Yeah, back in 1952," Maria noted, pulling up a photo of an elderly woman. She had her hair spread outward behind her head, was wearing a purple dress, and had a white shawl over her shoulders. She was scowling at the cameraman as though offended at his clothes. "So, how old is she? I'm guessing she's somehow still alive?"

After hearing Thor describe his adventures in terms of centuries, immortality wasn't as crazy a concept as it might have once been.

"We don't know," Fury admitted. "And that makes her worth talking to."

"She looks like she survived all these years off the souls of orphans," Maria noted.

"The old bat's on our side," Fury shrugged. "We need magic consultants from Earth. So far, Fantasma is the closest we have, and she's admitted to being barely able to understand her skills."

"...And this woman reached out to us?" Maria asked.

"Said she wanted to show the 'girl' how to take full advantage of her power," Fury shook his head. "Still as ornery as ever. Only thing I ever liked about her was her honesty and her cat."

"I always forget you liked cats," Maria touched the screen. "And Dial's files?"

"He mentions something about her, but she fell under the more esoteric parts of everything," Fury shrugged. "The files have some basic information, though he can't seem to remember if she is or isn't Atlantean."

Maria shook her head at that. "I wish we didn't have to guess so much on those files Dial made. This would be easier if he had a better memory."

"How many people have to share knowledge they got channel zapping on an interdimensional TV to spy organizations?" Fury pointed out. "Even the best agents have gaps in their memory, let alone untrained civilians."

"You ever notice you still lecture me?" Maria pointed out.

"Do I?" Fury shrugged. "Sorry. Old habits."

Maria didn't mind too much. There was something to be said for not letting your head get too big. She flipped through the files that they had on the old woman before nodding. "All right. I'll meet with her after the whole Antarctic thing is done. Speaking of which..."

She brought up another image. This one of an older man and woman, Dr. Bernard Kloss and Dr. Dana Bergstrom, both half-dressed in warm cloths that had been partially ripped apart. They made an odd image, considering they were wearing winter clothes in the middle of what looked like a rainforest. They were smiling happily as they gestured toward the camera to their friend.

Their 'friend' stood uncomfortably in between them. He was tall and muscular, rivaling Thor or Steve in terms of size and build, with long blonde hair that was dirty and tied into a rough ponytail behind his head. He wore a necklace with teeth of varying sizes and shapes on his bare chest, and a loincloth of what looked like some sort of reptilian skin rested around his hips. His feet were covered in boots of the same material. He was smiling as well if uncomfortably, holding a modern machete in his hands.

Behind them, a sabertooth tiger was curled up on the ground. It was devouring what looked like a giant reptile leg and was ignoring the humans.

"Well, you did say you like cats," Maria noted once again.

"Because cats can't hurt me, and never will," Fury scoffed. "That thing looks like it's been eating nothing but elephants."

Fair point. The thing had to be hundreds of pounds heavier than the largest tigers. It was the same size as the gamma-infused tiger Dial had saved, a true testament to how massive creatures of the primeval past could be.

"I can't fucking believe that he was right," Fury rubbed his face. "I mean, dinosaurs?! In Antarctica?! A jungle?!"

Maria felt like laughing and reaching for the whiskey all at once. Of all the things that had been revealed by Dial, somehow the 'Savage Land' had sounded like one of the more fantastic ones. Even more so than aliens in some ways.

She shut down those feelings. The Director of BRIDGE couldn't be thrown by the strange after all. Instead, she turned the screen to display an image of a field that was covered in dinosaurs, like Jurassic Park in reality.

"Since arriving, they've confirmed the existence of several modern counterparts to dinosaurs, as well as the young man in between them, who survived there since his father left him there. He seems to be very distrusting of anything that isn't of the Savage Land," Maria leaned back in her seat. "He doesn't want to leave and doesn't seem to care if he has any family to return to. We can't even tell how he speaks English. Keeps saying the sabertooth taught him."

"Is this dude just pulling every Tarzan cliche out of his ass?" Fury shook his head.

"He was left alone from the time he was a toddler. He's an experienced hunter, tracker, and warrior. He's got some very big tales about the things that run around the place. Stories of ancient temples, technological empires, ritualistic cults. As well as some human or 'humanoid' tribes. Once again, I don't want to be too disbelieving, but we should have some of our guys drop in soon."

"Which guys?" Fury asked.

"I'm tempted to start with a science team. But considering we might end up battling dinosaurs, of all things? Avengers team. One week from now, with some BRIDGE backup. Might end up changing the makeup of the team, but I want someone who can at least lift a few tons," Maria shook her head with a small sigh. "This isn't the only problem we have to deal with of course or even the most important one. But the promise of this Anti-Metal Dial says is supposed to be there is worth looking into. And if it turns out that all we're doing is confirming the lack of a threat, I don't mind that."

"It'll confirm a threat."

Maria cocked her head, confused. "Is this where I find out you have more information than I do again?"

"Just guessing. So far, every time the Avengers have taken a trip, something new pops up on our radar. Hell, almost every time any of us take a mission. The ante just keeps getting raised over and over again."

Maria pursed her lips. That was… fair. Extremely fair. Which reminded her.

"There are other concerns. Winter Guard may have been the first 'National Supers' to pop up, but they aren't the last. Granted, the ones that revealed themselves directly after Winter Guard surprised me."

She flipped through the holoscreen until it displayed the images of several groups of people spread across a map of the world. One in Japan displaying what looked like a group of people waving in front of a temple, one of them about eight feet tall and covered in armor that hid a body that was… oddly shaped.

In China, Australia, and the Winter Guard in Russia of course. And the one directly north to them.

"Alpha Flight," Fury said calmly. "The Canadian superteam program… That guy in the front is short as hell."

"Puck, AKA Eugene Judd. Kind of a legend in his hometown," Maria noted. "They say he killed a grizzly bear when he was eight years old. Black Widow speaks highly of him."

"Looks like a lot of these teams are short-handed," Fury noted. "Only four on Alpha Flight, three in Australia. Greece only has one guy?"

"They say he's all they need? Claim he's one of their old heroes or gods, which means yet more when combined with Chernobog and what our agents in Egypt are dealing with," Maria said. "I say claims, but we have Thor, so…" she shook her head. Fury mumbled about getting a team of historians together because of all the 'damn gods' that were showing up. "Where are they getting all these superhumans? None of these people were on the Index," she said, referencing the list of enhanced assets SHIELD used to have.

"Thankfully it looks like the only ones picking them are governments. Even as twisted as things get with politics, I'd rather not see crime families or human traffickers getting their hands on them."

"...There is one thing we showed have expected. Celebrity superhumans," she flipped the holoscreen again. A song began to play, one with a strangely compelling tune to it. A young woman appeared before a screen. As the music crescendoed, she began to sing in Korean. She was pretty good. The young Korean woman had hair that was black and longer on the right, white and shorter on the left. Her left eye was bright blue while her right was black. She was wearing a blue and grey colored skin-tight outfit that looked like a mad cross between Natasha's original costume and something out a fantasy video game. She waved her hand on screen and trails of white followed the passage of her hand. She stopped to display a hovering ice crystal in the shape of a snowflake. With a smile, she clenched her hand into a fist. Ice erupted around her to show she was standing in an arena, the chill light illuminating the world. Behind her, two other women, girls really, walked up.

One was younger than the others, either in high school or about to leave it. She was wearing a leather jacket and a pair of tight blue jeans, hair pulled up into a tough black ponytail, the glowering look on her face falling with the tough look. As the video continued, she raised a hand holding a red mask up to her face. A blue form flowed up from behind her, shaped into the tall and powerful shape of a full-grown grizzly bear glowering at the camera.

The last of the girls had pale white hair and wore a skintight black costume with a flowing white scarf behind her. She raised her hand and smirked as she flashed claws at the audience.

The bear spirit and the high schooler rushed forward as one while the fully white-haired girl flipped into the air and the first woman unleashed torrents of cold.

"Seol Hee, known as 'Luna Snow' by the press. Ami Han, AKA White Fox. And the high schooler is Dan Bi, called Crescent for the symbol on that mask of hers," Maria said. "You know, I blame Tony for this. And I'm not even sure if this will help the reputation of enhanced or not."

"Huh. Girl can rhyme," Fury noted when Crescent began to rap something in Korean.

 _"See 언제든지 내 모습 magic, 단 한 번에 내가 잡어 절대 기죽지 않지, uh!"_

"I'll take your word for it," Maria mumbled while turning off the video. "The fact is, all these enhanced showing up, there is a lot of talk about putting sanctions on them. Of treating them the same way we would nuclear weapons."

"You think we have to worry about a 'Registration Act'?" Fury asked.

"Or something similar," Maria crossed her arms. "I'm not so naive that I believe enhanced individuals shouldn't be treated differently from others, but some of the laws that have been suggested are unconstitutional."

"How do you plan to deal with it, then?" Fury asked pointedly.

Maria thought about that for a very long time before answering. "I already have lawyers working on drawing up a proposal. One that can protect the freedoms of human and enhanced alike. I can't promise it will be perfect, but hopefully, it's a start."

It had better be. Because she knew at least a few people would fight back in a hurry if such a law came to pass.

 _Across the United States_

While Maria Hill and Nick Fury discussed the high and mighty aspects of life on Earth, Stark Industries had shipped several products across the country. First among them were small items sent to tech reviewers for some of the more reputable magazines and newspapers in the world. Those had been sent out a few weeks before most of the products would hit shelves, the new StarkPhone being the chief one for mainstream consumers to feast their eyes on.

A sleek and robust looking black phone, it was shipped in a box boasting of 'Jury-Rigged' technology, with a picture of Jury Rigg laughing as he held an arc reactor in one hand and a super-advanced rocket launcher in the other. A bit much, in terms of marketing, but it did the job of telling you exactly what the phone was promising. Tony Stark's genius melded with alien technology.

The reviewers had taken their new toys in hand and immediately started to play with them. They discovered several things about the 'StarkRigg' as the phone was soon nicknamed.

First, it had an insane amount of battery life. It could go a full week without recharging while being used at a normal pace, three-four days when going all out with apps, games, and data.

Second, the software was very fast and intuitive, having little to no lag whatsoever. Crashes were near non-existent, though it did happen a few times (no accounting for human error after all). Still, it was one of the high points, that the phone was incredibly powerful, able to support even the most taxing apps and games with ease. There was a lot of talk of people making apps specifically to take advantage of all of that power. And third, it didn't disconnect from data. It just seemed insanely good at staying connected to cell service. No one was sure how, but Stark Industries had made a game out of challenging people to test the phones' ability to connect to the internet, to the point of insanity, with one man testing the phone while diving, thus testing if the phone was waterproof as well (It was).

All in all, a massive success the second they hit shelves, with pre-orders through the roof and stores immediately running out of them the second they hit shelves. What wasn't spoken about as much however was that much of the profit for the phones was being poured into humanitarian aid across the world. Stark industries sent money to the Rio recovery effort, several charities with good records in helping people in reliable ways, and the opening of schools funded by Stark Industries, as well as scholarships.

Well, Stark Industries still made a ton of money as well. They were a business after all.

Besides the phone and various other products made for the public to purchase, there were also shipments sent to police stations across the world. A new brand of ICER pistols specifically.

BRIDGE had allowed Fitz-Simmons to give the formula to Stark, after much contract writing, and the first police-issued versions of the ICER pistol were put in the hands of officers of the law. They were simple weapons, only carrying two things. First, the ability to hold up to seventeen ICER bullets at a time, each capable of putting even the most heavy set people down for the count with a single round, and without any danger of killing them from an overdose. Second, a small chip that acted as a tracker, in hopes of making sure no one but officers of the law could get their hands on it.

Those had gotten some interesting responses. The fact was, ICER's were the safest way to take down an assailant ever devised. Hit any non-superhuman criminal with one, they were down. That was it. Granted, they weren't going to replace tasers or pepper spray. After all, blinding pain was a hell of a deterrent. And they wouldn't replace regular guns since death was even more of a deterrent. But they were certainly a relief to have around.

Stark Industries also sent out some emergency battery banks to hospitals and government buildings. Designed by Leopold Fitz, they were made to hold enough power to support a fully running facility for a week if need be, longer if power was conserved, much longer if more than one was installed. It was made to be fully insulated from EMP as well. It wasn't the fanciest of devices, but that was the beauty of it. Just a big tough power bank the size of a big broom closet made to take abuse if need be and sold for a damn good price.

Besides those 'big ticket' items, there were new video game consoles, computers, and electron microscopes. Overall, the most important change Stark Industries had made to the landscape of the world was the one that had been plaguing modern science and technology for decades.

Power. No arc reactors were involved of course, but the batteries Stark Industries had released were immediately the most powerful ever made for their size. In a year when most phones had batteries the size of the phone itself, Stark Industries' phone's batteries were about the size of an Oreo cookie. And this was important because a lot of what had been holding back what could be done with electronics was the fact batteries were advancing more slowly than anything else. In the past five decades, there had been a _trillionfold_ increase in computing power. But battery life had only increased by about seventeen percent since 2007. Until now.

Of course, Stark Industries wasn't the only one making a name in the tech world.

AIM was back in business.

 _ **Army Brigadier-General Everett Buckler**_

"What the fuck am I walking into here, Talbot?" Buckler asked the man across from him. Army Brigadier-General Everett Buckler was not a man to mince words. He'd long since learned from his first battle that messing around and trying to pretty your language was a fuckin waste of time. Say what you had to say, make it quick.

The man was tall and muscular, his head and face shaved smooth except for a simple goatee. His skin was black under the clean black army officers uniform he was wearing with the single star signaling his rank to the world. Buckler was staring out the window at the passing forest with some distaste. Sitting in the back of an SUV with a fellow soldier next to him while driving through the woods was far too close times he'd done similar trips in war zones. Somehow he couldn't help but feel the same combination of trepidation and excitement.

"Believe me, Buck, I felt the same way the first time I went to visit these Eggheads," Air Force Brigadier-General Glenn Talbot said. The other man was wearing a dark blue military dress. He was a white man, with a close-cut haircut and a neatly trimmed mustache. Though slightly shorter than Buckler, Talbot carried himself with a similar sense of authority.

"For one thing, it's plain stupid they have us drive all the way out here. Their lab is on the border of Canada for crying out loud!" Talbot said in disgust. "Granted, the wife does like when I pick up some syrup on the way…"

Buckler scoffed. "That ain't the problem, Talbot. The problem is the fuckin 'Mandarin'! This whole bunch of nerds was involved in a plot against the President of the United States. Not to mention the damn Vice President was in on it."

Talbot scowled. "I know that Buck, but these eggheads have a lot of tech they can give us. We got those damn Commies making their own superteam, BRIDGE gets another enhanced every few weeks it feels like. The US Military needs an edge of its own. And it's up to us to make sure it isn't going to turn on us."

"What have they got so far?" Buckler asked.

"A big gun sound good to ya?" Talbot said with a smirk.

A smile grew on Buckler's face.

Inside AIM's facility, Buckler eyed the security guard leading Talbot and him through the hallways. After a moment, Buckler spoke to the woman.

"You ex-military?"

The guard looked back at him in surprise. "Uh, yes sir. Master Sergeant."

"Impressive," Talbot noted. "What are you doing working for these nerds?"

"My wife had a baby," the guard shrugged. "I wanted to stay in the States and make enough money to support her. This job lets me do it."

Buckler hummed to himself while eyeing the woman.

Ex-military. Every single guard was ex-military as far as he could tell. Made sense, since AIM was a military Think Tank, but the fact that there were so many was disturbing. The place had to have as many guards as scientists. Last he knew, AIM was about to get shut down. Where were they getting all the money for this?

The guard led them into a room with a big window looking out at a group of three scientists surrounding a large weapon that had been set on a pole. A man standing in front of the window turned to look at him as the guard took a position next to the door.

Buckler blinked at the man's outfit. He looked like he was wearing a big yellow beekeeper-looking outfit, with a cylinder-shaped helmet covered in some sort of canvas on his head that had a window revealing his face on the front.

"Getz, you look ridiculous," Talbot said bluntly.

The man in the outfit rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'm sure. It's much more svelte than the hazmat suits we were dependant on before. Considering the precision necessary for our work-"

"Just take the helmet off and talk to us, will ya?" Talbot said impatiently.

Getz's face soured, something Buckler found amusing to watch. The older man removed the helmet. "Well, let me tell you we were quite happy we had these during the last few weeks. Now, I believe you're here for today's test?"

"That's right. This is Brigadier-General Everett Buckler by the way," Talbot gestured to his counterpart. "He's Army, but don't hold it against him."

Buckler scoffed while taking Getz's hand to shake. The feel of the hazmat suit against his palm was rather strange. "I've been told I'll be assessing your technology from now on."

"Ahh, then you've come at a great time," Getz's enthusiasm seemed to return in an instant. "Take a look at this! A weapon we've developed very recently! We're just about to test it."

Getz tapped the glass. The scientists within looked up at the head scientist, who waved at them. Moving quickly, they started to prepare as Getz spoke.

"This is one of our energy weapons, already prepared for mass-reproduction. As of now, we still haven't developed plans for it to be used by infantry, but it's perfect to mount on a vehicle. It fires bursts of concentrated microwave radiation capable of melting steel and killing a man in a single shot. It's made to kill even the most durable of beings. Oh, you'll need these," Getz gestured to a nearby scientist wearing a lab coat, who passed Talbot and Buckler a pair of tinted safety glasses.

"Trust me, put 'em on," Talbot grumbled to Buckler. "Tried to be stubborn about it the first time. Spots in my eyes for two days."

Buckler smirked. Leave it to Talbot to have his bullheaded nature bite him in the ass.

The scientists around the large cannon-like weapon rushed away from it, exiting through a door behind it. As they did, a ten-foot-tall slab of solid concrete was wheeled into the room. Then a wall of steel of the same size. Both were a foot thick.

"Let's do 80 percent power," Getz said. "Commence demonstration!"

The cannon lit up and fired in the blink of an eye. That alone would have impressed Buckler. Of the many problems with energy weapons that kept them from being used in modern combat, among them was the fact that nothing was really powerful enough to charge them fast enough to let them be used against anything that could dodge. Granted, there was more, but Buckler had yet to see a laser weapon that was better than a simple kinetic weapon.

The cannon in front of him made a hell of a first impression, however. It fired a single blast of yellow energy, the bolt smashing into the steel wall and melting its way through before digging a hole into the concrete behind it.

"Impressive," Buckler said softly. "How long till it can do it again?"

"Ah," Getz smirked. "That is the _fun_ part. Commence rapid-fire!"

The cannon lit up, then unleashed hell. Dozens of bolts of light flew into the steel wall like it didn't exist, tearing apart the concrete wall in moments. Buckler stared in shock as the metal was turned to molten slag with horrific ease while concrete exploded apart.

'Insane,' Buckler thought to himself. This wasn't just advancement to current weapons technology, this was decades ahead of anyone else that wasn't named Stark. Even after studying the alien technology left behind in the New York invasion, Buckler had yet to see anything this potent ready for mass-production.

Buckler kept his thoughts to himself as Getz chuckled. "Impressive, yes?"

"It is. What's it called?"

"The Microwave Emitting Beam System, or MEBS for short," Getz said. Buckler carefully kept from rolling his eyes at the stupid name. "We've made a lot of headway recently! In fact, come this way!"

Getz turned and started walking, forcing Talbot and Buckler to follow. As they tossed the safety glasses they'd been given to a scientist who was left to fumble with them frantically.

"Talbot," Buckler hissed. "What the fuck is this? You gonna tell me these muthafuckas have this kind of gear now? They were getting shut down. Now they can make rapid-fire fuckin' laser turrets?"

Talbot nodded. "I know it's crazy but that's what they're offering us. Can you imagine our tanks and planes getting outfitted with those bad boys? I'd be a lot less worried about Russkies sending monkeys to kill us all in our sleep."

Getz led them into the next room. "We've developed this for superhuman containment. After several failures, we managed to find a way to contain any enhanced short of energy absorbers."

The second they entered the next room, Buckler knew what he was talking about.

In the center of the next room stood a cylinder of greenish-yellow light. It was being created by a pair of rings on the top and bottom that made the whole thing look like a giant jar.

"The Energy Containment Cell!" Getz waved at it proudly as more scientists worked around the cell. "Transportable in moments, capable of holding even the Hulk! The energy is held within a magnetic field and can be used with just a little training."

Buckler internally shut down.

Too much. Too fast. Something was very, very wrong here. Of course, there had to be some drawbacks anyways. As fancy as these weapons was, fancy only took you so far. One only needed to remember the AK-47. A gun whose popularity came to one point. Reliability. It _worked_. Even if hadn't been maintained in days, had been shoved in mud, had been taken apart and put together as roughly as possible, and used by small children who had never even learned how to read, it would fire. And while not every weapon had to survive to the extremes that the AK-47 did, there was something to be said for weapons that wouldn't jam up or stop the instant you needed them.

Buckler was worried these new weapons would have similar issues. But worse. He was worried if they didn't.

Because if all these worked perfectly, he would need to make inquiries as soon as possible.

There was a saying about looking a gift horse in the mouth. That was bullshit. You look, and you look, and you look. Make damn sure what you have is a gift and not a swift kick in the rear.

As Buckler thought about that, he never noticed a screen flicker with red symbols.

 _Author's Note:_

A little while back I made a Dial wiki. Thus far it's pretty empty, so I'm trying to gather people to help fill it. If you're interested, let me know, cause I'd like it to be a resource for the story and for myself. Plus, it'd just be dope to see pages for things like Dial, Catom, X, and Fantasma, as well as what has changed for the MCU characters. :D

As for this particular chapter, it introduces a LOT of little things. Most of them are just continuations though. Points for those of you who can recognize every character.

Except Buckler. Buckler is literally just a random officer my beta reader showed me. If you must imagine him, Damon Wayans would do it :)


	84. Chapter 84

_Author's Note:_ This chapter was posted on on August 3rd!

 _May 15, 2014_

 _ **Luke Cage**_

Luke stared out the glass window from the corner of his eye as some pedestrians walked past. When they were out of his sight, he sighed.

"You know, you keep staring out at all of my prospective customers, I might regret having ya here," a voice said behind him. Luke smiled and turned to the speaker.

The place he'd chosen to hide in was a barbershop. A famous one in fact, at least in Harlem. Pop's Barber Shop had mint green walls, red chairs in front of the right wall, and mirrors. A simple store, but one that had gained fame in the neighborhood. Not because it was expensive or fancy, but because it was a _good_ place. Warmth filled the shop like the sunlight pouring in through the windows. And the owner of the shop was relaxing in one of the barber chairs. He wore a cap on his head and a black polo shirt displaying the shop's logo. He was smiling slightly at Luke, teeth flashing, his dark skin glistening just a bit in the light.

"If having us over is a problem, Pop-" Luke began to say.

"No, no, don't start with that," Pop shook his head. "I'm just playing around. I know you did the right thing. And I don't want to seem patronizing, but I'm proud of you both."

Luke had a moment of irritation that quickly faded. It was slightly annoying for some reason, being complimented for something that made for more trouble than it solved. But Pop's had his respect and knowing he approved helped somewhat.

"You still over there?" Jessica said then, drawing their attention. The short powerhouse had her arms crossed as she eyed Luke from the door leading to the back. "Thought you'd get tired of glaring at the street."

"Pretty sure you were just glaring at the wall a few seconds ago," Luke teased.

Jessica scowled at him. "Yeah, well, I got bored of it. We need to plan how we're dealing with this shit."

Pop coughed. When Jessica looked at him, he gestured toward a yellow can resting on a drawer next to him. In big black letters on masking tape were two words. 'Swear Jar.'

"Are you fucking serious?" Jessica asked, looking positively shocked.

"As a heart attack," Pop chuckled. "I have kids in here sometimes, ma'am. I need to keep a certain kind of atmosphere."

Jessica glared at him for a long moment. Pop's only response to that glare was a placid and gentle look in his eyes.

"Goddamn it," Jessica reached for her wallet. "What is it, a dollar each?"

"Which puts you at three," he agreed.

Luke chuckled. He quickly looked away when Jessica turned to glare at him. She was a hardass, but a big softie too. He liked that about her.

"So, we have a plan?" Luke said.

"Kind of," Jessica sat down in another of the barber chairs. "So far it's been weirdly quiet. I can only look for so much since my laptop got exploded, but the news isn't exploding like I thought it would."

"You think someone would keep it a secret?" Luke asked, moving to lean against the wall across from Jessica and Pop's, crossing his arms.

"I think that with BRIDGE floating above New York all the time cops in the city know they can pawn the crazy shi-" she cut herself off and glared again at Pop's who grinned. Looking as though it physically hurt her to do so, she changed her sentence. "The crazy stuff. Like some guy stealing rocket launchers and using them to blow up half of Hell's Kitchen while trying to kill two superhumans."

"I'm just amazed that the two of you found each other," Pop said, sounding almost awed. "Reva always said you were strong. Must feel good to know you aren't alone."

It did. It really did.

Jessica seemed uncomfortable at the mention of Reva for some reason, because her next sentence came a little faster. "We can probably hide for at least a couple of days, but we'll need to move if we don't want people chasing us. Unless you're planning on getting signed up with the Avengers."

Luke looked at her. "..."

Jessica frowned. "Unless that's what you're trying to do?"

"Not-" he stopped to think. "I got a letter a while back. Came from someone who knew my secret. They didn't have the full details but they wanted to meet me to talk. Said their name was Mahmoud."

Pop frowned. "Why does that sound familiar?"

Jessica stared at Luke. "The Avenger. Dial."

Luke nodded. "I didn't know that at the time. I was suspicious of it. But when nothing followed I figured it was nothing. Then he shows up on the news, the Rio Quake hit… since then I've been wondering what he wanted."

"I got a letter from him too," Jessica said.

Luke, Pop, and Jessica sat in silence for just a moment, Pop looking between the two superhumans. "So, if he knows your secret…"

"We need to move," Jessica said. "If he knows about you-"

"He doesn't know about this place," Luke immediately said. "I only know about Pop thanks to Reva," again, she looked uncomfortable for some reason. "And no one would connect me to this place. We're safe."

"But the young lady is right," Pop said. "You can't stay here forever. I can ask some of my old friends, see if they can help you hide. But is that even what you both want?"

Jessica scoffed. "Like hell. I have enough problems right now without making everyone else's mine too."

"I can't blame you," Luke shrugged. "But I have to admit… Saving those people was the first time I've felt complete in a long time."

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

Jen, Creel, Izzy, and I were out for shawarma on the advice of Tony, who had suggested it when he heard that Creel and I wanted to hang out. It was good advice, considering that shawarma in New York, among the many foods it's vendors were famous for making, was supposed to be excellent.

Of course, we decided to make a day of it but had to modify our plans to fit around one thing.

"Guys," Jen said as she pouted on the rooftop next to me. "Seriously, I don't mind going in with you. I don't care what people think."

"Same here," Izzy agreed, my fellow Avenger grinning up at Jen. "But you know we'd be surrounded by paparazzi the second you showed up, and I want to get food, not eye damage from camera flashes."

"Not like you two are any less inconspicuous," Jen grumbled. "Creel is made of muscle and you're built like a Greek goddess."

Izzy scoffed. "So are you. But I'm not _green._ "

Jen huffed.

"Come on, Carl," Izzy took Creel by the arm and pulled him away. My large friend gave me a weak smile.

All I could do was shrug, feeling much the same fond exasperation he did.

As they left the rooftop, I moved off to stand on the edge of the roof. Several stories in the air, we had a pretty good view of the city. I took a moment to drink in the view. Not so much the smell, since New York City is New York City, but few things could beat the look of the town.

"Taking one last look before you head to dinotown?" Jen asked me as she walked up to stand beside me.

"Kinda," I looked up at her. "I mean, I know I asked to head out, but I thought there would be more time. Now I leave almost immediately."

"You can just say no," Jen pointed out.

I looked up at her with a grin. "Are you kidding? It's got dinosaurs! I've dreamed of this since my dad brought the VHS tape for Jurassic Park home!"

Jen grinned, her green eyes flashing. "Yeah, that's fair. When you put it that way I feel kinda jealous."

"Sorry you have a trial that day," I said as sympathetically as I could. "But hey, I can punch a t-rex for ya if you want."

"You wanna piss off PETA like that?" Jen teased.

"First, fuck PETA," I growled. "They kill more animals than they save. Second, I really do wish you were coming. It's been fun hanging out with ya."

"You massive softie," Jen reached her arm out and hooked it into mine. "Bring me back a dino egg, okay?"

"...To eat or hatch?" I asked with a look at her.

"Depends on how cool it is," Jen answered without missing a step. "If you bring in something boring like a hadrosaurus I'd rather eat it," she chuckled at the look of surprise I gave her. "Bruce and I used to love dinosaurs. Seriously, bring me a souvenir."

"I will," I looked back out at the city with a smile.

"...Be careful," she said softly.

Wait, what? "Of course I'll be careful. I mean, all I have to do is protect the science team with Creel and Bobbi."

"Mahmoud, have you ever had a mission go according to routine?" Jen asked me.

"We took down that Whitehall guy from HYDRA pretty quick."

"Yeah, and every other mission since?" she replied.

I opened my mouth. Then I thought back. Oh. She was right. Pretty much every mission I'd ever been on had ended up having some sort of complication. I'd thought it was normal, to be honest. What comic book mission goes according to plan? Hell, wasn't there a saying that no plan survives first contact with the enemy?

But most of my missions ended up going more than a little sideways. And the thought of the Savage Land was worrying. No matter what, even people like Spider-Man and Captain Marvel, both superhuman, ended up crash landing, or losing their memories, or something. Oh, and don't forget the loincloths. I'd gained a lot of confidence in my body lately thanks to my new increases in muscle mass, but not enough to run around a jungle wearing a buttflap. For one thing, I didn't want to run the risk that Frankenstrike would end up wearing it too…

"Okay, that is fair," I said at last. "I won't pretend my missions haven't been…" I winced. "Eventful. But I'll be careful. I'll do everything I can to come back safe."

"That still doesn't keep me from worrying," Jen said with a shake of her head. "You're pretty fragile when that watch isn't on," she said while tapping at the Omnitrix.

"I'm a lot tougher than I was before you met me. I've got catom armor, a good sword, and some good training. Besides which, like you said, I have the Omnitrix. The one-stop-shop for every problem a person could ever have. I might not be _fine_ in that jungle, but I'll be safe."

Jen still looked worried.

"Hey, I'm gonna be leaving in two days but that's plenty of time for us to hang out. And to meet your dad."

Which I was honestly nervous about. The older Walters had been in the tower since yesterday. I had yet to meet him and today was supposed to be the day, right after we grabbed him food. I wasn't sure what he would think of me. I mean, I was probably one of the many things he'd be iffy about. Since getting kidnapped, Jen had gained new powers, changed cities, became a superhero, and started dating. Anyone of those alone would have made a good dad worry, at varying levels. I think me dating her was just above changing cities and below getting superpowers, with becoming a superhero being number one.

"He's gonna like you," Jen said while gently jostling me. "You're a superhero, remember?"

"Nah. He's a smart man. He knows no one is good enough for ya," I grinned up at her. "I'm just glad you picked me."

She smiled back and leaned down to meet me in the middle, wrapping me up as we kissed.

When Creel and Izzy came back a few minutes later, both looked a bit harried. Jen and I separated to look over at them.

"Uh, hey," I said. "You guys okay?"

Izzy huffed. "Oh yeah, we're fiiiine. Except that I underestimated how famous I was. Seriously, you two were making out up here while I had to deal with horny idiots?"

"What happened?" Jen asked with a wide grin.

"To be fair, no one was horny," Creel said. "But we did get recognized. We're lucky we got the food," Creel raised a bag to display it. "Where do you guys want to eat?"

"Somewhere with a dope ass view," I said without hesitation. "Anyone know a good spot?"

We all looked at each other. Then at the waters in the distance, where a green statue could be seen poking out of the ocean.

"..."

I think we all had the same grins on our faces.

So if you're wondering what led to dozens of photos on social media of four people sitting on the crown of the Statue of Liberty while eating, there ya go.

I met Jen's dad right after we ate. Jen led me to the rec room, where the senior Walters was waiting at the bar. He was leaning against it with a cup of dark alcohol in a glass in his hand, wearing a black leather jacket over a red shirt. I'd already seen a photo of him standing next to Jen at her graduation, so I wasn't surprised to see he looked like Burt Reynolds.

Whoever was doing the casting of this universe, they were excellent at it. He looked like Burt Reynolds in his fifties. Dignified, but still half a second from punching someone if they said the wrong thing. He had a bit of a beer gut, but his arms were clearly strong. When he looked up at us, his smile at Jen was wide and warm. When he looked at me it lessened just a bit.

"Dad!" Jen walked up to her dad and leaned down to wrap him in a hug, kissing the top of his head. He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her as well. "How's the tower been treating you?"

"Pretty damn good, actually," Mr. Walters said warmly. "Once I got used to the robots, Norse gods, and Russian bears walking around."

"Mikhail is more temporary than the others if we're being fair," I said without thinking. Jen and her dad separated for the man to give me a good long look. I'd chosen to forgo one of my merchandise shirts for a plaid button-up in preparation for this meeting. I was still wearing jeans since I'd guessed that while coming in as my nerdy self wouldn't impress, looking like Tony would be even worse. Morris Walters had struck me as a very practical man. And as epically expensive as Tony's business suits were, they were _not_ practical. Even the ones with wifi. Especially the ones with wifi actually.

I wasn't sure if I'd guessed right or not, but at least he hadn't pulled out a shotgun from his pocket as I stepped up to him.

"Dad, this is Mahmoud," Jen said, pulling me closer with an arm around my back. "I told you about him, remember?"

"Yep," he said while still looking me up and down. He held out a hand to shake, which I took. I tried to shake it just like Steve or Thor would. I don't know what it was, but those two had damn masculine handshakes. If a handshake could be masculine.

Was my palm sweaty? Oh god, please don't let my palm be sweaty.

"...You're bigger than the pictures from the Triskelion battle. Been putting on muscle?"

I, uh, hadn't been expecting that. "Y-Yeah! I've been training since then. Trying to get better at the whole superhero thing."

His lips twitched at the word 'superhero'. "That so?"

"Yes sir," I said with a nod. "I'm doing my best so far."

He smiled at that. I don't know if he was amused or what, but he finally let go of my hand. "Good. Jen tells me you're Californian as well."

"Yes, sir. Born and raised in the Bay Area."

He chuckled. "No need to call me sir. I'm just a sheriff."

I shook my head. "I'm pretty sure if I didn't call you sir that Captain America would have me running laps for being disrespectful."

He laughed this time. Do you know that Burt Reynolds laugh? You can probably hear it in one of his movies, a kind of 'Haha Haaa!' It was oddly cool sounding.

"No worries. Just tell me, how did you start the whole 'superhero' gig?"

I started talking without thinking. "Mostly traveling around the city at night stopping crime that I found."

"...So you were a vigilante then?" he asked.

"Uhhhhh," I looked at Jen, who was wincing, then at Mr. Walters, who was scowling just a bit. "Technically? Well, no, not just technically. Yes, I was a vigilante," I said, at last deciding to bite the bullet. "I was trying to help people and I didn't want to reveal my powers in case someone would want to stick me in a lab."

"So without training, without any legal power, you went out and started punching people in the face," Mr. Walters said with the finality of a judge making his sentence.

We stared at each other for a long moment. Long enough for me to straighten my back. "Yeah. That's what I did."

He scowled. "You know if you were in my jurisdiction-"

"We aren't though," I told him. "And if I'm honest, I don't regret going out those nights. I know it was illegal but I still helped people. People who could have been dead if I hadn't been there."

"Or you could have caused more damage," he pointed out. "I've seen those aliens of yours. You could have killed someone going out like you did. Throw a fireball at the wrong moment and you melt someone's chest open."

Jen was silent. I think she just wanted to listen. I wasn't sure.

"Look, sir. Going out as a vigilante was… well, it wasn't smart. But I wanted to use this thing to help people and I did. It wasn't legal. In fact, even if I wasn't an Avenger, I'd probably still be doing it," unsurprisingly that didn't seem to endear me to him. "I'm not going to lie to you, sir. That's why I'm telling you all this. I won't pretend I'm remorseful, or like I joined the Avengers and help BRIDGE as a penance for something I did wrong. I have a lot of respect for cops and for the law. But there were a lot of times I had to step in so I could keep people alive."

He leaned back against the bar and sipped at it. Then he looked over at Jen. "What about you?"

"I'm pretty sure no one is about to arrest him, if that's what you're asking," Jen said evenly. She lifted a bottle from the bar's shelf and opened it, taking a big swig.

Her dad huffed. "Not what I meant, Sweetie. I mean that you used to be against this kind of thing."

"...I still am," she said with some trepidation.

I couldn't help but feel a bit nervous about that. Jen took another swig from the bottle in her hand. She wiped her lips when some of the whiskey dripped on her chin.

"But he did good work then. Same with the stuff we do now," she shrugged. "It's not right, but I can forgive it."

"I can't," Mr. Walters said. He was glaring at me. I straightened and looked back at him.

He wasn't wrong. I wasn't above the law after all. But I wasn't backing down either.

"Well at least you're being upfront with me," he grumbled. He sighed and straightened his back, wincing slightly. "Not much I can do about it, with BRIDGE now backing you up. And I can't deny you've done good work."

"So has Jen," I looked over at her. "She's way more badass than I am, balancing the lawyer and superhero stuff."

She gave me a pleased look. I tried to stop the dopey grin that grew on my face. Mr. Walters shook his head. "I'll let the big wigs in the government take care of it," he didn't seem satisfied with it. I could tell it would still be on his mind. He wasn't about to attack me. But I doubted I had his approval.

The rest of our conversation was pretty stiff. I consoled myself with the thought that no dad likes his daughter dating.

 _ **Vasily Karpov**_

Vasily wasn't a stupid man. One didn't rise through the ranks of the Russian Military and HYDRA without being somewhat intelligent. Even now, living in Cleveland, he still maintained a level of vigilance, knowing that he had to be careful.

He never left his house for anything but shopping for the absolute essentials. He avoided any social media. No friends, no guests. Not even a TV in the living room. He disappeared in that small neighborhood in Cleveland. And because he was smart and careful, no one ever found him. Even when HYDRA fell, he found himself feeling slightly smug when he managed to avoid the fallout.

It was that same intelligence that was leading him to believe someone was watching him. More than that. Someone was intruding on his life.

First, his landlord had apparently hit a windfall, because he suddenly left for the Bahamas, bragging about selling his business for a massive amount of money. Vasily had been a bit worried about that since he didn't want to suddenly get evicted or something. But nothing happened.

Then, someone had done some work on the cable and power of the building. He'd done a sweep of his house for bugs or cameras out of habit. But even when he found nothing, he knew someone was watching him.

But nothing happened. He lived his life normally, no one attacked. But the tension continued to rise… with nothing. Nothing for a long time.

Eventually, he began to relax. He'd been wrong. No one was coming for him and he was safe.

He continued his life as normal. He only left home to shop, stayed away from contacting anyone, and managed to at last relax.

He came into his house after grabbing some milk, bread, and meat from the story on May the fifteenth, feeling at last relaxed. He entered his kitchen, placed the food away, then entered his living room.

Tony Stark was sitting on his couch.

The former HYDRA commander stared at him. Tony Stark was leaned back with his arms out and one leg crossed over the other, looking for all the world like a king on his throne. He had a neutral expression on his face that was very different from the smug look he often had on camera. It reminded the commander of a judge to pronounce a sentence.

Vasily's eyes looked over at the stack of newspapers near the door where he had left his gun. Nothing. Stark whistled, drawing his attention.

Stark reached into his suit jacket and pulled out Vasily's missing pistol, resting it on the table. "You know, if you're gonna have a gun ready for intruders. Maybe not leave it out in the open," before Vasily could move, Stark reached into his jacket again. One, two, three times. Three pistols of various makes and models soon rested beside the first. "These ones were better hidden though, so kudos there."

Vasily raised a hand. Behind Tony Stark, something stepped forward from the shadows as though unfolding. An android of some sort. Wearing a simple butler suit.

The appearance of such an outlandish thing kept Vasily still long enough for the butler robot to walk around the couch and hand Stark a glass of something green. "Thanks, Jarvis," Stark said, as though a robot in a butler suit handing him a drink was a part of everyday life. It may have been.

"Now, Vasily Karpov," Stark sipped his drink before looking Vasily in the eyes. "You killed my parents."

Vasily didn't deny it. The robot's eyes glowed an eerie blue. Vasily tried to figure a way out. Maybe he could crash through the window, land in his front yard. Disappear in the streets-

"Stop," Stark swirled his drink while still eyeing Vasily. "You aren't going to escape. I have suits surrounding the house, BRIDGE officers on standby, and Jarvis ready to blow your legs off. So stop."

Vasily stilled.

"Oh good! You're not running. Then let me break this down for you," Stark uncrossed his legs and leaned forward, placing his drink on the table. "I knew who you were for weeks. A good friend of mine told me about you before we attacked the Triskelion."

For that long!?

"W-Why-?"

"Did I leave you till now?" Stark asked. Stark chuckled. "Because you aren't important."

He couldn't have said anything more shocking if he'd tried.

Stark smirked, though the expression was somehow vicious. "I admit, having the chance to be able to take your skin off you and add it to my next armor is giving me all sorts of tingles. But you're… well, pathetic. Didn't really need to come in guns blazing… You killed my mom. My dad."

"It was not personal," Vasily said.

"Bullshit," Stark said harshly, finally losing his composure. "It's _all_ personal to someone. So don't try and pull that with me."

Vasily shook his head. "Why are you telling me all this?"

"Because you're done," Stark chugged his drink. "I have the evidence of your work before you left HYDRA, including the shady crap while you were pretending to be a loyal Russian soldier. I also have a formerly amnesiac super-soldier who is very pissed off and willing to testify. And then there's that box in your wall that I found."

Vasily stared at Stark, feeling the world fall out from under him. He felt like throwing up. It was over. After years of dedicated loneliness, of living in near poverty for the express purpose of avoiding being caught-

"I know, right?" Stark was grinning cruelly. "You've been living in the crapper for all this time. And your ass is still going to jail! How great is that? I even have my friend Mikhail ready to take you to Russia."

Vasily felt the sweat drip down his brow.

"Oh yeah, Russian prison. Sounds fun," Stark said with a grin.

Too much. Vasily was ready to die for HYDRA. And that was better than being a Russian traitor in a military prison.

Vasily leaped for the pistols on the table in front of Stark, trying to be as far away from Jarvis as he could. This brought him closer to Stark, but that was no problem. Stark had no armor and thus was not a threat. He could grab the pistol, kill Stark, then let the robot kill him, keeping from having to endure the horrors of prison!

"Hail, HYDR-!" Vasily began to cry.

Stark stood from his seat in a smooth and fast move. Vasily's hand came nowhere near the pistol before knuckles hit him in the jaw. An explosion of pain blinded Vasily as he flew back. Experience told him the blow had landed at just the right point and with enough force to dislocate his jaw. He hit the wall behind him and tried to rush Stark again with a straight cross.

Stark swayed back to avoid the blow, then uppercut Vasily in the armpit in a cheap boxing move, following with another punch to the jaw that Vasily felt shatter a tooth. Only his discipline kept him from screeching instinctively at the splintering pain.

Vasily, desperate and in pain, tried to reach out for the pistol again. Stark scoffed. "Pathetic."

Metal entered his hand. Vasily raised the pistol in a shaking grip. Hope filled him when he realized that nothing was stopping him. Stark didn't move an inch when Vasily pointed at the billionaire's chest and pulled the trigger.

'Click!'

The hope in his breast was crushed to ash. Vasily stared at the son of Howard and Maria Stark with despair in his eyes.

"That is just wonderful to see," Stark smirked. "Mikhail, he's all yours."

The roof split open in a shower of wood shattering into splinters. Hundreds of pounds of fur landed in front of Vasily. The HYDRA operative looked up into dozens of white flashing teeth within the mouth of some combination of grizzly bear and man.

" _ **Vasily,"**_ the massive bear growled. _**"The Russian government wishes to speak with you."**_

Vasily shook his head. "Just take me in already, please!"

Stark smirked. "Ah, submission. A second favorite of futile resistance," he raised a pair of handcuffs. "Get ready for the gulag buddy."

" _ **We don't have those anymore,"**_ Mikhail growled.

Stark placed the handcuffs on Vasily, raising him up. "That's disappointing."

" _ **Do not worry. We will simply be creative."**_

Vasily whimpered quietly to himself. He was beginning to regret having the Stark's assassinated. He had a feeling he'd regret a lot more very soon.

 _Author's Note:_ So, time for the breakdown!

First, Luke and Jessica are hiding out in Pop's Shop and getting to know each other. Jessica still doesn't know how to deal with the Reva thing and doesn't want to be a hero. Luke doesn't know what he wants which we can all understand.

Second, Dial and Jen are also getting closer. Buuuuut, Jen's dad doesn't approve of Dial's vigilantism. Which, to be fair, is a reasonable thing for a cop to feel about such things. Technically, their vigilante actions now are under the excuse that BRIDGE approved them, making them _patrols._ And yes, Burt Reynolds is playing him. Rest in peace you badass.

Third, Vasily, aka the man who told Bucky to kill the Stark's, and a traitor to the Russian Army. Of COURSE, Tony and Mikhail were gonna go together. Hopefully, I portrayed it how you guys would have wanted. Keep in mind, I was gonna have him smash through the roof in a Iron Man suit, but there is something dope about him just... waiting.

Anyways, that's the chapter ya'll. Please let me know what you think, and consider supporting me on my !


	85. Chapter 85

_Author's Note: This chapter was available four days ahead of time to all my Pa t re o ns. Enjoy and tell me what you think!_

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

After meeting with Jen's dad and having him consider arresting me, I would have liked to have had a chance to just relax. But I'd made a promise to myself to continue making plans for the worst.

There was a lot of plans I'd put in place for the future. I had a cheat code to the universe after all and I used it for everything. Years of comic book and sci-fi knowledge let me know what sort of threats I might have to prepare for, and I wasn't willing to simply sit around and let it happen. Maria and Fury had a thousand files on everything I could remember. Granted, I kept using the dimensional viewer as the explanation for why I knew everything. Didn't know how long _that_ lie was going to last.

The point was, I had plans. Plans of everything from different weapons I'd created and hung in an armory of my own making, contingencies, even a list of what possible alternate universes we might end up fighting.

But I hadn't thought much about what might happen if I died. If someone smart or strong or reality shattering enough to overcome the Omnitrix managed to take a shot at me. It could happen. So I had to do something.

I had to tell the truth to someone I could trust to keep my secrets.

With those thoughts in my mind, I entered my lab. Well, Jury Rigg's lab. The little red psycho had left his mark on the large space Tony had given me, the stack of energy drink cans left in every recycling bin in the room being proof of that.

Inside the lab stood X. The large robotic shell he'd created for himself was pretty much dominating the center of the room. He was standing patiently, wearing a pair of jeans as always. I wasn't sure why he likes wearing jeans so much while forgoing any other clothes, but I suppose it wasn't an issue for him.

"Thanks for coming X," I walked up and pulled out a chair, one I'd asked for in case one of the heavier members of the team came in. Between Hulk, Jen, Thor, and X now, all four of whom weighed hundreds of pounds more than a normal person at the lowest, I'd figured I might need it. As X settled in the chair, I pulled out one for myself and sat across from him.

"I'm always at your disposal sir," X said. "Though I will admit, I'm multitasking. I'm currently gaming with Jarvis, checking police reports, and tracking human trafficking on the Dark Web."

I had gotten used to the fact that both my AI allies tended to be damn good at that sort of thing. Still, the last one worried me enough to distract me. "Need any help with that? I don't mind breaking some legs."

"You have nothing to worry about," X's blue eyes narrowed and turned, his way of making a smile. "Right now I reckon I just need to find a way to track the less technologically inclined sorts. But we've made a lot of headway. And you already helped with the financing."

"I did?" I asked, surprised. "I gave you only half my money!"

"And then I put that money into investments. I've got a real eye for the market," he said with amusement in his voice. "Jarvis and I have been using that money to support our efforts. But I imagine that isn't what you wanted to talk about."

I gently put the thought of that in the corner of my mind. I was always looking for more ways to help people and doing it internationally had never held me back before. Well, not since international travel became so much cheaper thanks to a combination of space aliens and personal super-jets.

"Can you… make sure we aren't being listened to? By anyone?" I asked.

"Of course," X's eyes flared blue for just a moment. "There ya go, sir."

"Thanks. I uh," I coughed into my hand as I got my thoughts in order. "Lately, I've been thinking... about my death."

X's body was usually pretty still, but I noticed this time that he didn't even try to simulate a response. No widened eyes, no twitching fingers. He just stared at me. "Oh," he said after a long moment.

Feeling extremely uncomfortable, I continued speaking. "Yeah… It'll happen, one day. And the truth is, if anyone has a chance of outliving me, it's you. I mean, Thor probably will. Same with Jen, Bruce, maybe even Steve. But you? You might be immortal. And if you are… you could end up helping my kids."

I hated this. Hated thinking so far ahead. But I had to. Had to think of the future, and all the dangers it held.

"Maybe that won't happen. Maybe I'll die long before that can happen. Maybe I'll just never have kids for some reason. But I can't depend on 'maybe'. I have to plan for everything. And really, I just want someone to know. So that they can keep fighting if I'm gone."

X still didn't move. "You have something to tell me?"

"A secret, of sorts," I looked at him in the eyes. "X, I've been lying for months. To everyone. About where I come from. Why I know what I know. I'm not just from another world, another universe. And I have to explain it all. Not just to get it out of my brain. But if I die… I want someone to be able to tell my family. I can't. I've tried to do it, but nothing has worked. And if it happens before I can tell the team a-and Jen, Nat, and Creel, I want them to know the truth."

I took a deep shuddering breath. This little secret wasn't the worst in the world. But the thought of dying without anyone

"...Sir," X said softly. "What is the secret?"

"...When I was about… I don't know, 15? It was right before Christmas. On Cartoon Network, a western cartoon channel, a show called Ben 10 appeared. It was pretty awesome. Granted, the main character was 10, so I thought it was for little kids. But I watched it anyways. Became a big fan. The kid had an alien watch. One he used to turn into different aliens to fight against evil."

"The Omnitrix," X's voice had lost some of it's personality. That's how I knew he was really thinking, when he stopped emulating humanity as well. "It comes from a fictional world?"

"No. The world is real. Just… separate from mine. I have a theory about my world. I think it's almost at the center of the rest of the multiverse. That it, and worlds in a similar position, have an unconscious link to every other universe. So people from those can see the rest of the universes. Those come out like… imagination. Inspiration. And the more your brain is set for creativity, the more open you are to the rest of the multiverse."

I smirked.

"Or we are literally creating universes without meaning to from every random thought in our heads."

"What are you telling me, sir?" X asked.

"Ben 10 and the Omnitrix aren't the only things that were considering fictional properties in my world. So were Iron Man, Black Widow, Jarvis, HYDRA… they were in all sorts of media. But they all started as comic book properties."

"...Even me?" X asked.

"No. In all the multiverse, as far as I know? You are unique to yourself. I've never heard of anyone with your origin in particular, which is most likely do to my actions."

X nodded slowly, the first hint that he had taken in everything I'd said and added it to his databanks, analyzed it, and got over it. "Unique… I like that. But it does sound lonely."

"Nah," I said with a shrug. "Humans are all unique too, in big and little ways. But we can still find ways to connect with each other. Besides," I grinned at him. "The comics have a lot of AI. Good and bad ones alike."

"That is gratifying," X said, eyes opening and closing. "Sir, I won't let you die."

"...You can't stop it," I said sadly.

"I will," he said firmly.

I opened and closed my mouth before sighing. "I don't mind you trying. But if I do die, as in nothing short of magic or tech can save, let me go."

He recoiled. "What?!"

"...Humanity being immortal is a nice idea. But I don't want that for myself. Death gives my actions meaning. If I lived forever, I'd just… I don't mind the idea of living a long time. 100, hey, maybe even 200 years if we do some cool shit with medicine. But I don't want eternity, X. I want to be able to have context in my life, if that makes sense? I don't want to be in the middle of my millionth war counting up casualties and barely getting affected by them, or looking around a room of people and not feeling anything because what's the point in relationships when you live eternally? I mean, for humans, time feels shorter the older we get. By the time I'm a thousand, a fifty-year friendship will be like a guy I waved to in a hall once. I don't want that. Don't want the things that come with being alive to have no meaning."

I thought of a way to explain my reasoning before deciding on something.

"…There's a saying I like that… well, I don't know where it comes from but I found on a Gurren Lagaan AMV's comments."

"I enjoyed that anime," X said.

"It's a favorite… The comment said 'When does someone die? When he's shot? No. When he's stabbed? No. when he's sick? No! A man truly dies when he's forgotten!' … I looked up the quote again before I came here. To make sure I had it right. That is the only immortality I want."

I got the impression X didn't understand what I was talking about. I decided to move on, knowing that I might have been alone in my thoughts on immortality. Maybe the older I get, the more my thoughts would change on it. But right now that was where I was at.

"Well, I need to tell you a lot, X," I leaned over to rest my elbows on my knees, steepling my fingers together and resting my chin against them, taking the classic 'Gendo pose'. Needed a pair of glasses to complete the look. "First, I want to tell you my life story. As much as I can remember. Is that okay?"

"Of course," X still sounded disturbed, but he nodded anyway. "Go ahead."

"Kay… I was born in Oakland, California, on November the 2nd, 19…"

I told him as much as I could, trying to pack it all in. First, my life story, for sentimental reasons. If I died, I wanted someone to remember me. To know I was here. That I'd done something with my life.

Then I spoke of other things. Of the Marvel Comics, as much as I could remember of them, rambling at times as I went on random tangents. I needed someone to have as much of my memories as possible. If I was gone, any piece of information could save lives. I had already begun making files, but X now knew they weren't just something I'd seen from a dimensional viewer.

That was the trick of it. Because I spoke of my world. I told him as much as I could. So that, if the worst happened, X could begin work on reaching it. Not just to tell my family what happened but also to buy comics, movies, everything and anything. _This_ Marvel universe would be prepared for any threat, even if I wasn't around to warn them. They had to be.

I don't want to die. But I accept that it's possible.

Didn't mean I'd make it easy.

After that session with X, I'd joined Natasha in the training room. About thirty minutes later, I was sweating in BRIDGE sweatpants as I raised a fake blade in my hand again, panting and sore everywhere. I'd taken off my shirt after it had become so soaked it ended up weighing me down, showing the small welts on my skin where I'd been hit.

Nat smirked across from me. Like me, she was wearing sweats. Unlike me, she was only kind of sweaty. Which was still progress for me, really, coming close to making Black Widow work for a win. Well, kinda close. Sorta.

"Stop doubting yourself," Natasha said with a roll of her eyes, reading my mind again. Not literally, of course. "Come on, again."

She raised a pair of batons in her hand. I raised my fake sword.

We started circling each other, keeping our distances. I swung at her, and she parried it, trying to follow through with a baton to my face. I slashed upwards to parry it in turn, then down, trying to use my larger size in combination with my longer arms and my weapon to keep her back while attacking her. She used her speed and experience to dance around my sword and lash out at me whenever she got in close.

I practiced like this all the time, switching between fighters constantly. From the speedy assassins like Nat and May, powerhouses like Steve and Creel, fellow students like Skye, and even superhumans like Thor or Hulk, both of whom went **very** easy on me. Better to get my ass kicked by friendly assassins, powerhouses, and superhumans, right?

Granted, when I was forced to duck under a baton tip before it could slam into my throat, the thought was a lot less motivating.

"You're getting faster," I noted idly, slashing at my teachers stomach. She blocked it on a baton and slipped around a punch.

"I was always this fast," Nat backflipped away from a stab. When she landed on the floor, she crouched to sweep a kick at my legs. I jumped over the kick while stabbing down at her head. She rolled out of the way to stand across from me once more. "I just had to go a lot slower whenever we sparred before."

"So I'm getting better?!" I asked, feeling excited at the thought.

"Just a bit," though Nat smirked, I felt like she was pleased. "Not as much as Ruby, of course, but she does have an advantage."

"I guess she did start a lot younger than me," I stopped to block another baton, and soon the clattering of weapons slapping into each other over and over filled the room while Nat spoke.

"It's more than just training. She's had the perfect diet, genes, and mentality to build off of."

"I thought genes didn't have anything on hard work?" I said with some strain.

"Genes by themselves don't have anything to do with it. But Ruby was literally born for this. Her genes are made so she heals faster, her brain is built to take in information at a faster pace. She's built to be the perfect soldier," Nat overpowered me in our exchange, slamming her baton into into my solar plexus. Air blasted past my lips as pain filled me.

"GHA!" I staggered back, only to feel a foot kick me in the stomach while I was off balance. I slammed on my ass painfully and kept moving backwards, ignoring my pain to try and stand as fast I could, looking up at Nat with a grimace.

I was surprised to find her looking thoughtful. "She was never really taught to be a _person_ though. And that kind of thing can break a person. Can end in them becoming obsessed with the wrong things. With the next mission. With power. With patriotism to a country that doesn't deserve it… But Ruby is doing a lot better now. She told me you let her borrow some books?"

"Uh, yeah," I said with a nod. "Discworld. I didn't think she'd end up liking them so much," I raised my sword vertically before me.

"Good…" Nat flipped a baton in her hands. "She's a good girl. Just needs help."

I wasn't sure what to say about that. I hadn't really known much about Ruby behind her being a cute little assassin brat who kept sneaking into my room to watch movies and steal books. Well, borrow without permission, because she did give them back. Needed to give that girl a library card…

"Anyways," Nat spun the batons. "Enough talk. Come and hit me."

I didn't take the time to respond, since I knew even cracking a joke would end in a good-natured ass whooping.

I ran in instead, thus _really_ earning my ass whooping.

After my conversation/spar with Nat, I was still thinking about what she'd said about Ruby. I wasn't sure what she was so worried about. Ruby was a good kid. But then…

I decided, after my shower and a bite to eat, to visit the little tyke. I was surprised when I found her in the labs of the tower. And I was even more surprised to find her talking to Shuri while a pair of Wakandan bodyguards watched carefully.

Shuri had been in and out of the tower very sporadically. While BRIDGE and the Avengers were technically allied with Wakanda, we weren't invited just yet. So T'Challa and Shuri had to come across the ocean if they wanted to see us. T'Challa never really did, to be honest, since he was busy with prince things. T'Chaka probably would have visited as well. But he was a king and politician, so I was guessing he had even less time on his hands. Which meant the youngest of the Golden Tribe, the name for the ruling tribe of Wakanda, was one I saw most often.

The Princess of Wakanda was typing on her computer while Ruby spoke to her. I decided to ignore them for a bit, and walked up to the Dora Milaje instead.

When I neared, one of them gave me an icy glare. Like all Dora, she was a beautiful black woman with some calluses on her palms and muscles across her body that showed she was a warrior. Granted, I only saw them because I knew what to look for. She wore a black dress, a golden necklace, and her head was shaved smooth.

The other Dora Milaje was dressed the same, but she was a lot less hostile as I walked up. I recognized her from times T'Challa had come by.

"Hey, Ayo," I said pleasantly as I could. She nodded without a word or smile, but she wasn't glaring. "When did you guys get to the states?"

"About three hours ago," she nodded toward Shuri. "The Princess wished to continue several of her projects. The lack of vibranium here has apparently slowed her down."

" _Ayo,_ " the other woman hissed, eyeing me just as angrily as ever. "We shouldn't-"

"Calm down," I rolled my eyes. "I know about Wakanda's secret."

The woman scowled. I gave the pair a nod then walked up to Shuri and Ruby. Ruby was sitting cross legged on the table Shuri was using, leaning forward while Shuri stood at her keyboard typing fast as hell. I could see Wakandan script flying across the screen.

The fourteen year old girls were talking about the usual things teenagers talk about.

"While Wakanda has an advantage in terms of technology, I feel like you guys are way behind in terms of tactics," Ruby said earnestly. "You still gather massive armies on battlefields when small unit tactics are more popular. Spreading out, taking cover, that kind of thing."

"We rarely have to," Shuri scoffed. "Most of our handheld weapons can turn a modern tank to ash. Our technology is good enough that we don't _have_ to depend on such tactics."

"Not really," Ruby said simply. "You know what I think? I think the fact you guys haven't been in wide scale conflict might have held back your development of military tactics. You guys are so isolationist that you haven't _had_ to advance them. And because your tech is so good, you never saw a reason to."

Shuri looked over at Ruby with a face like she'd sucked on a lemon. "You always insult other countries military tactics to their faces?"

Ruby shrugged. "Not really. I'm betting there's something I'm missing. I'm just telling you what I got from a brief overview. And you're right about advanced tech being a strategy in its own right. What're you making anyway?"

"Well, I'm trying to make a few things. But right now, I want to find out-" she stopped talking to blink in surprise when I joined them. "Oh, Mahmoud!" Shuri said in surprise.

"Sup," Ruby said with a small wave.

"Sup," I replied in kind while crossing my arms. "What are you doing bothering Shuri?"

"I'm/She's not bothering me," the teens said in unison, rolling their eyes. "We're friends!" Ruby finished.

Huh. Cute. "Cool," I leaned against the desk. "So, what you up too?" I asked Shuri. "Anything I can help with?"

Shuri shuddered. "No! Nothing that little… _psychopath_ you call a scientist can break!"

"Jury Rigg isn't-" I paused. "Well, he can help!"

"Not with this!" Shuri pointed at the screen. "I am attempted to do something that requires precision and replicable technology! Not that hodgepodge of parts he calls inventions!"

"His tech can be replicated though," I grumbled. "Just takes forever."

"And I need this done soon, considering you are going into the Savage Land," Shuri said.

"Savage Land?" Ruby asked, perking up a bit.

"A jungle in the Antarctic that is covered in dinosaurs and hidden by a veil," I explained.

Ruby's eyes lit up. "Dinosaurs?!"

"Yes," Shuri scowled at her computer. "But my real issue is not the possible dinosaurs. It is the veil."

Ruby stopped to stare blankly. "Veil?"

"Yeah. The whole of Antarctica isn't really ice. I mean, satellites have been able to see the continent under the ice and snow, but maybe they were really coming close to piercing the veil?," I said while cocking my head.

"But that is only speculation," Shuri scoffed. "I thought this was going to be similar to the way we hide Wakanda. Then I realized this must be a natural phenomenon, rather than a technological one. So I moved some of Wakanda's scanning satellites to try and get at the problem. We will need a way to pierce it. Otherwise BRIDGE goes in without any communications, air support, or any of the nice toys that let them survive."

She turned to give Ruby and I a wide smile. "It has been so exciting! I can't seem to do it yet!"

Ruby blinked. "Wait, you're happy about this?"

"Not happy, I suppose," Shuri shrugged. "I just like this. Taking a problem and working it. I usually don't deal with such things as well. Just improving current technology, rather than trying to beat something new."

"...it might be magic?" Ruby said hesitantly.

Before I could say a word, Shuri seemed to glow with happiness. "Oh, I hope so! Then I can say I'm a wizard, like Harry Potter!"

Ayo sighed in the background.

"Well… you know that I can-" I began to say, only to cut myself off when Shuri shook her head, her braids bouncing with the movement.

"We might have to deal with this sort of veil again. I'd rather have the knowledge on how I can beat this. Science is about understanding after all!"

That was a fair point. Jury Rigg was great. But I'd been told a few times that trying to understand his tech was like being a car mechanic looking at a broken IPhone that could still play video. Sure, it functioned and you could get what was happening, but it would take a hell of a lot to figure out _HOW._

I finally remembered why I'd been there. "Hey, Ruby. Mind if we chat in private?"

The petite blonde looked at me, shrugged, and placed her palm on the table. In a show of flexibility and strength, she flipped off the table toward the door. "Later Shuri!"

"Bye Ruby!"

Ayo and I shared a look. So… the Wakandan princess was friends with the former heir of HYDRA. Funny that.

With that thought, I turned to follow Ruby.

 _ **Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD**_

Coulson waited in a conference room while reading the mission brief he'd been given. He was about to reread it again when May walked into the room. She was wearing a simple black tanktop and black jeans. And pulling it off very well.

Coulson looked up at her and smiled. "Hey. You're early."

"So are you," May moved to a stack of files, taking one for herself. "Any chance Fitz and Simmons will be joining us?"

Coulson shook his head. "No. They're officially working for Stark."

"You okay with that?"

He hesitated for a moment. "...I'm better. We got to talk earlier. Fitz was mad about some football game he saw recently. That was fun," he grinned. "I love how he looks when he gets angry. Plus there's nothing funnier than an angry Scot."

May smirked at that. "Good. So what's the mission?"

Skye walked in then, interrupting anything Coulson would have said. She was smiling when she entered. It was odd seeing her in BRIDGE gear, a jumpsuit similar to what agents like Maria had worn in SHIELD. Though Skye's probably had some extras. She was carrying a small case. "Hey, Coulson! Just saw Simmons. Said she had this as a gift from Fitz."

"A gift," May arched an eyebrow.

Coulson felt giddy as a kid. "No way," Coulson tossed his file carelessly on the desk and walked up to Skye. "Don't tell me he finished it already!"

Skye handed Coulson the case, who took it as gently as though it was a newborn, placing it on the conference table. The young hacker cocked her head as she watched Coulson almost reverently open the case. "What's got you so excited?"

Coulson looked up at her with a wide grin. "Something I've wanted since I was a kid."

He reached into the case and almost sighed at the feel of the grip. He lifted the object within.

"...It's a gun," May said, sounding very unimpressed.

"Not just any gun," Coulson hefted the large hand cannon. "A Lawgiver."

"A what?" Skye asked as Coulson hefted the weapon. The gun was massive, with a barrel big enough to fit a thumb inside. Beneath the main barrel was another port, the entire front of the gun looking like a large block. On either side of the main barrel was a small BRIDGE emblem embedded into the metal. Or at least, anyone who didn't know better would assume so.

"From Judge Dredd," Coulson carefully inspected the weapon, making sure to keep his finger off the trigger and the barrel aimed away from anyone. "It's based on the one from the Stallone movie. Granted, that one is kind of a travesty of a film, if a fun guilty pleasure, but I loved the design of the Lawgiver, so I went with this one. I mean, purists will say the guns from the comics are better designed, and I can see the argument, but I found this version was more function...al," he looked up at Skye and May, who were both smiling at him fondly. Coulson smiled back a little self-consciously. "You don't care."

"I care!" Skye protested. When Coulson gave her a look, she coughed. "I mean, I care… that _you_ care?"

"Nice save," said May. She nodded toward the gun. "What can it do?"

"Well, other than holding big honking bullets?" Coulson pulled out a holster from the case and placed the gun within, replacing his standard sidearm. "It also holds separate magazines of propellants and caseless ammo. So that I can do everything from ICER's, to incendiary, to blessed silver."

He had to hold in his giddiness.

"Blessed silver?" Skye asked with an arched brow. "What, are we fighting vampires?"

"We did end up having to kill demons in Rio," May pointed out.

"Besides, vampires are real," Coulson said casually. Ignoring the sputter that Skye let out at the news, he looked over at the door when two people walked in.

"My apologies!" Doctor Octavius said hurriedly, rushing in and taking a seat. "We had no idea we were late."

Doctor Kusuma strode in much more placidly, her green scales glimmering slightly in the light as she sat next to Skye. "I don't think we are."

"In fact, we're all early," Coulson said.

Doctor Octavius blinked, then smiled. "Oh, quite commendable then! Good to be on a team that is so ready to get to work!"

He looked around, as though trying to prepare a cheer, only to falter a bit at the stoic expression on May's face.

"Well, hard work has never scared us," Coulson threw him a bone. "I guess we should all introduce ourselves. You already know me, Agent Phil Coulson," Coulson gestured to May.

"...Melinda May," she said at last. "I pilot the plane."

That was all they got out of her. Skye quickly spoke. "I'm Skye. I work computers and pilot a power suit."

"Yes, young Fitz told me about it," Octavius said warmly. "I am quite excited to see it! Oh, yes, I'm Doctor Otto Octavius. I specialize in nuclear physics and engineering, with most of my current focus on the creation of human prosthetics."

Kusuma began speaking almost immediately, her tail swinging behind her all the while. "I'm Doctor Melati Kusuma. I specialize in genetics and chemistry. I also look like this."

The last was said almost sarcastically. Coulson hid a smile at that. "Well, nice to have everyone getting along."

There was an awkward silence.

"And I'm glad to see you feel the same. Speaking of feelings. Swamps," Coulson tossed the files on the table to Skye, Kusama, and Octavius. "How do those strike you?"

"Gross and slimy," Skye said while opening her file. "And par for the course for us."

"Fascinating," Octavius answered, not yet opening his file. "Full of exquisite wildlife and vegetation. And of course, quite dangerous to the unwise."

"He's not wrong," Kusama said in agreement, already reading even as she spoke. "Swamps are great places for research materials. But spending anytime in them means dealing with disease carrying insects, fog that can come out of nowhere to leave you lost, not to mention things like alligators and poisonous snakes. And yes, they're gross and slimy."

Coulson looked at May. His fellow agent shrugged. "She's not exactly wrong."

"Hmm. Well, in this case, we're going to look into a former SHIELD project that went dark when we were all trying to bring down HYDRA. We haven't heard from the lead scientist on it since the Triskelion. It might have HYDRA involved, or could be they all just disappeared into the swamp. Since then, there have been some unconfirmed reports of… well, of monsters. Maybe it's legit, maybe it's HYDRA. Either way, we go in and find out what happened."

"On so little information?" Doctor Octavius said incredulously.

"Well, we have a bit," Coulson nodded toward the files. "We're starting in a town called Citrusville. In the Florida Everglades."

 _Author's Note: And that's the chapter. The final moment towards the end signifies the beginning of the Dialverse branching out into multiple storylines once and for all. In other words, stories that if I do write them, will be as their own things. This universe has gotten too big, which means I'm going to have to start side-stories. We'll see how that goes._

 _As for the X and Dial conversation, it had to happen. Dial could die after all, and he needs to prepare for that. Sure, the Omnitrix makes that hard as hell. However, Azmuth has made it clear it's possible, and he needs to prepare for that._


	86. Chapter 86

_May 15th, 2014_

 ** _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_**

Walking down the halls with Ruby, I raised my hands to rest behind my head, continuing to stride forward. "How've you been Ruby?"

"Are you trying to make small talk right now?" Ruby asked with a frown. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Exactly that. How've you been? How is life, what's going on with you?" I said casually.

Ruby looked up at me like she was trying to find out what I was hiding. I didn't have anything to hide, so I looked back at her. After a moment she shrugged. "I'm all right. Training mostly. And reading the books you gave me. I'm glad Shuri is here though."

"That makes sense. I guess you don't have a lot of people your age around here…" I mumbled.

She scowled. "Like I'd have anything in common with other kids. I mean, Shuri is Wakandan, she comes from a warrior culture. What am I gonna talk to other kids about?"

"Music, tv, cute boys/girls/non-gendered aliens?" I said uncomfortably. "There are a lot of things you can talk about. It doesn't have to be all Avengers all the time."

She scoffed. "What's the point? Even when I was with my m-mom I never had to worry about being friends with anyone."

Her voice hitching when she said, mom... I thought for a long moment.

Family. That stuff seemed to belong to another world now. In more than just the literal sense.

Unbidden, the image of my nephew popped into my head. It had been months since I saw any of my family, longer for some of them. My nephew was… well, he'd been an unexpected and beloved surprise. A cute little scamp, who loved video games, hanging out with me and my brothers, and not eating. Seriously, the kid seemed to hate food, which I found odd.

I missed him. I missed all of them. Sure, my current life was cool… except for the scary as shit moments. But I still missed home.

And if I did...

"...How long has it been since you saw your mom?" I asked idly.

Ruby jumped as though she'd been tased. For a good moment, I was sure she was about to attack out of embarrassment. "I-I don't know! Like, a couple of months, maybe?"

"Well that's just way too long," I scoffed. "I mean, your mom is probably going stir-crazy. We should probably visit her. Make sure she's doing alright. Can't imagine how much she misses you."

We walked along for a bit longer.

"I-If it'll help mom," Ruby said quietly. "I don't mind visiting her. But you can't come!"

Once again, she managed to pull off the combination of threatening and adorable. A true tsundere at heart.

"Sure, sure," I said with a chuckle. "I don't mind… Ruby. Appreciate what you have, okay?" I removed my hands from behind my head, my face scrunching up just a bit. "I'd kill to be able to see my family again."

She gave me an odd look. Before she could speak, I quickly continued. "Anyway, you already saw a few Discworld movies. I think we should look at Going Postal. Learn about how the postal service works!"

"That sounds so _boring_ ," Ruby complained loudly. But she didn't stop following me, which I noticed happily.

"Yeah, right up until the banshee assassin."

The next couple of hours were just me and Ruby hanging out and watching a fun movie. She was a good kid, but she had to learn to accept the human parts of her. To be willing to miss her mother, to look for companionship.

Ah, but what do I know? I'm no therapist.

All I knew was that hanging out with Ruby felt like watching out for the family, and that was good enough.

It wasn't until later that I found the female Avengers had an adventure while Ruby and I were hanging out.

 _May 16, 2014_

 ** _Fantasma_**

Fantasma and Mikhail walked side by side through the Avenger Tower's halls, Fantasma speaking. She was wearing a pink dress with flowers on it, having felt very cheery that morning, while Mikhail was in his best military dress.

"Mr. Fury said we are not in trouble with the city but we should avoid having a night out like that again, at least for a long time," Fantasma said sadly. "I don't know how we even got to that point. Things just-"

Mikhail chuckled, interrupting her. "Don't worry, little one. These sorts of things happen when soldiers party. You will get used to it. And I am glad our new allies took you in so easily."

Fantasma's sadness quickly turned to happiness. "Oh, yes! It was very fun, even with all that happened. They were very nice!"

"Good," Mikhail chuckled.

"What about you?" Fantasma asked curiously. "How did your trip with Mr. Stark go?"

Mikhail's smile turned a bit darker. "Oh. That went well. We went to Colorado, then back home to drop off an old friend of the Russian government. He'll be enjoying our hospitality."

Fantasma looked over at him. Mikhail, for all his joviality, sometimes showed a dark side. Now, the pleased look on his face made her want to shiver a bit. Then he looked at her. His smile became much warmer immediately. "Ah, he wished to speak with you by the way."

She scowled. "What about?"

"Using your magic as he scans you."

Her scowl became deeper. "No. I am tired of tests."

That had been a huge portion of her life at one point. Scientist poking and prodding her over and over, trying to find some way of replicating her powers. They didn't do anything too invasive, as Boris and Mikhail wouldn't let them, but it was still a trial.

"If that is what you wish," Mikhail said respectfully. "He did also want to ask about the possibility of magical protections on the Avengers Tower."

Here, Fantasma stalled. Magical protections. That was a thought. She had spent some time on the Winter Guard base putting spells on the walls and doorways in an attempt to stave off things like demons making their way into the complex (Something that had been amusingly annoying to Chernobog, who found himself constantly with headaches before she managed to adjust the spells. Otherwise, his constant migraines and cursing were hilarious to behold). A project that might have been slightly laughable, until Rio proved the existence of such things, if _much_ weaker than what could have appeared. And the Avengers Tower, while well defended by technology, was ill-suited against magical onslaughts.

"...He'll scan me while I do them, won't he?" Fantasma asked sourly.

"Not if you ask him not to, I believe," Mikhail placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, stopping them. "My solnyshka, I know you're nervous. But you will be fine. These people are honorable. Trust in that. Trust in the soldiers in your unit. Especially Creel and Schahed, both of whom have fought alongside us in the most brutal of battles."

She bit her lip before nodding. As gently as ever, Mikhail led her along. "I will miss you," Fantasma said sadly. "When you have to go back home."

Mikhail pulled her into a hug. "Do not worry. I'll be here for a little longer and I'll be a quick ride away whenever you want me back. I promise."

They walked off toward the rec room, where three people were already standing. Thor, Stark, and Dial. Fantasma smiled warmly at the sight of the last, feeling a bit giddy at the sight of her new friend. Then she noticed what he was wearing. A Crimson Dynamo hat displaying her armor-clad friend shooting a beam of light from her chest, and a black hoodie that was designed to look like swirling shadows. On seeing the chest, which was designed to look like it had pale white teeth curled into a grin and pale white eyes, she realized it was a Chernobog hoodie.

So she was unsurprised as she and Mikhail walked up to hear Thor's annoyed voice.

"- just wearing that to annoy us," the Thunder Deity said petulantly. He was wearing his usual suit of armor, only missing his cape and his arms left bare. "Admit it."

Dial grinned up at the deity, apparently unafraid of the far stronger being. "Nah, I just like wearing nerd gear, you know that."

"You know she cramped my style, right?" Tony asked casually as he poured a drink from behind the bar, the billionaire dressed in a black Metallica t-shirt. "Seriously, I do the suit thing and suddenly everyone is doing it?"

"Dude, people have had the idea of power armor way before you got your hands on it," Dial said with rolled eyes, though his grin showed he was making fun of Stark. "If anything, you kinda owe royalties to Warhammer 40K."

"Fanboy," Stark said as though from long habit. "Seriously, I'm going to buy out whatever factory is making those things just so I can burn them."

"You would have a long and hard fight," Mikhail said cheerily as he and Fantasma joined the trio. "I believe the Russian government is rather possessive of them."

Stark brightened at the sight of Mikhail. "Hey, Misha! Thought you'd be fighting off jet lag!"

"I am used to the rigors of travel," Mikhail moved to pull out a seat for Fantasma, only for Dial to beat him to it. He gave the young man a nod before taking his seat, Fantasma sitting next to Dial. "Are you so bothered by the idea of Galina, Stark?"

The billionaire shrugged. "Nah. I kinda want to trade tips with her, to be honest. Can't say I like your guys making the direct comparison between me and the little Russian that could though."

Mikhail grinned at that while Fantasma frowned. "And Chernobog?"

"He is an _evil god_ ," Thor said, sounding almost incredulous. "Of course I don't like him! I, how…" Thor looked around at everyone. "Why are you all okay with this?"

Dial shrugged. "He was pretty creepy… but he seemed to like me all right."

"I don't like him," Mikhail added. "So I am in the same boat as you."

"He is a monster," Fantasma admitted. "If a useful one. And his stories are interesting."

"Indeed," Mikhail nodded. "Hearing tales of Chernobog insulting or disturbing zealots is quite entertaining! Still, he's an asshole."

"Asshole," Dial added.

"Asshole," Fantasma sighed sadly.

Thor seemed almost pacified by those admissions before Tony spoke.

"Sounds tough, but I think I can get over that, especially for a good story. I mean, I'm friends with you, aren't I?"

"Wha-!" Thor gaped at the Iron Avenger. "I'm a _good_ god!"

"You tried to electrocute me the first time we met, Point Break," Tony pointed out. "Not a great first impression."

Thor didn't seem to know what to say to that. Tony grinned at him and passed him a drink. "I'm kidding Thor. You're the only god I like you, big baby."

He took his drink and mumbled into it. "Better be. Electrocute. You'd have just passed out, wouldn't have even been hurt."

Fantasma giggled quietly. Dial turned to look at her. "So, I heard from Jen that you guys had a crazy night."

Tony looked at her as though pleased to find a new target to tease. "Is it true you set a building on fire your first night on the town?"

"Technically that was the meth lab exploding," Fantasma mumbled while blushing.

"I'm so proud," Stark passed her a drink. She was surprised to see it was a milkshake and gave him a confused look. Stark explained. "Ever since Dial joined up, I made sure to have a bunch of ingredients for non-alcoholic stuff. You want some real booze?"

She shook her head, taking a sip of her drink instead.

"So," Stark poured himself some whiskey. "I'm guessing your dad here already told you about what I asked?"

Fantasma blushed. "Mikhail isn't my father…"

Stark scoffed. "Cute. Seriously, what do you think? About magicking up this place?"

Before she could respond, Thor spoke. "That is an excellent idea. I've often thought that having such defenses would be good for the tower."

"That would be so cool," Dial said in soft awe. "Magical and Supertech defenses. At least we'd attempt making this place invulnerable even if it inevitably fails."

"Wow, way to bring us down," Stark said sarcastically.

"Sorry," Dial winced. "That's my inner nerd talking."

"You have an 'inner' nerd?" Stark snarked. "So what, this is you as a jock?"

"I'm sorry, of the people in this room, who is the only one who can speak in ASCII?" Dial snarked back.

"I'm sorry, of the people in this room, who has had sex with supermodels?" Tony said right back.

"You sure you wanna brag about that?" Dial said with a grin. "Cause Pepper would love to hear that."

Tony scoffed and looked back at Fantasma. "Fanboy's weak game aside-"

"I'm dating Jen!" Dial protested.

"More like _she's_ dating you," Tony said without looking away from Fantasma. "What do you think?"

Fantasma sipped at her drink while thinking. "...I can offer some useful spells. However, I need some time to ask you questions, to make sure they do not interfere with the technology you have. That may mean I'll have a more intimate understanding of the tower than you are comfortable with."

Stark frowned. He looked almost uncomfortable.

Then Dial put a hand on her shoulder, surprising her. "Fantasma is cool, Tony. We don't have to worry about anything."

She smiled at him with some relief. Dial trusting her so much just felt… good. It may have been naive, but it was something refreshing to behold.

Stark still seemed unsure but still nodded. "Then I guess Molly and I will get to work."

The warmth Fantasma was feeling turned to annoyance. "If you call me that again, I'll turn you into a weasel."

"Molly," Tony said immediately. When Fantasma glared at him, Tony shrugged. "Hey, I kinda wanna see that. Plus, being that small could be fun."

"It is not a nice feeling," Thor said, surprising the room as a whole. He gave them a grave look. "I was once turned into a frog. I still have nightmares."

"Heh. 'Throg'," Dial mumbled quietly.

"Anyway, I'm out," Tony swigged his drink and tossed the glass into the sink, somehow not breaking the cup. "I'm getting a haircut in town."

"For real?" Dial asked, surprised. "Don't you have your hair cut by some kind of… I don't know, hairdresser for millionaires?"

"First, I'm offended you think I'd take a hairdresser for people as cheap as millionaires" Stark grinned. "I hear this guy is pretty good."

With that, Stark was off, striding confidently to parts unknown. Mikhail rose up. "I'll need to complete my report and send it out in the meantime," he said while eyeing the drinks before reaching out to grab the largest bottle of vodka he could. Fantasma felt a sense of fond exasperation at the elation on his face as he prepared to leave.

"Will you be okay here?" Mikhail asked Fantasma.

She nodded. "Yes. Talk to you later?"

"Of course, solnyshka," with another fond smile, Mikhail walked off, leaving her with Thor and Dial.

She looked between the God of Thunder and the Universal Dial, as both were called (Among a host of titles). There was an awkward moment before Dial spoke.

"So, Thor, how's Sif and the Warrior's Three? I know they're still on Midgard, but I haven't seen them for a while."

Thor nodded, looking more cheerful immediately. "Yes, they are! We were planning to spend some time out in the city."  
"Is that good idea?" Fantasma asked without thinking. When Thor gave her an almost offended look she winced. "It's just, I know they might have an issue with… culture shock? It's bad enough for me and I'm from Earth."

Thor's face cleared. "Ah, you are quite correct, Lady Fantasma. That is exactly why we must visit the city. So that they may see how Earth has changed in our absence, both the good and the bad!"

Dial cocked his head to the side thoughtfully. "Yeah, that's fair. You want anyone to come along? I mean, you've gotten better, but you tend to have some problems with Earth culture to some days."

The God of Thunder scowled. "No, I don't."

Dial crossed his arms.

"...Well, not as much!"

Dial coughed.

"That-! I-!" Thor sighed. "Verily, you are annoying."

"You're my friend, dude, I'm just trying to help," Dial said with a shrug.

"And I appreciate it. But it is annoying," Thor sighed once more, holding his hand out. Mjolnir flew from a table nearby to smack into his palm. Dial's face sprouted a grin.

"Man, it is still so cool to see that," the part-time alien whispered. Thor seemed to hear, for he smiled broadly.

Then the god of thunder looked at Fantasma. "And you, Lady Fantasma? Would you like to join us?"

"Me?" Fantasma asked, startled. "Oh, I don't-"

"Please?" Dial asked. "It's going to be fun. We can see how many restaurants Volstagg gets kicked out of!"

Despite his joke, he seemed earnest. Fantasma thought about that.

She didn't have many plans for today. True, she'd been told to avoid having another night out… but then, it was midday.

"Very well," Fantasma rose with a smile, taking Dial's arm graciously. The Trio walked towards the balcony outside. "Where will we meet the others?"

"Near the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum," Thor said grandly. "The Lady Sif was apparently on quite a journey! She will be returning there with the spoils of battle!"

Fantasma blinked at that. "Spoils of battle?"

Dial looked confused as well but didn't seem willing to question it as they stood in the empty air. Instead, he separated his arm from Fantasma's and reached for his watch. After several twists, he pushed down on it.

 **"** **Astrodactyl!"**

"Squawk! Well, let's go see!" The space pterodactyl yelled. A blast of green released from the jetpack on his back, sending him shooting up into the sky before he twirled around. "Last one there is a rotten egg!"

"You cheater!" Thor shouted gleefully, spinning Mjolnir around to pick up speed.

Fantasma laughed, raising her hands to release blasts of purple magic, floating up into the air.

The three superheroes launched from the Avengers Tower in a blaze of green star power, white lightning, and purple magic, heading out towards the Hudson River.

 ** _Luke Cage_**

Luke swept some hair across the floor of Pop's Shop, making sure to get as much as he could on each sweep of the broom. Pop was cutting an older man's hair while arguing with him about the Knicks. A pair of kids were playing video games on Pop's tv. And a man with glasses and a hat on named Bobby Fish was playing Jessica in a chess game. It was pretty peaceful other than Jessica constantly mumbling angrily to herself, an attempt to keep her cussing to a minimum. She had the swear jar sitting directly next to her just in case though.

As Luke worked, someone entered the shop, drawing his attention. He nearly dropped his broom.

Tony Stark, billionaire and superhero, stood at the door, removing a pair of sunglasses with a smile.

You could have heard a pin drop as everyone stared at him. Luke immediately noticed two things. First, he was alone. No bodyguards or police. Second, he was ignoring Luke and Jessica, only looking at Pop. "I got next."

Pop didn't seem to know what to say to that.

Tony freaking Stark moved to sit down on one of the waiting chairs, grabbing a random magazine off a table and flipping it open.

Luke and Jessica shared a dumbfounded look.

Both kids playing video games had stopped to look around when they realized things had gotten quiet, only for one of them to stop Tony. He stared at him for a long moment before his eyes widened in realization. "Y-You're Iron Man!"

Tony looked up at the kid and smirked. "Yeah, I am. How's it going?"

The other kid hit his friend with a scoff. "Man, come on, that ain't Iron Man! Iron Man is taller!"

Tony Stark blinked slowly. Then he looked over at Pop. "See? This is why I need the haircut. I'm unrecognizable."

The other kid seemed to realize then that he was wrong and gaped at Tony. The first one bounced excitedly in his seat. "That is so dope! Do you have the suit!?"

"Yeah, this one," Tony gestured to himself with a grin. "It's a nice one I think."

"Nah, not that one, the Iron Man one!" the kid said excitedly.

The billionaire rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Finally, he nodded and raised a hand to his ear. "Jarvis?"

A moment later, short enough that Luke figured the thing was waiting somewhere nearby, an armored suit landed in the street outside. The kids, shouting in excitement, rushed out and up the stairs to marvel at the Iron Man suit.

"Took your time with it," Tony snarked.

A voice came from nowhere, sounding as dry as possible. "Sorry sir, unfortunately, it had to be taken to the cleaners to have it buffed out."

Luke noted the voice's sarcasm game was on point. Tony smirked again and went back to reading his magazine.

Luke and Jessica shared a look. He had to assume she had the same thought she did. Iron Man was in the shop. His suit was right outside and apparently could pilot itself.

He felt his palms tighten on the broom on his hand, thinking to himself. He didn't know if he could fight an Iron Man suit. He was tough enough that bullets bounced off of him, and could punch through steel. But the Iron Man suit could do the same things _and_ had a lot more firepower from those lasers or whatever it shot. Jessica was more vulnerable to the suit since she wasn't as durable as he was.

...Why was he here? Why was he just sitting there reading a magazine while people outside gathered around his suit?

Luke looked over at Pop and felt surprised when he saw the older man had gone back to cutting his current customers hair. Pop felt his gaze and gave him a shrug.

"What else can I do?"

That was fair.

Luke walked to the back, Jessica following after him.

"We need to run," Jessica said immediately.

"To where?" Luke pointed out. "He can _fly._ "

Jessica opened and closed her mouth, then frowned thoughtfully. "Yeah. Yeah… Okay. If he's here for us, we don't have a lot of ways out without taking him down first. So if he is here to take us, we have to take him down hard and book it."

What?

"Jessica, if he's here to take us in… he's an _Avenger_."

That pretty much said it all. He had a lot more resources than they did, as well as bigger friends. Luke had been nervous enough running from the police as it was. The thought of the Hulk ripping off a roof and reaching a hand down towards him worried him. Or of a lightning hammer, or a giant alien made of diamond… honestly, it was sad to realize that even with super-strength he had a lot more to worry about than he would have a couple of years ago. The playing field was a lot more level than he wanted.

"Then what is the other option, hope that he's here for a haircut!?" Jessica hissed.

Luke shook his head. "Doesn't matter. We aren't doing anything in Pop's shop. It's in Switzerland. Neutral ground."

Jessica scoffed. "Does Tony Stark know that?"

Pop finished with his customer. The man in the chair rose up very quickly, stepping aside for Tony Stark. Tony rose up and moved over to Pop, sitting in the chair very casually. "So, how's the day been?" Stark asked casually.

"Pretty good," Pop seemed to relax once he was putting an apron on Tony's neck, as though the return to routine had calmed him. "How about you, Mister Stark?"

"Tony, please," Stark winced. "Seriously, I get fake politeness all the damn time. It gets fucking annoying," he said frankly.

Pop frowned, finger raising to point. Tony looked in the direction of the finger to see the innocuous yellow can with the words 'Swear Jar' on the side.

"..."Tony's eyes seemed to light up and a grin grew. "Are you serious?"

"As sin," Pop said with a smile.

"Well damn, take a little off the top and let's get this started!" Tony said cheerily. "Now, I'm going to tell you a story while I do this. What's the exchange rate on the jar anyways?"

"A dollar for every swear," Pop's said as he began to cut.

"Huh…" Tony thought about that. "Well, just don't tell Pepper I told you about this. The story of me, and the 2007 Maxim Calendar Girls."

Luke blinked. "Is he for real?"

He was. For the next few minutes, Tony Stark told the raunchiest stories Luke and Jessica had ever heard. At one point, one of the kids came back inside to excitedly ask something, and Tony stopped to answer him, his language completely clean once more. Then the kid went back outside and suddenly Tony was tearing apart any sense of decorum. Pop's, in the meantime, didn't seem to mind at all, which was almost as surprising. Luke and Jessica watched, Jessica looking reluctantly impressed. Luke kinda got the impression she was taking notes.

At one point, Tony began to describe, in incredible detail, what he'd done with the Christmas cover girls, who had been twins.

"How much of this do you think is true?" Luke asked.

Jessica smirked. "What, you getting jealous?"

Luke scoffed, untouched by the insult. "Hardly. Just starting to wonder what his endgame is. After all this, things are starting to feel anticlimactic."

It was. Luke was starting to feel like hiding in the back was an overreaction. Tony was just sitting there getting a haircut and running up his swear jar tab. Which people did do from time to time, honestly. Not because they wanted to disrespect Pop but rather to have an excuse to reward the man for all his good work.

Honestly, the fact Tony stopped when the kids were around were the only reason Pop was letting him get away with it. If he wasn't doing it just to raise his tab, Pop wouldn't have been half as willing to let it go.

"Actually, they're all nice girls," Tony ended. "I should have them over for a party or something. Anyway, we all good?"

"Just about," Pop said. "If you've stopped turning the English language into a cesspool," he ended with a wry smile.

"It's the best language to swear in," Tony joked, before frowning. "I guess Russian is pretty good. So is Greek… Japanese is fun. You know what, raincheck on those," Tony shrugged as the apron was swept off of him. Tony leaned forward to look at his hair. To Luke, there was no perceptible difference, but the man seemed satisfied because he nodded and reached for his wallet.

"Here you go," Tony handed Pop several bills. Should be exact change, right?"

Pop looked it over and grunted. "Huh. This is the exact amount. Three hundred and seven."

"I'm good with numbers," Tony smirked. Then he looked over at Jessica and Luke. "Nick Fury should be here in a few days, so if you two wanna keep hiding every time I come by, I'm gonna warn ya. The cyclops doesn't play those games," Tony's smile had become just a bit more vindictive. "Have a nice day you two."

Tony Stark turned and left. Moments later, the sound of the Iron Man suit taking off filled the air, leaving Luke and Jessica to stare out of the shop.

"...We're leaving," Jessica said at last.

Luke didn't know how to tell her that it probably wouldn't be any use.

 _Author's Note:  
_  
Had a weird week. I'm a huge fan of Yu-Gi-Oh, and I went to the YCS Portland tournament this weekend. Had a pretty good record, 5-0-3, which is five wins and three loses... and I ended up losing my deck. So some asshole is running around with my 200+ dollar Cyber Dragon deck. Great.

Anyways, story. First, Dial and Ruby hanging out was fun to imagine, and Mikhail is still around for work-related reasons, though he's going back after the Savage stuff. As for the last part, Tony is a dick, and I like that section because of it.

So let me know what you guys thought! One more chapter of random hanging out, then we get to the meat and potatoes. Savage Land. See how that goes


	87. Chapter 87

_Author's Note:_ Here's the chapter, sorry it took so long guys.

* * *

 _May 18, 2014_

 _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_

Before May 18th, the day I headed to the Savage Lands, I spent time with my friends. I managed to get a lot done in the days before, staring with meeting with Sif and the Warriors Three.

* * *

 _May 16, 2014_

The best part of having the Omnitrix in New York is how easy it is to travel around the big city. I tended to try and get creative when I traveled sometimes. Going out as Astrodactyl, shift into Big Chill to go through a building, Snare-Oh for a web-slinging, running as Fasttrack through the streets and subways, Goop to dive through tight spaces, Wildmutt or Blitzwolfer to run on all fours, then Feedback to ride on power lines. Any combination of those tended to make trips through the city a blast.

That day, I went the boring route and just jetted my way to the docks, Thor and Fantasma in close pursuit.

In a burst of green starlight, I landed in Astrodactyl form and watched Thor and Fantasma land with a smug grin on my face. "Squawk! I win!"

Thor scowled. "Only because you cheated!"

"If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying, squawk!" I chortled in my weird alien pterodactyl voice.

Fantasma, meanwhile, was eyeing me strangely. "This form is very odd. How many do you have altogether?"

I stopped laughing to think about that. A boat far in the distance honked its horn, and the smell of water and general grossness of the Hudson River filled my nose.

"Hmm. I have Astrodactyl," I gestured to myself. "Then there's Diamondhead, Big Chill, Four Arms, Wildmutt, Blitzwolfer, Swampfire, Goop, NRG, Upgrade, Rath, Jury Rigg, Frankenstrike, Feedback, Blight, Grendel, … Huh. Who am I forgetting?"

For some reason, Thor looked almost offended. He went to say something, only for the lightbulb in my head to ding. "Oh yeah!" Thor smiled, apparently pleased. "Fasttrack! Can't believe I forgot about him."

Thor stared at me like I'd killed his child. "What about Sandrass?!"

I frowned. "I mean… he doesn't really count?"

"Doesn't count?!"

"You said that if I turned into him he might turn New York City into a desert?!"

"He still counts!" Thor argued.

Fantasma stared at me, then at Thor. "Is that form truly so powerful?"

"Absolutely," Thor said.

"Kinda," I said.

We shared a look. Thor glared before sighing. "Well… it has problems right now."

"It's my Asgardian form," I explained softly. "He has the power to control sand… we think?"

"You think?" Fantasma crossed her arms and gave me a look, the kind Nat and Jen did when they were trying to figure out if I was being ridiculous on purpose.

"Well, it's kinda up in the air right now," I said with a shrug. "Whenever I turn into him, he feels like my most powerful form. But then he just sort of… overpowers? I don't know, it's like he gets so strong it ends up collapsing in on itself, Squawk!"

I thought back on that. Sandrass was insanely useful in the few sessions I'd had to test him out. He was basically Gaara from Naturo, having the power to crush with huge waves of sand or slice opponents with small grains that tore through the ballistic gel bodies we'd had used for testing with the same force as a .50 CAL rifle bullet. In other words, an easy kill shot. A terrifying idea overall.

The only problem, as I'd told Fantasma, was that he seemed to be testy when it came to how long he could be used. I often ended up only using him for around two minutes. Plus, Thor was nervous about the form. It shouldn't technically exist, which I figured was a point to Azmuth and his badass scientific genius.

"At least have respect for the form you gained from me," Thor grumbled.

"I do respect it. But it's hard to count it as a form when you keep having me promise to not use it," I grumbled. "Seriously, I just want to Sabaku Kyū a dude once," I said, referencing the signature move of Gaara the badass Naruto ninja. Well, I wouldn't be squeezing a guy to death like a melon of course, but still...

Thor crossed his massive arms. "I understand. Were I to have access to immense power, yet was told not to use it, I would also be annoyed. But I want to have my father or his experts speak with you first. A new Asgardian of such power should at least be examined. A human becoming a god doesn't happen every day."

The devout Muslim in me kinda winced at that but I was able to focus on the real issues. "Fine, fine. Just let me know as soon as I can visit Asgard. I want to take selfies in front of the Destroyer Armor."

The God of Thunder seemed irritated for some reason, glaring at me. I grinned. "I'm kidding. Kinda."

Fantasma chuckled lightly, while Thor seemed to be hiding a smile as well. "Yes, well… That armor has caused me quite a bit of trouble before, so I don't mind the idea so much."

"Is it magical in nature?" Fantasma asked. "I'm self-taught so I've been curious about how magic is used in other cultures."

Thor opened his mouth and closed it while seeming a bit sheepish. "It… might be? My father never told me. And I have never been one for the mystical arts. My mother was raised by witches but I did not learn anything about it from her… I regret that sometimes."

The last was said with a quick and sad smile. Fantasma and I stood there silently. I thought of my mother, a kind, if quick-tempered, a woman who worked way too hard for her family. I missed her. I would have given anything to hug her again. Same with the rest of my family.

Fantasma spoke then. "I never really had that sort of thing. I was always alone…"

Thor stepped forward after a quiet moment and clasped her shoulder, giving her a kind smile. "You are not anymore. I can promise you that. And I will try to find a way to aid you with your magic… Dark as it is," he frowned. "I must say, it is rather incredible that you can use such corrupting spells without being mutated or having your soul destroyed."

Fantasma chuckled, purple eyes flashing with dark humor. "Chernobog says that too. Even if he's vaguely unhelpful all the time," she scowled. "He either makes fun of me or gives me _too_ much information."

"That doesn't surprise me," Thor said with a growling tone to his voice.

"Dude, what the hell happened between you two?" I asked with an arched eyebrow. "I mean, this isn't just hero vs villain god-type hate, you guys sound like you have real beef."

Thor and Fantasma stared at me blankly.

"...Beef?" Fantasma asked. Thor, looking just as confused.

"Bad history."

"Ah," Thor frowned. "That is… a long story. Involving a place now known as Svalbard and that monstrous 'god'. I'll tell it to you, but not until I am roaring drunk."

He didn't say it funnily. Thor sounded tired. Like he'd been through hell and just wanted to rest afterward.

I forget sometimes that Thor wasn't just a badass and fun friend of mine. He's an ancient being who has walked along with mortals for millennia, fought beings that would have left me shattered before the Omnitrix, an old and powerful man who was once revered for his power. He was a man with a history.

I could see it now, in the way he smiled without his eyes crinkling in happiness, the set in his shoulders. It didn't last long though. Just about as long as a lightning bolt. Then he straightened up and smiled.

"Nevertheless, I will bring you to Asgard soon, Mahmoud! It will be glorious!" He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me in, which was always funny to have happen. He was awesome but there was a reason Thor/Dial smut kept getting sent to me, considering how affectionate Thor was at times. Which I was saving in a folder with the rest for the day I wanted to share some laughs with the team. The weirdest of them involving the alien forms and creative use of powers of course.

"That sounds awesome, man," I said with an honest grin. He made that promise all the time, and he was sincere every single time.

"And you, Lady Fantasma!" Thor wrapped an arm around Fantasma's shoulders as well. "I will request to have some of my old magical texts given to me," his voice became more solemn. "I may not have any knowledge of magic myself but it may be that my old school books may aid you in your own magic."

Fantasma's eyes lit up and she seemed to positively quiver with happiness. "Really! That would be incredible, Thor!"

"They usually call him 'Mighty', not 'Incredible'. That belongs to someone else." I snarked.

Fantasma gave me a mock glare.

"Ah, she has arrived!" Thor said, pointing in the distance at a ship.

With my alien eyesight, I could easily see just what he was… talking… about...

I stared up at the boat in front of me as it came into view.

It had been a yacht. A big ass yacht. Probably a very nice yacht once, those kinds that had four floors. This one had been through hell though. The entire ship had dents, scratches, and tears across the surface, around half of the windows were boarded up, and the crewmembers, despite all grinning, had cuts and bruises everywhere.

The boat came in as Lady Sif stepped out of the cabin to smile down at us. "Greetings!"

"Squawk!" I said wide-eyed. "Sif, what the heck happened?"

"We went treasure hunting!" one of the passengers squeaked. A tiny peroxide blonde woman, she lifted a golden necklace over her head proudly, getting a savage grin from Sif.

The boat was tied to the dock and the passengers started coming off with Sif coming off first.

"I thought it was her week off," I mumbled to Thor as I watched passengers carrying gold and what looked like pieces of meat from sea animals off with them. Seriously, her day off and she'd gone on a crazy-ass adventure? Most people would have fun, but this seemed a little next level. Dayum.

Thor nodded. "Yes. I keep telling her to relax..."

I recoiled to turn my pterodactyl sight towards him. He was serious. Man, Vikings don't fuck around when it comes to partying.

"Friends!" Volstagg's voice drew our attention. The massive man was striding towards us with a wide grin, followed by Fandral and Hogun. The Warriors Three were dressed in their usual, which mean that, combined with the beat-up ship and the proudly grinning rich kids and alien superhumans, we drew a lot of attention.

"Sup, Squawk!" I said with a wave.

"Greetings," Fantasma bowed slightly.

Thor stepped forward with wide arms and a wider smile. "My friends! All together once more!" Sif stepped off the ship to finish her goodbyes to her… friends? Hostages? Partners-in-loot? "So, where shall we start?!" the Mighty Thor said bombastically.

"To greet this lovely thing, obviously," Fandral stepped forward, eyes alight at the sight of Fantasma. He bowed graciously. "My lady, where was Thor hiding such ravishing beauty? Truly, you are the reason men must wish to come to Midgard. For if I had known of your existence, I would have fought my way through Muselpheim to-"

"Dude," I said dryly. "Tone it back a step. Her dad is a grizzly bear."

Fandral scowled at me, while Hogun smirked behind him. Fantasma was grinning. Guess she thought he was funny, which… yeah, Fandral was fun.

"Food!" Volstagg said with relish. "The food on Midgard has become quite delicious! I wish to sample more of it!"

"You'd sample it even if it wasn't delicious," Fandral scoffed.

"I-!" Volstagg began to say, only to stop. He rubbed at his fiery red beard with a mumble. "Well, I'd be a lot less eager."

Thor barked out a laugh while Sif joined. "Very well! Come, friends! To the nearest dining establishment!"

So yeah, we went out to eat. Nothing crazy happened, which was nice if a bit boring. We went to Denny's to eat more pancakes than anyone ever had, the combination of five Asgardians and a witch who used calories to fuel a lot of spells causing real damage to the food supply there. I ate normally until I decided to cheat with the Omnitrix, switching from Wildmutt, to Four Arms, to Rath. Combined with the people taking pictures and the Warriors Three destroying mugs every time they wanted more coffee, we had a good time before getting asked to leave. When I got back to the tower though, I had a different experience that was interesting for its own reasons.

I finally introduced Tony Stark and Steve Rogers to Avatar: The Last Airbender.

I set up the camera and made sure it was pointed at the two in front of me.

"Is this really necessary?" Steve asked in confusion. He was sitting on my couch in my apartment wearing a shirt depicting his shield and looking a little awkward.

"Yeah," Tony agreed, his hair freshly cut and wearing a shirt with his helmet depicted on it. "I feel like I'm on the casting couch here. Because I'm just gonna put it out here, I don't care how handsome Steve is, I'm not-"

"Okay, no!" I shouted hurriedly with a wince. "Dude, this is what people do! And people are gonna want to know about what you guys thought!"

Tony rolled his eyes while Steve seemed confused.

"Okay…" Steve stared at the camera. "So uh, what do I do?"

"Just talk about how you felt while watching it. What you liked, hated, felt worked best. Your honest reaction!" I said giddily.

Steve looked at Tony. The Iron Avenger shrugged. Steve looked back at me, and I gestured toward the camera. He looked down at it and gulped. "Well uh… I liked it?"

"...And?" I asked leadingly.

He frowned. "Well… I liked the characters, mostly because they were very relatable I think. And I know you said that Aang reminded you of me, but I think Sokka worked better. Watching the soldiers go off to war, wanting to do everything I could to help. That resonated with me."

Huh. That was fair. I mean, on the surface the 'frozen in ice' thing was the only thing Aang and Steve had in common.

"I didn't get what I was supposed to be so excited about, to be honest," Tony admitted. "I mean, it was good but I didn't get a lot of why people are so gaga for this show yet."

"I think for me there's a disconnect," Steve said. "Because you guys are used to animation being so good in the modern-day, but this just _way_ ahead of any animation I saw as a kid. That was really beautifully drawn."

Tony shrugged. "Well, I kinda want to find out what the hell is the Fire Nation, and that Uncle Iroh guy was cool. The whole bending thing was cool, even if that Katara chick doesn't seem to do anything impressive with it. Are there other kinds of bending they haven't discovered yet?"

"Yes!" I said in excitement. "And man you're gonna love it!"

Tony still seemed unsure, as did Steve. But they would learn. They would _learn._

"Okay, next episode!"

* * *

That was going to go well, I could tell.

Of course, not all of it was hanging with gods and watching cartoons. More work was always available and Director Hill was always updating us. Because I don't know if you know this, but superheroes don't really get days off. And honestly, that was especially prevalent on the 17th.

* * *

 _May 17, 2014_

"Why the hell is he even running?!" I yelled angrily as I sped on top of power lines in Feedback form. Some guy had just robbed a bank and booked it in his car while I was patrolling nearby. He'd taken one look at me, screamed, then peeled off through the streets.

My two-toed feet bounced from line to line as I pulled in power from the city itself, my plug-like head tendrils flowing behind me while I sped after the bank thief.

Seriously, a bank thief? In a part of the town that was only a mile away from Avengers Tower? This guy had better be the Shocker or some other badass supervillain because it wouldn't end well.

I lamented that I couldn't just absorb the guy's car battery. Granted, I could get close enough to do it fairly easily, but if I just pulled out all of its energy at once then the car might go spinning out of control. Which, by the way, why did New York City choose now to have no traffic?! You clear things up when a random hood goes on a joy ride?

"Damn it, I'm gonna break your legs," I grumbled as the guy skidded around a corner and into an alleyway. I leaped off a power line to jump towards a building across the way, wall ran for a couple of steps, then jumped again to get a good view of the car as it sped down the alley. Okay, nobody in the alleyway, not even a dumpster or bags of trash that could have a homeless person hiding within.

I raised my hands as I fell and lightning flew from the car and into the open sections of my fingers, filling me with power. As it did, the car hiccuped a few times as it's battery suddenly completely ran out of power. It was almost anti-climactic when it slowed down in the alley, rolling to a stop as the man inside screamed, yelled, and beat on his car.

I landed on the hood of the car and leaned down to look into the windshield with a grin. "License and registration. Oh, and the cash you stole."

"Fuck you, freak!" the young man in the car said eloquently. He raised a gun and pointed it at me.

I'd already had a charge ready to go, one of my head tendrils raising to unleash a single blast through the window as he prepared to pull the trigger. The blast hit the gun to send it flying out of his hand, the guy yelping in pain as he clutched his hand.

"Fuck!"

"Night-night!" I said cheerily.

And then the guy was hit by a few thousand volts.

Later, I was standing in the _Enterprise_ in my normal human form after the bank thief had been arrested. Maria was looking over the police report of the encounter with a critical eye as I paced in front of her desk. "And you say that he attacked the bank in broad daylight?"

"Yeah," I crossed my arms. "But he's one of the few that does it in broad daylight now. I've been patrolling non-stop but it's getting harder for me to find actual organized crime instead of these random morons. People aren't doing crime in the open as often."

Along with the bank thief I'd stopped a single mugging, a purse snatching, some woman who had stabbed a man on the subway and saved a guy from a car crash. Standard stuff for New York City. But nothing from the mob or anything on that level. Just the crimes of desperation that existed everywhere, even after hours of hunting for trouble in every form I had.

"I'm worried about that. I'd like to think that the gangs are all about to go straight and leave me with nothing but random crimes I can stop, but I doubt it. Fisk is still a problem."

I wasn't an idiot. I hadn't just told Hill about the various superhuman threats. Fisk was a massive threat in the comics with nothing but money and connections, bad enough that he'd become a terrorist level threat. Hell, a lot of villains in the comics got elevated to 'super' off their sheer determination and brilliance. Or just plain luck. Can't forget the Hood, a two-bit criminal who ended up threatening reality itself.

"I know. But the FBI has had issues tying him to any sort of crimes," Director Hill sighed. "The criminal underbelly in New York City has been adapting to our presence. They don't use any communication that can't be burned or said in person, they're avoiding any crimes that can't be done by proxies. The fact is, I can't help any further either. BRIDGE has to focus on the international stage, and New York City isn't the entire world."

Fair enough.

"Then I'll just keep grinding I guess," I sighed sadly. "Hopefully the Marvel Knights can take over where I can't… Anything I should know about? You didn't call me up here just to talk about some random bank thief."

"A few things," the Director waved a hand in the air. "We've found some things out about the Rio incident. Namely, that we have some ways to send people back."

"Really?" I asked in confusion. "Time travel, just like that?"

"Not quite," Director Hill steepled her hands together, eyes narrowed. "From what our scientists tell me, the instant we send people back we are creating alternate universes. The sheer fact that they came forward or backward to land in our present means they have some knowledge of the future, and our ability to mind-wipe people is only partially helpful. We managed to find a way to stabilize a few of the portals to send people back. Some have asked to stay, such as that family from the Hundred Years' War. Can't blame them, since they have a better chance in our time. Others, like the young doctor from the year 2098, are going back."

Nobody asked that guy questions. Not even me. Whatever future he came from didn't involve us from the second he'd arrived after all. Knowing about a future that was never going to happen was a waste of time and resources, preparing for outcomes that just might never happen.

"It's all more than a little mind-bending," Director Hill said, looking more than a bit tired. "Fitz-Simmons and Doctor Foster are among the people who figured out how we could force the time anomalies in Rio to work for us so we could send people back, but we've had to double down on security to keep idiots who've watched Back to the Future too many times from diving into one."

"Anyone interesting decide to stay in our time period?" I asked with some nervousness.

"No one on our files or in historical records," Director Hill stood up and walked over to the center of the room. A hologram popped up in front of us and showing a screen with a man pictured on it.

The guy was huge. He had arms larger than Steve's and was bearing them to the world in all their sweaty and veiny glory. He wore a white tabard with the familiar symbol of a red cross emblazoned on it, chainmail under that, and a large full helmet. It looked like he had a battered bucket on his head with an eye slit in it.

"Sir Magnus of the Danes, a Teutonic knight who was found defending the statue of Christ the Redeemer from demons who were trying to defile it," the Director explained as though the sentence wasn't right out of a fantasy novel. "He was rather effective."

"The fact the demons we've been fighting are pretty worthless probably helps," I noted. Not a single demon in Rio had been capable of killing more than civilian so far, with some killing police officers. I wasn't the only one that hated them for their cruelty though, and I couldn't help but smile at the sight of the next slide depicting Magnus slicing what looked to be an imp's head off.

"So, how did he react to the modern world?" I asked. "I mean, he's a knight from back when everyone was all about 'Christianity or death!', so…"

"Yeah, he was a little bit out of his depth," Director Hill said with a hint of sarcasm. "Granted, he seemed willing to listen and he wasn't attacking anything that wasn't demonic, but we had to send for the Vatican to get him to stop claiming the existence of other religions as some great and evil sin. On the plus side, he's not racist as some of the others we got, so that was nice."

"And he wants to stay?" I asked with honest to god surprise. The next slide was a video. It showed the massive armored knight drinking from an almost comically small and dainty cup of tea as a man in priest's garb spoke to him with an earnest look on his face, Magnus nodding along calmly. He had his helmet removed now, showing a bearded face beneath with piercing blue eyes, and oh good lord he looked like the Mountain from Game of Thrones. The image of a poor guy getting his eyes thumbed out as his head was crushed filled my mind for a brief moment before I shook it away. As I watched, he reached out to take a biscuit off a tray nearby with his callused hands, dip it into his tea, and take an elegant bite out of it.

"He seems to be willing to listen and the Vatican requested to let them house and care for him in return for one of their experts on Demonology helping us," Director Hill shook her head. "And I'm once again annoyed that Fury never seemed to have to deal with these kinds of messes all at once. Or he did and just never told anyone."

"That's why you get paid the big bucks," I said with no real sympathy. She glared at me and I shrugged. "Hey, I'm dealing with the mess, same as you. I just get punched more often."

* * *

 _May 18, 2014_

Still, those were worries for another day. Today was Savage Day!

I woke up that morning in a damn good mood. I made waffles with peanut butter and chocolate spread, my favorite breakfast, listened to cheery music (Queen, Eminem, and random anime soundtracks) while I ate, and dressed in my armor right out the gate, placing my gun on my back and my sword on my hip, leaving my helmet down. Ruby was resting once more on my couch, the sneaky teen assassin having snuck into my room again, so I placed a blanket on her and headed to the hanger area in a damn good mood, holding a file in my hand.

On my way there, I read the file, which was a report on the mission. Technically I'd been placed in command as the lead Avenger, which was exciting, but probably bullshit. Ka-Zar had given an interview thus far. (Dude, Ka-Zar! For real dude, my life has some cool moments now.) Anyways, the future King of the Savage Lands had confirmed a few things, such as the fact this Savage Land had multiple races running around the place that were sentient beings.

I entered the hanger and looked around for my jet. We had long since made sure to have a couple of quinjets and other vehicles ready to fly us out, with the remains of the _Defiant_ still sitting on the right side of the hanger. I gave my poor girl a sad look, trailing my eyes across her torn apart form before continuing. One day. One day.

Creel and Fantasma were waiting in front of the quinjet we were leaving in, both in costume. Granted Creel's costume was his black tank-top and his newly replaced gauntlet full of materials for him to copy at a whim, but at least Fantasma looked properly comic book superheroic in her purple swimsuit.

"What's up, guys?" I said to the pair of fellow superhumans as they watched some of the BRIDGE scientists and soldiers that would be coming with us pack into the quinjet. "Excited for dinosaur day?"

"Dinosaur day? Dude, are you six-years-old?" Creel asked as I walked over.

"Dude, I'm 28, but that doesn't mean I stopped thinking dinosaurs are freaking awesome at some point," I stopped in between the two of them. "Granted, we saw them in Rio, but that feels like cheating when they're in a city, ya know?"

"I don't know," Creel rolled his eyes. "For a guy who gets into brawls with monsters every week, you can be a real dork."

"'Dork'? I'm sorry, is it the nineties? There is something wrong if you can't get excited about meeting velociraptors."

"I do not remember you two fighting like this," Fantasma said as she gave Creel and me a look, which we returned with a matching grin. "And Creel, you just said you were excited as well."

He chuckled. "Yeah, but I'm still gonna make fun of him for it."

"Hypocrite," I teased. "How about you, magic girl, you excited?"

"Yes," she smiled serenely, clutching her hands together. "This will be my first official Avengers mission and it will be to an unknown land few have ever seen before. It is quite exciting!"

I smiled at that. Fantasma may not have liked the comparison, but moments like this made me think of Hermione. A magical girl excited to see something new. Or… come to think of it, Gwen had been much the same way in Ben 10.

And Creel had power similar to Kevin's. We'd first met by trying to fight each other…

Probably best not to think about how my life ended up so similar to Ben in terms of my friendships.

"Sir," one of the BRIDGE soldiers walked up to me. He was dressed in green elite gear, perfect for jungle work, rather than the all-black I'd been familiar with them wearing. He was a little younger than me, maybe 25, with a buzzcut and tanned skin. I looked behind me for just a second before I realized he was speaking to me. "We're all packed up and ready to go on your orders," he said with a hint of a Hispanic accent. I remembered him a bit from Rio as one of the guys who had joined after BRIDGE had finished cleaning house, some kid out of California.

"...Let's go?" I said hesitantly.

The guy nodded with a severe look on his face. "Understood, sir. Let me know if you need anything," he gave me a salute and walked into the jet, joining the other soldiers within. I looked over at Fantasma and Creel. Creel was grinning.

"Why did he call me 'sir'?"

"Well, you're higher ranked than I am," Creel said easily. "And if they don't have a commanding officer higher ranked than you…"

"I don't _have_ a rank…"

"You don't?" Fantasma asked, her head cocking. "I have a rank with the Winter Guard."

"I'm not military trained though," I said weakly.

"Except by Captain freaking America," Creel pointed out.

Good lord, was everyone else taking me being in charge seriously? They were about to be pretty disappointed.

"So these guys think I'm in charge," I grumbled. I moved forward, my armored books clacking on the metal floor with each step. I stopped at the back door to the quinjet to look back at Fantasma and Creel. "Whatever. Let's go punch a T-Rex in the face!"

"That's animal abuse," Fantasma said worriedly, taking my hand with a quick 'thank you' as I guided her in after me.

"Not if it comes at you first," Creel chuckled, my tall friend stepping into the jet next.

"Look, best-case scenario, we go, walk around a jungle taking in some cool sights while making sure the scientists are safe, then come back," I said. The door to the quinjet began to rise as I looked out at the hanger before turning back to look at everyone in the jet. Three scientists, five soldiers, Creel, Fantasma, a pilot. They were all staring at me. "We'll be prepared for a worst-case as well. We're going into a place time forgot. Our people on the ground have confirmed that besides dinos, we also have sentient beings running around. And we all know that in the choice between one big strong animal and one person just smart enough to be stupid-"

"I'd rather fight the animal," Creel agreed, getting a chuckle across the room.

"Exactly. In the meantime," I said, pulling up the pilot's name from memory. "Baker! Get us there. And if you do the cliche thing and crash us there, I'm personally kicking your ass with Four Arms!"

"Yes, sir," the pilot said with a smirk, turning to look out the cockpit.

"Cliche?" Fantasma asked, confused.

"Just get ready to fly," I mumbled to her, lifting the Omnitrix to get Big Chill or Astrodactyl ready. I sat down in my seat and tried to calm down.

Never read a Savage Land story that didn't begin with a crash landing…

* * *

 _Author's Note:_

Wooo! So, I hope you guys enjoyed that chapter! Let me know what you thought overall, because next time we begin the Savage Land journeys, the first real test Dial is going to test. Sort of the finals in superheroism.

(See what I did there? His first real test is also a final! Boom!)

But seriously guys, please let me know what you thought overall, and please, visit the TvTropes page and the sadly empty Wiki to see how this story is growing, and join the Discord if you guys want to yell at me on there.

In the meantime, the next chapter will be up on my , and I'll be updating Breath for a New Verse and writing another interlude for Dial focused on how social media is dealing with all the change.

It uh... it's mixed. Because Twitter.


	88. Chapter 88

_May 18, 2014_

Towards the end of the flight, I wasn't the only one who moved up to the cockpit to watch the show. I took the co-pilot seat and helped the pilot while Creel stood directly behind me, Fantasma and a few others crowding in as well. Snow flew past the window when we got close enough, the sun shining down on the waters until we reached the icy coast. Baker, the pilot, and I guided the quinjet to slowly come down.

"Activating beam," one of the scientists said, flipping a button on the console that was newly installed. I activated the Quinjet's cloak as well. The last thing we needed was for some random village to see the Quinjet and think it was a god.

For a while, there was nothing but ice-cold tundra beneath us. Then, a small beam emitter under the cockpit of the Quinjet lashed out and hit nothing. Nothing split open, allowing us into a window that closed after we had passed.

Just like that, we were flying over a world out of time.

" _Lā ilāha,_ " I said softly in Arabic.

"Holy shit," Creel added.

" _Bozhe moi!_ " Fantasma mumbled.

The jungle swept around for miles beneath us, disappearing in the distance. We were low enough to see rivers going through the trees, fields of tall grass in the distance, and lots of green.

"This is crazy," one of the soldiers said softly.

"Welcome to the Savage Land, baby. Crazy central," I said with more confidence than I felt. Despite my amazement, I was still working the controls, feeling tense as I prepared for the inevitable crash.

"Oh my god," one of the scientists said in awe, leaning over to take a closer look at a nearby field. We all shut up and stared at the sight.

It was next to a large river, where the grass was lowest, allowing a clearing for water drinking, with clear lines of sight in case of predators. Which meant they could drink in relative peace.

I'd joked, quipped, made all sorts of cavalier comments about the prospect of dinosaurs. I'd seen a few in Rio. But seeing them like this was incredible. Under cloak, the dinosaurs below couldn't see or hear us, so we were able to peacefully watch without disturbing the animals.

Brontosauruses were standing near the water, stretching their long necks to sip at the clear blue river or reaching up to the tops of massive trees for leafy greens while a few of their babies roamed around them, one trying to climb up their parent the way all babies did. Stegosauruses were chewing at the grass like big dumb cows, calmly strolling as their spiked tails swung back and forth, finned backs waving with every step. Some bipedal dinosaurs I didn't recognize were walking away in a slow-moving pack with their babies hopping along like kangaroos.

We watched in silence together, the quinjet floating high above the field, as the majestic animals below roamed the plain, sipped at the water, and lived together. Hundreds of tons of prehistory, alive and well, moving much faster than I'd ever imagined as a kid. It was-

"Da-na-na, na-na, da-na-na-, na-na, da-na-na, na-na-naaaaaaah," Creel hummed.

"Dude!" I said in shock.

"Come on, man!" one of the soldiers said in annoyance.

"You ruined the moment!" a scientist agreed.

"Someone had to do it," Creel said without a hint of shame. "I enhanced the moment."

"Yeah, maybe if the real John Willaims did the theme instead of your tone-deaf ass," I grumbled.

We stopped bickering to look back.

"...They are beautiful," Fantasma said softly.

I looked up at her. The mage had tears hovering in her eyes. She noticed me looking at her. She quickly went to rub at her eyes while blushing. I smiled at her, then looked out into the distance. "Yeah… they really are," I said with a sigh. Then I firmly turned the quinjet around and flew towards the meetup location.

The part of the Savage Land that we had been told to meet at was on top of a massively tall cliff overlooking most of the land below, with a river at the foot of the cliff. The section on top of the cliff was clear of any jungle for a large area all around, which let us see the metal trailer that had been set-up there, the BRIDGE symbol resting on top of the structure. We came in low and landed in the clearing with a gentle bump. Once we did, the BRIDGE guys came out first, guns up and ready as they panned their eyes across the jungle. The scientists exited next, Creel and Fantasma after. I helped the pilot shut down the quinjet before getting out myself.

Thank god my armor was climate controlled. This place was scorching hot right now. Well, more humid than anything.

"Looks clear, sir," one of the soldiers said.

"Dope," I said casually. "Where are our people?"

"I'll check, sir," one of the scientists said, rushing over to the metal trailer.

"Great! Meantime, no killing the dinosaurs if we can avoid it. They're officially endangered rather than extinct," I told everyone. "Granted, if you run out of non-lethals and the choice is you and Rexy, well… we'll eat pretty well tonight."

"Sir!" one of the scientists said, affronted. She looked as though someone had suggested something a hell of a lot more horrific than what I'd said.

"What, we shouldn't waste it," I tried to explain. The young woman still looked disgusted.

"Some people," I mumbled.

"Looks like our people are here," Creel nodded over to the trailer, where a man and woman were coming out towards us. Fantasma moved to my right as the pair came over.

"Dr. Bernard Kloss and Dr. Dana Bergstrom, right?" I asked as the pair joined us.

Both had dived into the whole 'jungle' theme, both wearing khakis and jacket-vests, their faces and limbs covered in bits of dirt. They also had a knife and a pistol each. Natasha had once told me that based on how the holster of a weapon looked you could tell how often someone used them. The holsters on the doctors' weapons looked a bit worn. Not heavily used, but they'd pulled them out enough that the leather on them had started to crack a bit.

"Yes, that's us!" Dr. Bergstrom walked up with her hand out and shook Creel's hand, while Dr. Kloss went for Fantasma. The pair shook hands with my friends while Dana continued to speak. "We're glad to have you here! This place is just-"

"Amazing!" Dr. Kloss burst out. He went to shake hands with me at the same time as Dr. Bergstrom, and after a confused moment, I offered both hands, the pair grabbing each one enthusiastically. "It's dangerous, yes, but this entire continent is full of things we could never have conceived of. God, I wish I could keep it all in my head-"

A loud roar cut him off. Everyone who wasn't an Avenger stilled at that. Fantasma, Creel, and I shared a look. We'd all heard louder, but it was still very impressive.

The three of us turned to look at where the noise had come from. The jungle began to shake, birds rising.

"What kind of animal makes that noise in this jungle?" Fantasma asked the pair of doctors.

"Uh," Dr. Kloss mumbled quietly. "T-That would be Mapusaurus or at least the modern relative that lives here. They're pack animals, carnivores. I have never seen them come this high up though!"

"They might be here now because there are a lot more people to eat? And they just smelled us right now?" Creel suggested.

"I'm not so sure of that," one of the scientists that had come with us said. "Our theories on dinosaurs like the Mapusaurus don't say anything about them having especially strong senses of smell or hearing. It's more likely they're sight-based predators."

"You realize most of what we know about dinosaurs is based on fossils from hundreds of millions of years ago?" Dr. Kloss pointed out. "Not to mention that we're dealing with animals that have evolved over millennia in unknown conditions. We don't know anything concrete about them just yet."

The scientist's face turned red from embarrassment.

"Well, whatever the case, they-" I cut myself when the sound of footsteps began to come toward us. "Non-combatants get back, everyone else, at the ready."

"Don't need to tell me twice!" Creel shouted as his gauntlet flipped through its menu before he shifted into a solid steel form. He grinned while moving into his usual boxing stance.

"I'll defend the scientists!" Fantasma declared, floating up into the air on platforms of purple magic to hover behind us.

"On your lead, sir," one of the soldiers said.

"Set up a Killzone," I said. One of the scientists yelled in protest. "A knockout zone, whatever! Pilot, get into the air and get the minigun ready. If anyone looks like they're about to get Jurassic Park'd, I want dinosaur bacon!"

"Yes sir!" the pilot rushed into the quinjet, turning on its cloak and lifting off into the air.

The scientists rushed into the metal 'home' that had been set up for us. Fantasma waved a hand at it as the door closed, and a set of runes appeared all across the thing, glowing her trademark purple.

Meanwhile, I was thinking. Creel needed support. I was tempted to go for something with big guns, but maybe I already had the big gun I needed. But it could be bigger.

"Hey, Creel," I said to my friend. He looked at me confused as I raised the Omnitrix to show him the form I had highlighted. He blinked.

"Oh…" he grinned widely. " _Yeah_. Yeah, let's do that!"

"Do what?" Fantasma asked, confused.

I pushed down on the Omnitrix.

In a flash of green, my organs and bones turned to black sludge. My body flowed around for a moment. Then I rose up to press against Creel's body and his now metal form. Black poured across his body. He chuckled as power rushed through us until _we_ were chuckling in unison. I melded with his body, flowing through his cells until we had become one being. My mind pressed against his. _We_ smiled widely with teeth that were razor blades.

"We are Blight!" We said proudly.

Covered in a symbiote, Creel gained a full two feet in height and a bunch more weight in muscle. His skin became black with green lines crossing it. I couldn't help but form those lines into a spider similar to that of Venom's, with the Omnitrix in the center of my friend's chest, the large eyes on Creel's face making him look like a green-shaded Eddie Brock. That lasted a moment. Then his powers took over.

Our cells joined together meant they were _our_ powers. Black shifted into the color of steel until we looked like a metal statue of Venom while we chuckled.

 _"Bring it!"_ we roared as one.

That was when the dinosaurs broke the treeline. Six of them, all theropods just like T-Rex. And they were HUGE, almost forty feet long and tall enough that even our new symbiote enhanced height brought us just about as tall as their legs. They had a sort of orange color to them, with small striations of black throughout, like a tiger. Their heads were shaped differently than I would have imagined, probably because real dinosaurs had flesh and muscle on top of the bones we usually saw. They had some sort of small spikes going down their backs, and they seemed surprised to see us.

The six dinosaurs stared at us for a good long moment. They were very expressive, faces moving into what I read as confusion. They looked towards one of their number, the biggest of their group, who let out a bark.

Like, a golden retriever on steroids kind of bark.

 _"Was kinda expecting a more impressive noise,"_ I whispered to Creel.

"Yeah?" Creel said aloud, grinning very creepily. "Then let's make some."

He crouched to the ground then leaped forward with an explosive shockwave.

Symbiotes enhance the beings they combine with. They can do more than that of course, but if we want to think of the basics? They turn normal people into super-agile, superstrong, superfast, super durable, and self-healing metahumans.

But that is for _normal_ people.

Creel, when absorbing anything, was far from normal.

We sped forward like a bullet and hit the center dino, lifting it off the ground in a huge impact. The poor thing squawked in a very Astrodactyl way. It clawed at our metal form and got nothing but a 'gentle' fist to the cheek for its trouble.

Just like that, all hell broke loose. The mapusaurus (if that was the plural term for them) separated, two running to aid what we guessed was the pack leader while the other three rushed toward our allies.

We climbed on top of the mapusaurus we'd punched and raised a hand. "Gum-Gum…" the fist stretched back, growing as we grinned. With a rubber band sound, the fist came back, it's steel form glittering in the sun. Moments before the hit, we remembered we weren't trying to _kill_ the dinosaur, and our hand opened up. "Slap!"

 _"You nerd,"_ Creel said to me in our mind as I cackled.

The metal palm of our hand hit the Mapusaurus _hard_ , smashing the thing into the ground in the world's most epic bitch slap.

 _"GRUUUH!"_ the dinosaur whined before slowly closing its eyes and passing out. Steel-Enhanced symbiote flesh was a bit much for the poor guy. Or girl, I guess.

One of his/her friends rushed us from behind. We spun around with supernatural speed to leer at the massive creature, both the mapusaurus and us bearing long teeth as our tongues lashed out at the air. The mapusaurus hit us like a truck, lifting us into the air in its jaws as its teeth wrapped around our waist, long ivory scratching against steel with a squealing sound. We wrapped our arms around the neck of the dinosaur, long tendrils expanding to begin choking the beast.

While we wrestled with over 4,000 tons of flesh and really bad breath with another 4,000 moving in to help its ally, the other theropods were rushing towards our friends.

 _"Should we help?"_ I asked Creel.

He shook his head mentally, his muscles bunching as he fought to knock out a dinosaur. _"Nah. They've got this."_

Three mapusaurus moved across the clearing like lightning. I've heard that in real life, theropods like the T-Rex and these mapusaur's could only run about 12 miles per hour before they risked breaking their own bones. Guess they build them hardier in the Savage Land, because these guys were _booking_ it. Then again, anything that big moving at any speed is too fast in my opinion.

The BRIDGE elites didn't look too stressed. Instead, they began to fire their rifles. ICER bullets flew out on automatic, slamming into one of the dinosaurs with a loud 'PUFF PUFF' sound on every blow. The ICER's had been modified for this little trip, but even so, it took dozens of hits before the big dino finally collapsed. Even then, that didn't stop the other two. They moved around their brother as he slammed into the ground in an earthshaking 'BOOM' while sending dirt everywhere. The other two dinosaurs didn't seem to like that, based on the roars they released while rushing with their heads low towards the ground to try and eat our soldiers.

I imagine it was a huge surprise to them when a purple fireball hit the space in front of the dinosaurs. They reeled back, waving long-clawed arms in shock. Fantasma had entered the battle.

She floated above the soldiers as the fireball she'd threw became a wall of flame, the violet light outshining the sun above. She raised her hands and twisted her fingers together, creating a pair of runes in her hands. Each one lit up and unleashed a pair of blasts at both dinosaurs, sending them back a step but not hurting them. She clenched her fists at her hips with a determined look on her face and unleashed hell along with the soldiers, magical violet blasts and ICER bullets hitting the two dinosaurs.

In the meantime, Creel and I had our own issues. The dinosaur we'd been wrestling refused to go down at all despite the little issue of _not being able to breathe_ and the other one had grabbed onto our head, trying to pull at us.

Then, another dinosaur came from the trees, another mapusaurus. This one was a little smaller than the others, but still a big animal. He blinked in surprise at the sight of all of Fantasma and the BRIDGE elite taking out two of them while two other chewed on a visibly annoyed metal symbiote-human hybrid. Then he rushed toward Creel and me.

 _"Really?"_ Creel grumbled.

 _"Wouldn't most animals_ _run_ _by now?"_ I asked mentally. Seriously, were they trying to defend the alpha now?

Having had enough, we let go of the mapusaurus whose neck we'd been trying to gently choke out. Instead, we snapped out a tentacle towards his feet. Metal tendrils wrapped around his ankles and pulled hard.

Having something in your mouth pulling at your ankle is probably a weird experience. The mapusaurus who had been chewing at us yelped in shock as he collapsed, our head popping out of the mouth of the other as we fell with it. We rolled out of the mouth of the guy chewing on us the second we hit the floor.

 _"You got this?"_ I asked Creel.

He didn't need to ask what the plan was, only grinning mentally at me. _"Yeah, go!"_

In a flowing motion, we leaped toward the one we'd pulled to the ground. The one that had been helping him leaned in.

I separated from Creel in mid-flight. My still metal friend punched the dinosaur in the nose in mid-flight. He pulled his punch, but the poor guy still went crossed eyed with the impact.

I, meanwhile, flew as a glob of living black and green goo and hit the nose of the other mapusaurus. He stared at me on his nose as I raised my head to grin at him.

Then I flowed into his body.

I should mention that symbiotes have no trouble 'taking' over people. Even Peter Parker, one of the strongest willed people in existence, needed the help of a church bell actively aiding him to rip off the Venom symbiote. It varied from time to time, but even a baby symbiote had some capacity for controlling those they combined with. But it's hard as hell for me to do since I feel like an asshole when I have to do it. Forcing someone's mind down like that, making them follow your bidding? Dick move.

Animals, on the other hand, are fair game. Not to mention easier to take over

I wrapped around the mapusaurus in moments, melding into its cells. We became one being.

Together we raised our head towards the sky.

The sound that ripped from our mouth sent a shockwave out from us. The jungle shook and birds took off, while the mapusaurus and humans around us froze in horror. We panned our head around. Our skin had gone inky-black, the Omnitrix symbol resting on the center of our face while a green spider symbol stretched across our face from it.

We were now by far the largest animal in the area, the power of a Symbiote giving us extra mass. The mapusaurus I had taken over had a moment of surprise at that. Then a sense of glee. Only in an animalistic sense of course, the mapusaurus didn't have 'feelings' as we understand them, but my experience with aliens gave me more insight than most on alien minds.

We chuckled, a sound like plastic exploding into shards and entering flesh. The newest dinosaur that had entered the area backed away, surprised. It looked unsure. We spun around in a blur of speed and lashed out with our tail, smashing the smaller dinosaur in the face hard enough to send it stumbling back in surprise. The dinosaur, last one standing, raised its head in rage to roar-

"▄▅▄▅▂▂▃▃▄▄▅!" the sound that came from our jaws couldn't be considered a roar. It was a blast of noise powerful enough to send the guy stumbling back from the physical force of it. The mapusaurus stared at us. Then it slowly bowed its head. An act of submission. We looked around. Every other dinosaur was beginning to rise except the alpha. What the hell were these guys made of? They'd taken dozens of ICER bullets and still got up minutes later?! Whatever these guys ate to be this tough, I wanted a bite or two. They stared at our form. We glared at them. One, apparently braver than the others, growled in challenge.

We rushed forward with superdino speed and towered over the challenger, making sure he knew who the real alpha was. He cowered back and bowed as well.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," we said with our saurian lips. I barked in a particular pattern that the mapusaurus I had control of told me was the noise for leaving. The group started off. I growled low and walked over to join them. As the mapusaurus walked, I separated from him, flowing to the ground. He didn't mind. I could feel an emotion from him that was the closest a mapusaurus could have to smug satisfaction. He was the new alpha, and he was damn happy about that.

I landed a little ways from the old alpha and turned back into my human form, watching the mapusaurs begin to walk off into the jungle.

"I didn't know you could do that!" Creel called from nearby as he walked over to join me.

I grinned, looking over at him. "Yeah, well, I figured that to Blight the size of a host didn't really-"

It was a dumb mistake. I got cocky after a fight well won. I was about fifteen feet from the cliff, back to it. I wasn't paying attention to the alpha mapusaurus. He woke up in a panic, snapping his tail out. Hundreds of pounds of scaled flesh flew through the air. Creel's eyes widened. Fantasma shouted out.

I felt the tail smack me in the chest, the sound of flesh on armor filling my ears. My chest screamed in pain. I left the ground and was thrown back. I twisted upwards and back.

"FUUUUUUU-" My scream was cut off when I bounced off the ground. "Uff!" I reached out for the ground, but only got air. Lots and lots of air.

I can't describe the horror of suddenly realizing you've fallen off a cliff. Of seeing nothing but air, river, and stone reaching up to smack you. I reached for the Omnitrix as a rock came towards me. Then everything went black.

 _Carl Creel/Alloy_

"Mahmoud!" Creel rushed for the cliff, horrified. "Fantasma, take the dino!"

Fantasma flew overhead with a vicious scream. The bigass dinosaur behind him woke up long enough for a pissed-off Russian witch to start blasting him in the face with magic.

Creel ignored that to get to the edge of the cliff and stare down toward the ground. He expected to see Mahmoud flying back up in Astrodactyl or Big Chill form, or maybe Diamondhead or Four Arms waving up at him from a crater.

Nothing. Dial was gone. Creel glared down at the ground as Fantasma roared behind him. Then he activated his gauntlet, taking on the black and blue glow of pure vibranium before leaping off the cliff.

He freefell for hundreds of feet, hearing the wind pass his ears in a whirlwind rush, the scent of mud coming toward him as he landed next to the river almost gently. The joys of vibranium's ability to make kinetic impacts a non-issue. He looked around, trying to understand what the hell had happened. Creel looked at the ground, trying to find any sign of Dial. He raised a hand to his ear. "Dial, can you hear me? Where did you land kid, where are you?"

No sound came back. Fantasma spoke up over the radio, sounding like she was panting. "Do you see any sign of him?"

"Nothing," Creel walked back and forth, cursing. "Dial's gone."

The rapids before him rushed quickly in a rush on noise as Creel glared around, rage filling him to his core.

 _Author's Note:_

There's the chapter. Next one will be a little slow since I'll be working on a different fanfic, but once done with that I'll post another Dial chapter to deal with this cliffhanger, then the interlude. Hope you guys enjoyed, and please consider supporting me on , where I post new chapters four days before they show up here!


	89. Chapter 89

_Author's Note_ This chapter was released four days ago to my Pa tr eo ns! Please consider supporting me there

* * *

I was used to waking up in pain. This wasn't because of anything specific, just a combination of factors. I was used to having muscles sore from workouts, bruises from training, some… _stuff_ from Jen that we both never ended up regretting.

But I'd never woken up with pain shooting up my arm like fire. It blew up in my head with blinding whiteness. I was soaked, my legs felt cold, and I felt like I'd been both drugged and somehow not drugged _enough_.

"F-Fuck! What the hell?!" I moaned around a mouthful that felt like blood. My head was spinning as I blearily opened my eyes. I felt like I was being stabbed over and over in my arm, the anguish hitting me in waves. The pain in my head didn't help either. I coughed up some water, with tasted just a bit bloody. My helmet had snapped on at some point. That had probably saved my life if I'd ended up in the river. My armor had a small supply of air that it could provide me even without power to use the rebreather.

When I finally was able to see, I looked down at myself.

"...Shit," I mumbled quietly.

My right forearm was broken. It was bent at an unnatural angle, almost at the center of my arm. It was going purple at the bend. I instinctively tried to bend my fingers.

"Fuck!" it felt like lightning flowing into my body from my arm, carving chunks out of my nerves. My eyes snapped closed as I took big deep breaths of air. Damn. Damn. Damn.

I tried to rise, to sit up. I felt a rush of relief at the fact I could move. When my legs felt cold I'd been worried I'd snapped my back as well as my arm. Even if it would have been temporary with the help of the Omnitrix to let me shift into Swampfire to heal, I was still-

My thoughts stopped when I got a good look at myself. My armor was just… ravaged, I suppose would be the word. It looked like it had been melted while it was on top of my skin, with pieces gone where it would have protected my thighs, stomach, lower arms, and portions of my feet. I still had my clothes underneath, but even my helmet looked like it had been through a lava pit.

What the hell!? Why was my armor melted? Why was the rest of me fine, what… oh fuck. Anti-Metal. Somehow, someway, I'd encountered anti-metal. And if my armor was like this...

"Oh no," raising a hand to my ear, I began to speak quickly. "Creel, Fantasma, can you guys hear me?" Not even static. "BRIDGE! Hello, anyone, this is Dial! Can anyone copy?!"

Nothing. My HUD didn't pop up to show me anything either. No GPS to follow, no radio on either my quantum comm or normal comm. Whatever had melted my armor had also taken apart the computer.

I struggled to sit up completely as I thought fast. Okay, my armor was gone. My arm was broken. And-

The Omnitrix rested on my arm. It had been through hell. Portions were devoured, melted, pitted. It was still attached to me, but the portions that functioned as the main watch were a wreck. And the light… it was white. Bright and pulsing.

What the hell does that mean?!

I tried to use my right arm, only to bite back a scream at the pain. Since the Omnitrix rested on my left hand, this was a problem. I forced myself to bring my left arm to my right, but even with the Omnitrix right next to it I couldn't force my fingers to move without wanting to scream, and even then, only about a centimeter. Instead, I brought the Omnitrix up to my face. Feeling almost childish, I pressed the Omnitrix to my forehead. Nothing. I brought it to my mouth and tried to twist it. Other than aching teeth and the flavor of alien metal in my mouth, I got nothing. In a fit of frustration, I pressed the Omnitrix against a rock.

"Come on you dick! Don't quit on me now-" I slipped, hitting my broken arm on the ground. "AHHHHH!"

Okay… focus. Don't let the pain distract you.

I was lost in the jungle. My focus had to be on survival first and foremost. If I couldn't use the Omnitrix right now, my easy out to any of this (Swampfire to heal, Astrodactyl to get back to the cliff, NRG to nuke anything that stopped me). I had training on how to deal with broken arms. Best to put it into play.

I pulled myself to my feet, wincing at the feel of water dripping from my jeans. That was gonna be itchy.

A small laugh bubbled out of me. Armor and Omnitrix melted, arm broken, lost in the jungle, and I was worried about my legs getting itchy? Freaking ridiculous.

What was first? I had to set my arm. Thankfully, I was friends with a pair of good doctors.

* * *

 _Flashback_

"If you must do it," Jemma Simmons said with a slightly sour look on her face. "And if there is no actual doctor around…"

"Jemma, I promise, if there is a doctor, I'll have the professional set my bones," I said with a grin.

We were sitting in her lab with Bruce working nearby. I'd come to bother the two in my continuing bid to learn as many useful skills as I could for hero work.

Jemma sighed in relief, which I found slightly offensive. "Okay, I can teach you then. The first thing you want to do is make sure nothing is protruding from the skin. If the arm is bent…"

Take your arm and straighten it back into place as carefully as you can. Get ready for a shit-ton of pain.

I took my right hand in my left. The sting that followed was enough to make me hesitate. I looked up at the blue sky through the trees above, trying to let the beauty of the jungle and the sound of the river. With a solid movement, I brought my arm back into place.

 **"** **AGGGGGHHH!"**

When the spots left my eyes, I was lying back in the mud again. "...I'm doing this wrong."

The jungle didn't give me any response. Dick.

I rose back up to sit up, reaching for the sword on my back. When I took it off and brought to look at, I found myself wincing at the sight of my trusty blade.

It looked less like a sci-fi longsword and more like a beat-up machete with the tip have melted.

"Damn it," I looked over the blade. "I loved this sword, man. Not enough to name it, but still."

Still… If it was sharp.

As an afterthought, I also pulled my gun off my back, only to wince. Yeah. That was even worse. It was pretty much a big piece of square metal melted around plastic. I was probably lucky the magnets in my armor were still working.

I got up to get to work. I fought off my frustration with the situation all the while.

The first ingredient to taking care of a broken arm. Two pieces of wood, preferably flat. A bit of hacking with my half-melted sword got me two sections off the side of a big jungle tree. It kind of sucked, just slicing out two chunks of wood, but I'd worry about the ethics of it when I wasn't trying to survive.

Once I had two pieces of wood as long as my forearm, it was time for the second ingredient. Pieces of cloth, long enough to wrap around a limb several times. I took my sword and after a hell of a lot of trouble working around the melted sections of sword and armor, I got the bottoms of my jeans cut off without slicing myself.

I had to be careful about getting cut. Jungles were cesspools of disease. And this being the Savage Land, I was probably surrounded by viruses that no one had ever heard of in millions of years.

Once I had the raggedly cut sections of jeans in my hands, I cut them into several long strips. I tried to be careful, but also fast. Getting my right arm secured was important. But getting it done before night fell was even more important. I only had a few hours of sunlight to see in.

The second I had several long strips of denim, I took the two pieces of wood and placed one on the back and one on the underside of my forearm. The fucked up thing about my arm was that, based on what I could feel of the break, both bones in that arm had been cleanly snapped. I don't want to explain what it's like to take a hold of your arm and feel the bones just… _cut_ into two pieces under your fingertips.

"That is so gross," I mumbled. It was still kind of interesting to feel that.

I wrapped the arm once the pieces of wood were placed, looping the denim around and around while making sure none of the pressure went on the spot that had been fractured. Enough to keep my arm still without furthering my injuries.

I messed up the tie at one point. Working with only one arm, ya know? I cursed quietly, untied it, then put it back. Once done, I made a crappy sling out of the remains of denim.

It was a shit splint and sling. But it would work until I could get to safety.

I took stock of everything. Okay. Armor and Omnitrix weren't working. Well, unless…

Taking a moment to rub the Omnitrix against a tree to try and turn or activate the dial got me nothing. And it was still White?! What the fuck did that mean?!

Whatever. I'd have Tony or Fitz take a look at it if it didn't just fix itself… Please fix yourself.

I didn't want to get depressed while in the middle of survival. But the thought of the Omnitrix being broken, the fact it wasn't responding at all? Goddammit. What was I worth without the Omnitrix?

* * *

 _Flashback_

"You need to stop thinking that," Nat said as I lay on the mat. She'd kicked my ass once again, as always, and had stopped to let me take a breath.

"What, that the only reason I'm an Avenger is that I have the Omnitrix?" I asked Nat.

She scowled down at me. I shrugged while lying down. "What? It's true. If I didn't have this thing, Maria would have me in a room just writing notes on upcoming threats every day. I wouldn't be an Avenger, I'd be a desk jockey."

My favorite redhead squatted to look down at me. She was upside down from my perspective but still face to face with me. "If you keep thinking of yourself as useless without the Omnitrix, why are you even trying to train?"

"...I don't want to be useless," I admitted. "I want to be worthy of this life I've got now."

Nat stared down at me. "...Then shut up. Stop whining about how useless you are without that watch and start doing something about it."

"Yes, sensei," I tried to joke.

Nat grinned, flicking my nose.

* * *

Stop being depressed and do something useful. Maybe not the healthiest thing mentally speaking, but it would work for the jungle.

Okay. My armor was useless technologically speaking, but I still had chunks of metal protecting my body. Melted hunks, but better than nothing. My sword was melted, but it was still good enough to slice things even with the tip having been turned to a big chunk of metal. And I had clothes. Which, despite what you think, is a big deal. My simple shirt and jeans (Well, jean shorts now) were protection from the elements.

Okay, I'll admit it. I was trying to think only on the bright side.

I needed a better weapon. Something to make up for my melted sword. But that would be a waste of time right now. Better to focus on getting home. I'd floated down the river. So walking upstream should get me home. If I found something like bamboo, or maybe a good straight sapling, I could make a spear.

I started walking, my sword out in front of me. I stayed close to the river, trying to keep in the open where a quinjet would be able to see me, and got ready for the hard walk ahead of me.

Walking through the jungle was hell. It was hot as fuck even when I had to risk walking through the water. Several times I had to use my sword as a makeshift machete to hack through the undergrowth, which was exhausting. Chopping into wood takes energy you could be using for other things. Sweat dripped off my beard and shirt. My broken arm was a hassle. I was working under half my power.

As I moved, I 'blazed' a tree every once in a while. Blazing was the practice of slicing just a bit of either side of a tree with your blade, always at eye height. It's usually done to mark where a hiking trail was. In my case, I was trying to make sure of two things. First, that the jungle didn't confuse me to the point I ended up circling. Second, that anyone following me would know where I was headed.

"Fuck me," I said to myself. "Fuck me, fuck this jungle, fuck the Savage Land…" A buzzing sound drew my attention upwards. "...Fuck."

A bigass bug was flying near me. I lifted my sword hesitantly. It looked like a mosquito for a moment. I prayed that it wasn't. Not because it was big, well partly cause that, but because they carry diseases.

It flew down lower. I breathed easier when I realize it was a dragonfly. A dragonfly with meter-long wings. It was almost pretty. Its wings, while clear, fluttered a rainbow of color when the sun passed them, and its thorax was a bright fluorescent blue-green. It drifted down towards me. I raised my sword, only to blink when it landed on the melted tip with its spindly legs. It was heavier than I expected. It was also kinda… cute. Its wings fluttered as I watched it before it took off.

I continued.

Further down, another bigass bug scared the hell out of me. It came zooming out of the forest like a bullet out of a gun, rushing past. I stared at it as it went. It looked like a moving carpet of segmented scales, with dozens of small legs under it. It was fast as hell, dodging the rocks and trees easily. I watched it zoom off into the undergrowth with a sigh of relief. It was huge, man. Longer than I was tall. Maybe it had been a herbivore and that's why it hadn't attacked me. Either way, it was tense seeing an insect with that many legs as big as a person go rushing by.

As I walked, I kept remembering everything I'd learned about jungle survival.

* * *

 _Flashback:_

Nat and I were standing in the lab with Bucky. The former Winter Soldier and current Avenger was speaking while a hologram floated in front of us. "Your first issue with survival in the jungle is not the poisonous animals like snakes or predators like jaguars and crocodiles. You should be careful about them, sure. Even the smallest animal can cause serious harm or even kill ya."

He waved a hand. The image of a small brightly colored frog popped into life. "You touch one of these, for example? You spend the next few hours hallucinating before you die from the poison that entered your bloodstream."

He glowered at me. "You can get dehydrated when the humidity and heat bleed you dry. If you're injured, that gets worse. The body starts spending calories and water to heal itself. Then there are diseases like malaria to make it worse. Walking through the jungle is worse. The combination of undergrowth and constantly checking for poisonous or dangerous wildlife is a horror show."

"...Why is it whenever you describe something, it's like I'm getting training advice from Satan?" I asked with wide eyes. Nat chuckled behind me.

"Because I've been to hell," Bucky growled. "And if you listen, I can help you learn how to get out," he swiped the air, the hologram shifting again. "The jungle. The jungle is the enemy. More than anyone hunting you, more than any animal. The jungle is first. It will surround you in green hell, disorient you, hide threats and help alike in its foliage," I was starting to get flashbacks to Jumanji. "So focus on the fundamentals. Water. More important than anything when it comes to survival. In the jungle, you don't want to get it from rivers without boiling it first. So instead, you get it out of trees first and foremost, leaving the option of boiling for later. The best plants to get water from are..."

* * *

Remembering that advice, I kept an eye out for the plants around me. While doing that, I ended up encountering more wildlife.

A scorpion. An inky-black scorpion the size of my leg. And it was busy.

I stared at the thing as it stood atop a rock. In its pincers was a rat as large as a cat. The thing was twitching in the big arachnids pincers. The scorpion's beady eyes watched unfeeling as its prey died in its pincers, that massive stinger raised high.

I hesitated on seeing it. The scorpion didn't seem to see me. But all I could think about, seeing it, was food.

Scorpions are full of protein. Protein is probably one of the best things you can eat out here in the jungle. They also use venom to dissolve their prey and suck up the remains, which means they don't carry tapeworms or other parasites. But the fact it was the size of my leg and had a stinger the size of a carpenter nail made me hesitate.

I could have tried to chase it off and eat its prey instead, but the rat was currently full of venom as it was. The scorpion, oddly enough, was the better option.

"...Fuck you jungle," I finally said quietly.

Okay. How to catch a scorpion? Bucky had run me through that… on normal scorpions. Not giant things like this. If I'd had another hand, I could have held down its tail with a long stick and stabbed it in the head with my sword while it was pinned. Well, crushed its head in with the pointed tip, I mean. The sword may not have been pointy anymore, but it was basically a hammer right now. But with my arm broken, my options were limited.

The fact was, I was lucky. This scorpion was probably waiting for its prey to die before dragging it to its lair to let it dissolve into goop it would suck in. I wasn't sure why it hadn't picked somewhere more secluded to wait but I wasn't going to complain.

Bucky had taught me to see scorpions as food. Now I had to take advantage of that. No time for traps. My armor was thickest on my legs. With that in mind, I came up with a plan.

I crept closer, slowly, small bits of shooting pain coming from my arm whenever it got jostled. It was a struggle to keep calm. Everything about the situation felt so stupid. Attacking a scorpion, a venom-filled ball of armor and rage, with plans to eat it, knowing it could kill me. But I'd rather eat it than anything else. I didn't know what plants in the Savage Land were poisonous, so I couldn't risk eating any nuts or berries, I needed food **now** , so eating a rat or other mammal that could be full of bacteria raw was dumb when scorpion was so much safer to eat raw. And it was _here_. That was the biggest thing. The scorpion was here, I was hungry, and I needed calories to move through the jungle.

I got about fifteen feet behind it, making sure to check the area around me before I crouched. The last thing I wanted was to sit on the primeval equivalent of poison ivy. Or the gympie gympie plant, that nightmare so intense they named it twice.

I raised my sword. I had to do this in one smooth move. Incapacitate the tail, stab down with the melted sword. Incapacitate, stab.

I took a deep breath in. "...Okay."

I rushed out. The scorpion, startled by the loud motion I made behind it, raised its tail and turned around in a rush, dropping the rat, which continued to twitch as it landed on the rock and rolled off. The scorpion's black armor glistened in the light. It made a sound, something like a _hssss_ sound. I was on it in moments. I tried not to scream as I moved, focused on breathing instead.

Oh shit, it was huge! It was getting ready to stab me, it's tail tensing. I needed to stop it now!

I kicked out first. My foot smashed into the tail. The tail hit the tree, stinger section wiggling under my foot. The scorpion hissed. I stabbed down at it in a panic. My sword bounced off the rock instead. The tail wiggled under my foot again, the scorpion flaring pincers at me, the right pincer scratching against my armor.

"GRAAAGH!" With another scream, I brought the sword down again. It crunched against the scorpion's armor, barely scratching it. It scratched at the rock, tail wiggling. I lost my mind, stabbing down at its head again and again, hitting it as hard as I could while keeping my boot pressed against the tail to try and keep its tail pinned. "Die, just die already, come on!"

One, two, three times, I kept hitting it until I lost count, the sound of a clump of metal bashing into armor filled the air. Then there was a crack. The scorpion let out another hiss. One of its pincers caught in my melted armor, scratching my leg. I brought the sword up again, stabbing down. The armor collapsed under this blow, crushing the things head at last. I raised the sword again and stabbed down one more time. My sword went through the head, scratching the stone beneath. The scorpion wiggled for about a minute before stilling at last.

"...Fuck me," I said one more time. Better be careful. I might have been getting repetitive.

The laugh that came from that internal joke sounded a little insane coming from my lips. I kept my boot where it was a moment longer. When I removed it, the tail fell limply to the ground.

I stared down at the corpse for a moment. My stomach was feeling tight and sore, so the thing was looking a lot more appetizing than gross, even with its head crushed and white, almost cream-colored, goo pouring from the wound. Still, the civilized human in me hesitant at the thought of eating a bug.

Still. Bucky had told me a thousand times. If you have food in front of you, eat it. Don't expect it to pop up again.

With that thought in mind, I raised my sword and sliced at the tail, aiming for just under where the venom glands would be on a normal scorpion, right at one of the joints where the armor was gone. The edge of my sword was sharp enough that I managed to slice off that section of the tail in a single chop. Venom poured out of both sections, but it stopped very quickly. I was going to have to be careful. The venom lost any of its ability to be, well, venomous, when it was cooked, but I still might be allergic to it. Last thing I needed. I tossed aside the stinger section and lifted the body of the scorpion to look it over. I needed something small to eat. The claws would do.

I took the right claw and chopped it off, then smashed it open on the rock. I stared at the creamy flesh inside. After a moment of disgust, I grabbed a piece out and shoved it into my mouth.

It didn't have a flavor. But god, the texture was just _awful_. Like swallowing warm wet pieces of carpet. I forced it down, then kept eating, keeping my head on a swivel. Didn't want some allosaurus to sneak up on me as I chowed down. Soon I had emptied out the entire claw of any meat.

"...Slimy, yet satisfying," I chuckled to myself.

My stomach felt much better. Still hungry, but not starving.

The sun was still pretty high in the sky. I had to keep moving. One it started to come down, I'd worry about fire. What I needed now was water.

I took off my belt and wrapped it around the tail and claw so I could carry the body, then moved on.

* * *

Further on down the river, I was starting to wonder what the hell was going on.

First, I couldn't see the cliff I'd fallen off of no matter how far upstream I went. Second, I hadn't seen nor heard the quinjet, which had to be looking for me. Hell, Fantasma had _magic_! Why hadn't she just done a tracking spell or something to find me?

I kept moving. Worrying about it when I couldn't do anything was fruitless. I knew I had to go upstream. As long as I kept moving, I would be able to get to the cliff. Just keep steady. Cut through the undergrowth, keep moving.

About an hour of walking later, I found treasure.

Bamboo. Wonderful, wonderful bamboo! The greatest thing someone lost in the jungle could find that wasn't a fully stocked kitchen attached to a machine gun.

"Oh baby," I mumbled to myself, rushing toward the thicket as carefully as someone could rush. I kept clear of any leaves and kept an eye out on the area while I walked up and pressed a hand to the side of that cool green stalk, one as big around as a large jar. Pressing an ear to the bamboo, I shook it. The sound of water sloshing around inside was a godsend.

I took out my sword and began to chop at the side of the thing. Bamboo is sometimes full of water. Clean water, water you don't need to boil.

There is no way to explain how relieved I was to see liquid splash across my blade. I sliced it in half and watched the whole thing fall. I hefted it up and cut a small hole in the side with a couple of chops. Bamboo is set up in sections, like… I don't know, like a bunch of pipes that were closed off from each other and left as stacked chambers?

Whatever the case, I tipped the bamboo over and felt water pour into my mouth. If felt so cool, slipping over my lips, filling my cheeks, and slipping down my throat with each swallow. I drank the whole of that chamber, then cut a hole from the next one and emptied that as well. When I was done, I felt amazing.

Okay. Dehydration wasn't a problem now. I had food at my side. And with the bamboo, I could make a weapon. Nothing fancy, but with bamboo, I didn't have to make something fancy.

I took my sword and choose a bamboo stalk that wasn't thicker than my wrist or thinner than my fingers, just big enough to hold easily. Once I was sure it was a healthy stalk that wasn't rotted through or something, I sliced it off. I cut it to be just a little shorter than me. After some thought, I decided against cutting holes out to drink more water from. I did this to another one. Cleaning off any branches and rubbing off the leaves where they grew off the seams, I soon had two long sticks of bamboo.

Next, I took my sword and brought the edge against the end of one of them. It was tough working one-handed, but with plenty of water and my scorpion meat to keep me full and hydrated, I was able to keep focused on the task.

Once I had one side split into different sections, I took off one of my shoelaces.

* * *

 _Flashback:_

"My shoelace?" I asked Nat, confused. She was watching as I bench pressed. With a lot of work and constant effort while Steve shouted at me to work in the nicest way anyone had ever shouted at me, I was very proud to say that my bench press had gotten to three hundred pounds. And my pecs looked a lot more like they were actually made of muscle, so bonus!

"Yeah," she said, pacing back and forth. "When you live as we do, you never know what will end up being useful in some way. One part of my training is that whenever I wear boots, I use 550 paracord instead of normal shoelaces."

I lifted the weight off my chest with a big breath out. "That's an awesome idea!"

She moved to smirk down at me. "Glad you think so. You gonna start carrying a knife around now?"

I shook my head. "Nah. I've always got my sword."

She rolled her eyes at me. "Idiot. Also, this is too easy for you now."

"What do you-oof!"

Nat hopped up to sit on the bar. While I was holding it.

My arms shook for a moment under the added weight. "Are you crazy?!"

"Be prepared for anything, remember," she said, sounding amused. "Besides, you knew I was going to do it."

"...still though."

* * *

Not gonna lie. My sword was great, but having a much less cumbersome knife would have been _great_. Still, that might well have melted as well. At least I had the paracord to fall back on.

550 paracord isn't some new thing that came out of Starktech. It's been around for a while. Pretty much every survival guy in the world recommends having it over any random sort of nylon rope. It's immensely strong, for one thing. For another, it has a casing surrounding seven nylon strands of cord. The casing can hold 200 pounds of weight. The strands can each hold about 40 lbs, to make 550… Wait, my math might be off. Damnit. Well, look, the point is, the stuff is tough, from casing to all seven strands and it's easy to take the paracord apart for a thousand different applications. And because of its design, you get three times as much cord as you would if you carried most any other type of rope.

I took mine out of my left boot and cut off a long section of the lace. I needed it for several things, but thankfully my loving and very mean mentor had me tie in PLENTY of cord.

I put my boot back together, then took that length of cord. Putting a small ring of bamboo in the spear I was making, I tied it together around the core I made out of that ring, making sure the prongs I'd made were sticking out nice and solid. After they were secure, I sharpened each prong with my sword as carefully as I could. It was a bitch to do one-handed, but soon I had a four-pronged spear. I took the other side and simply chopped it at an angle, sharpening that further. I didn't waste time with the prongs on the other stalk, only cutting it at an angle. I did it to another, and another, until I had about twelve long spears of wood. Leaving the pronged one aside, I stabbed the rest outward in a half-circle.

Night was coming. I had to make a shelter. Better to be in the bamboo, where there was water and supplies than to continue on in hopes I'd find my way home in the middle of the night.

I worked as fast as I could. Cutting more big bamboo down, I broke them open and laid them down until I had a crappy green bed made of chopped up bamboo laid down for me. Running out of time as I looked up to see the sun slowly lower in the distance, I used my rope and some more big bamboo as a frame and flattened out the rest, laying those over where I'd placed my bed. It should have been fairly waterproof, though I didn't hold out hope.

Fire. I needed fire.

Once again, my arm being broken was going to make it a bitch. It was still sending lightning through my body whenever it got jostled, so I had to work around it.

First, I grabbed a bunch of dry wood in one arm. I couldn't use just the bamboo, since, while it was thankfully full of water, that same water made it almost fireproof. But I got some dry sticks after a quick search, placing them in a bundle, and brought them over to my shelter. With the sticks and a bunch of small pieces of dry tinder, I prepared the next part. First, I dug out a small pit next to my shelter, placing sticks and tinder inside that. Then I placed the leftover tinder, basically tiny pieces of bark, leaves, and straw, on top of a rock, placed half a piece of bamboo on top of that tinder so that it was laying almost entirely on top of the tinder, and got the other half. Placing the other half with one edge on the bamboo, I used my left boot to keep the half covering the tinder still.

The idea was simple. I'd rub a piece of bamboo on the other fast and hard, making sure to keep it to the same spot. Over time, friction would create heat, and that heat went would transfer from the bamboo to the tinder underneath.

It was hard as hell. I found myself sweating soon, my left arm sore from the constant movement while pressing down, my fingers tight on the bamboo. I sang to myself under my breath.

"Getting hot in here… take off all yo clothes, I am… getting so hot… The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire! Don't get no water…"

Somewhere into the middle of me just singing 'fire' to myself (I ran out of songs), I raised the bamboo.

The tinder was smoking on one small spot. My heart leaped. I lifted the tinder and gently pulled it together to make a small 'home' for the spot that was smoking. Gently as I could, I blew into the embers I'd created. When Nat and Bucky had me practice at home, I'd gotten this down to an art form. But my heart was still beating like a drum as I tried to stay calm while the embers smoked, but didn't quite become fire.

Then it lit up. I smiled with glee at the fire, the dry heat against my hand making me want to dance with glee, before bringing it to my makeshift fire pit. Things were still tense. If I made one mistake, the fire would die out. The sun had fallen by now. If this didn't work, I'd be stuck even further in hell than I was.

The fire held onto the tinder. The sticks began to smoke. I laughed.

"Oh shit! YES!" I snapped my hands upward. "YES! FIRE!" I looked around while laughing. "Wooo!"

After some more work, I had a makeshift bamboo spit over the fire, which I placed bits of scorpion meat on. As it cooked, I took some pieces of denim, wrapped it around more tinder, and placed it inside a bamboo, making a torch to hold. I couldn't quite remove my clothes since my armor had melted over my shirt and waist, but I was able to get my boots and socks off. My feet were thankfully unhurt if soaking wet from sweat and river water. I laid them out to dry next to the fire, though still close enough to grab in a hurry if I had to run.

The scorpion ended up being more useful than I thought. Being a meter long, it had a very large thorax. And it's armor had held up under several blows. So once I had the armor hollowed out of all meat, I was able to make it into a makeshift bag of sorts, running a cord through where the legs had been.

But that was it. I didn't have the energy for anything else. I just sat next to the fire, drinking bamboo water and eating scorpion. Thanks to being cooked, it actually had a flavor now, the meat tasting like slightly fishy beef jerky. Which was delicious as far as I was concerned. I had my helmet on again. Despite my faceplate being mostly gone to leave my good looks exposed, and the rest of it half-melted crap, I felt better with a helmet on. Felt a little ridiculous, sitting next to a fire with my feet bare and a helmet on. But I had to look on the bright side of all this.

I was lucky I had the training to survive. I found food, I found water, and I found bamboo. My sword had been intact enough to do its job. I was lucky.

I mean, if I'd been really lucky, I would have landed without my Omnitrix getting anti-metaled.

That had to have been what had happened. When I fell off the cliff and into the water, I must have ended up drifting near an Anti-Metal deposit. Otherwise known as Antarctic Vibranium. Metal that could dissolve the bonds of other metals. The stuff was dangerous. Not just because it could turn other metals into liquid either. Stay close to that stuff, and the iron in your blood would dissolve as well, which any doctor will tell you is bad.

That was my guess on what happened to the Omnitrix. Alien genius or not, it was made of metal. I'm sure if Azmuth had known that Anti-Metal was a thing he would have designed protection for the Omnitrix from the stuff. He seemed to have protections installed for most everything anyways. I suppose Anti-Metal was just different enough to slip through the cracks and make it glow white. The fact it could even do that instead of just being a pile of useless mulch was proof of how tough the thing was.

Fucking sucked though. I didn't want to be out here. I wanted to be home. With my fridge full of food, the power of the universe on my wrist, and a working weapon.

"...I wonder if they're still looking for me," I said to the forest, the heat and smell of the fire on my face, scorpion meat crackling over the flame. I pulled the spit off the fire and began to eat once more.

Creel and Fantasma had to be searching for me. And if BRIDGE could get a message to the mainland, everyone would want to find me. X would want to find me. Nat, Tony, Steve, Thor… huh. All of them would want to find me.

And Jen… I missed Jen. I'd only been lost for a day. Why did I miss her this much? I wanted my big green nerd girl talking constantly about lawyer work as I laid my head in her lap. Or to have her head in my lap while I talked about my own nerd stuff. I missed her hair. That was weird. She just had such… long and curly hair, reaching almost to her waist it seemed like. And it was so soft. I liked running my hands through it. Granted, I loved a lot about her, but I couldn't get my mind off her hair.

Jen said she liked my muscles. I was half sure she was making fun of me when she said it while pressing her palms against me, but it was nice to hear.

I sat in the light of the fire, lost in my thoughts.

There was a sudden rush. Then a shadow leaped from the bamboo, going over the bamboo spears I'd set up as a defense. I didn't have time to move before hundreds of pounds of flesh hit me from the front. I caught sight of flashing teeth as I shouted in horror. My broken arm, which had calmed to a dull ache, screamed in pain again. A sudden pressure hit me right over my heart. When I looked down, a single long toe claw was pressed against my armor where it was protecting my heart. The creature on top of me snarled.

Then the adrenaline hit. I grabbed my sword off the ground and swung upward. My sword, battered but still sharp on the edge, hit the creature on its jaw. Blood sprayed outwards, the creature screaming in pain. The claw scratched at my chest armor, flaking off the melted pieces that had once been catoms.

"Fuck off me!" I shouted, kicking upwards and slicing at the face of the thing. I took a portion of flesh off before I hit bone. The animal leaped back, whining in pain. I got up and faced it.

Another one rushed out of the bamboo forest, coming towards me. It made the mistake of ignoring my bamboo stakes. The sickening sound of bamboo stabbing through scales and flesh filled the air.

 _"_ _SKREEEE!"_ the bipedal thing shouted in agony, falling back with a bamboo stake in its chest.

The one that had attacked me first backed away. I didn't lower my blade, simply facing him. He snarled at me, the fire letting me get a good look at both my attackers.

Velociraptors. Well, not real ones, I guess. Over the years if felt like scientists were putting every effort to make dinosaurs less cool than they looked in Jurassic Park. Doing things like saying 'oh, they have feathers, they're actually a lot more fat, they sound more like squeaking turkeys, and they weally wuv you and want to give you cuddles'. Adorable.

Granted, that was all the annoyed 12 year old inside me that had been so awed by cool looking dinosaurs that I didn't like anything tarnishing that image.

Regardless of all that, the ones trying to kill me right now looked more like the ones I'd once seen on the big screen. Though there were a few differences.

For one, they were more muscular than the ones in movies. These guys were built like damn linebackers, muscles flowing under their scales in armored plates. Their scales were almost a bright tan color, spotted with darker orangeish stripes. They still had feathers, but only on their arms and legs. Everything else though? The long toe claw on each foot that twitched as it prepared to slice into flesh. The long jaw filled with needle-sharp teeth as beady little eyes glared at me.

Velociraptors. They'd become near-legendary in the eyes of the public as the most savage and mean predators you could ever face. In some ways, people thought the idea of facing a T-Rex was less daunting than taking one of these guys on.

And now I was facing one. One, because the other had stabbed himself on one of the spears I'd placed. He fell back, blood pouring around the bamboo in his chest. In a fit of panic, it pulled back, the spear coming out of it with a loud 'schluck' sound. That was a mistake. Any doctor will tell you that removing an object stabbed into you is a bad idea when you have no way to deal with the blood loss that will follow.

The velociraptor began to bleed out immediately. Screeching in pain, it fell weakly to the ground.

The one that had initially jumped looked over at me. Its jaw had strips of flesh cut off from when I'd slashed at it with my sword. I raised my blade, trying to remember as much as I could from animal behavior.

Two. Just two. They'd ambushed me from the front. What did I remember about ambush pack predators? They-

I leaped to the side blindly, not thinking about it. As I did, something slammed into my bamboo shelter, trying to use it as a ramp to leap towards me. Another velociraptor landed in the dirt where I had been, screeching.

"Fuck!" I shouted. I hit the ground rolling. A shadow moved in the forest. Probably another one. I had to move now.

Stop responding to attacks. Velociraptors are ambush predators. They like to strike when you least expect it. But that also meant they liked having the initiative. I had to take that.

The fire was sputtering from the dirt being tossed up into the air as I rolled to my feet. I leaped up from a crouch, jumping forward.

Toward the first velociraptor.

The thing screeched in shock when I tackled. I wrapped my good arm around it as we rolled together. My broken arm screamed at me as I pressed myself to warm scales, the long tail whipping as scrambled for a good angle while I and the raptor hit the ground hard. It raised a clawed hand and scratched at my chest. Its claws bounced off my armor and went lower, to where my unprotected stomach lay. Three white-hot lines sliced into my skin.

Everything had come to a crawl to my vision. Even though I knew it was all going at high-speed, I felt adrenaline pumping through me. I landed on top of the velociraptor, legs on either side of it. In a crazed part of my mind, I imagined the other two surviving raptors rushing me from behind. The fear and rage pumping through me made want to scream.

I brought my sword down on the velociraptor's neck, slicing deep into the scales before getting stuck in the spine. It choked on the blood filling its lungs. I didn't have time to worry about that, leaving the blade stuck there.

The raptor who'd leaped over my shelter hissed while rushing me from my back.

Thank you, Nat, for attacking me from behind. Long training had taught me how to deal with it. She'd had me run attack drills with everyone faster than me. Her, Bucky, Steve. And the fastest person we knew, if only a couple times. I still couldn't dodge him even when I knew he was coming.

But this raptor wasn't as fast as Quicksilver.

I rolled aside at the last instant, right when the raptor was most committed to the attack. His toe-claw still slashed into my hip, cutting through the skin. I imagined I could hear the sound of the claw skipping off my hip bone as it passed, a dull 'clunk'. Better than dying.

I reached out as I landed. My palm wrapped around warm greenwood. One of the bamboo spears I'd left as defense. Ripping it out of the ground, I spun to face my attackers.

The one that had been in the shadows came rushing me head-on. I almost despaired when I saw two more in the forest. I raised the spear and held my ground while stabbing forward, right arm hanging limply at my side.

The spear of bamboo went into the raptors chest and out of it's back. It hit me like a train even then. I held my ground as best as I could, legs sliding in the dirt. It slid down the spear with a squeal. I shoved it aside and hastily reached for another spear, ripping that out of the earth to face the velociraptor that had initially leaped over my home.

The one left over stared at me. Behind it, I could hear the forest moving. More. I couldn't guess how many. And it had taken everything I had to kill three.

I panted in and out, my breath feeling cold against my lips. Sweat was pouring from my lips. I lifted my spear. Shit. Shit. I was going to die. If they kept coming like this-

 _Don't show weakness._

Natasha's advice filled me. I lowered into a crouch. God, I was going to die. I took my breaths, facing the raptors. I tried my best to roar, channeling every alien I'd ever become.

"C-" I coughed, regrouped. "Come on you fuckers! I'm an Avenger! You want to take me, you need to do better than that!"

Like a drug, shouting out at the raptor growling in front of me felt good. I roared wordlessly, laughing. "You can't kill me! HYDRA, robot monkeys, dinosaurs, I'll kill them all! I'm fucking **Dial!"**

I coughed at the end of that little speech. In the heat of the moment, it felt good. Later I felt a little ridiculous, shouting at an animal that had no idea what the hell I was talking about. But it felt good.

A series of barking filled the air. The raptor I could see growled, slowly retreating backward, it's head low to the ground. In the shadows, flickering scales moved around. They were hard to see, even when I knew they were there. I counted five though. Including the one moving away and the three I'd killed, that made a pack of nine.

Fuck.

I moved forward as the raptor stepped back, heading toward my fire. The raptor kept its eyes on me. I didn't stop watching it until it had stepped back into the shadows. A rushing sound came from the bamboo. Then the sound of leaves getting trampled, shadows flittering away.

I kept still a moment longer, my spear pointed out. I didn't dare hope. My head was on a swivel.

But… Nothing. I wasn't attacked. I wasn't hurt. I waited for a good moment longer before I dropped to my knees in exhaustion.

"La ilaha illa Allah Muhammed asul Allah," I mumbled to myself. The prayer my dad always told me that Muslims are told to do before death. A little late, now that I was actually alive. It had been ringing in my mind, underneath all the useful advice about survival.

My arm was killing me. Oh god, it was worse now. At some point in the fight, it had bounced out of its sling to hang limply at my side while my left arm clutched at my spear. I felt warm blood from the cut in my hip pouring down my leg, and my whole body ached. I needed to take care of my wounds. But with the adrenaline leaving me, I just wanted to sleep.

I forced myself to rise once more. The agony that followed would have had me want to curse if I had the energy.

A small pinprick came from my neck. I almost wanted to roll my eyes at the thought of a mosquito bite reaching me through the pain. I couldn't seem to keep my eyesight straight actually. I was drifting as I reached for my fire. Maybe I could caut-cauterize-

My knees hit the floor of their own volition. I stared at the fire as I fell to my stomach in front of it. Things got fuzzy. I reached for my neck weakly, felt something stuck in my skin, but was too weak to take it out.

"Three dead," someone said. "Rest ran off… well. You'll do."

A humanoid shape stepped into view. The last thing I saw was the fire and the bamboo forest before I passed out.

* * *

 _ **Director Maria Hill of BRIDGE**_

Maria stood with her arms crossed in her office in the Avengers Tower, staring at the screen in front of her calmly. "How is it, that with all the technology at our disposal, some of the best-trained soldiers on Earth, and a _magician_ working together, we can't find Dial anywhere?"

On the screen, an image of Fantasma and Creel were standing inside of a quinjet. The Russian Witch bristled. "We're trying everything! All of us! He just disappeared-"

"I know," Maria cut her off. "That wasn't an indictment on your abilities. I'm asking this literally. How did he just disappear? Was he taken? I hate to be dark but if he was dead, or eaten, then we'd have found some sign, wouldn't we?"

"He can't die," Creel said desperately. The tall bald man was staring at the ground, fists clenched. "He's told me before. The watch has a safety feature. If he's about to die, it turns him into something that can survive it."

Maria noted that mentally. She'd never heard of _that_ little feature. While she knew that Creel and Dial spent time together working out, she hadn't known they were that close.

"If that's true, he'd have flown over to the cliff in one of his fliers," Maria pointed out.

"So what do we do?" Creel said, almost spitting the words out.

"Find him," Maria said simply.

"We've been trying, we told you," Fantasma said.

"So we don't stop," Maria crossed her arms. "I've been on these kinds of searches. He's been missing for only two _days_ , and we have the best in the world trying to find him. We aren't giving up hope. Take a moment to sleep, then keep looking. I'll go through everything we've got here and send people out to aid in the search."

"Can we at least get satellite tracking?" Creel asked.

She shook her head. "Shuri is working on it. But right now, we're blind. Any help I send is going to be physical."

"And how about the other Avengers?" Creel asked. "Do they know Dial's missing?"

"...No."

"Why not?!" Fantasma asked, her face twisting in horror.

"Because they're on missions," Maria spat back. "They all have assignments to work on. Some of them possibly life-threatening, like Rio patrols. We have multiple jobs to do, and I have to think about the full picture. Dial is important. But the people of this Earth of a whole are much more so. The second they're free, I'll let them all know."

"Jen is going to kill you," Fantasma said softly.

"She'll have to get in line," Maria scowled. "Get some rest, then keep looking for our boy. That's an order."

She swiped a hand through the air, dismissing the screen. She stood for a moment, frustration filling her, before leaving the room.

A while back, Tony had been gracious enough to give her an office of her own in the Avengers Tower for her to work in as needed. Of course, Tony being Tony, he charged her rent for it. 20 dollars a month. She wasn't sure how to feel about the incredibly minuscule amount he was charging her. Insulted, maybe?

Whatever the case, as soon as she left she headed for the labs. Entering into Shuri's lab, she ignored Ruby and Ayo to focus on the young princess working on her computer. Shuri was wearing a blue dress. The same dress as the day before, Maria noted. "They still haven't found him. Any luck with piercing the Veil?"

Shuri looked up at her sadly. "Nothing. I've been trying with everything we have, but the only thing we can do is _enter_ the Savage Land. Which still requires us to be quite close."

Maria kept her anger from her face. Shuri was trying. Fantasma and Creel were trying. Getting angry at them for the helplessness she was feeling was useless.

"Okay," Maria said as gently as she could. "Then keep me posted."

"Can I go?" Ruby asked.

"...Go?" Maria asked, confused. She looked the tiny teen over.

Ruby was wearing some combat boots that were too big for her, military pants, a leather jacket, and a green tank top. In other words, she looked…

"No, you can't."

The blonde glared at her. "Why can't I?! I want to find him too!"

"Because you aren't trained for it."

"I am! I'm more trained than Dial was even! I can find him."

Maria shook her head. "No. We have everyone we can send to find him already, we can't-"

"Ugh!" Ruby spitefully spun on her heel and headed for the door. Maria looked over at Ayo. The bald woman shrugged, nodding towards Shuri.

Maria knew what Ayo meant. 'I already have one to worry about, that one is all yours.'

The Director of BRIDGE held in a sigh. "If you need any help, Shuri, let me know."

"Yes, yes," Shuri waved a hand dismissively. "I can't get work done if you keep staring over my shoulder. Please leave."

Maria held in the annoyance all adults felt after one too many damn teenagers got on their nerves and simply left the room to let Shuri work. She had just stepped out when a voice surprised her.

"You haven't sent everyone," Maria looked over at the speaker.

"...Mikhail. You're supposed to be getting ready to leave for home," she noted.

The tall Russian, dressed in his full uniform, had somehow snuck up on her. A tough prospect even if he hadn't been one of the biggest men she'd ever met baring superhuman forms. Sneaking up on a spy of all people was never easy.

"I was planning to inform you of my departure… the young man. He is still missing, yes?" Mikhail asked seriously. "Then I suggest you use _everyone_ you have at your disposal."

Maria crossed her arms. "I don't have time to play around, Mikhail. Who are you implying?"

Mikhail chuckled, though there was a dark edge to it. "You must track someone who has become lost in the jungle. Isn't that, in essence, a hunt?"

"...Oh goddamnit," Maria sighed.

* * *

Mikhail was already on the plane to Russia when Maria made the call from her office. After a moment of a holo-screen blankly ringing, the screen lit up.

"Hello, Director Hill," Boris said as soon as the screen lit up, giving her a small smile. The Russian official was standing in his own office, wearing his usual business suit. "Is there something you need? I trust that Fantasma is well, and Crimson has said she is doing good work."

"Yes to both of those questions. But that isn't why I called. I'm on a tight schedule. 48 hours, to be specific," Maria said. "Dial is missing."

Boris recoiled, surprised. "He is? Mikhail has not informed me of that."

"He knows about it, but I'm keeping it close to the chest," Maria explained. "Not just because the news of an Avenger going missing is big. But because of _where_ he went missing."

With that, Maria began to explain the Savage Land. Boris listened closely, interrupting to ask questions. But not once did he treat her as though she was crazy. She had to wonder why. Even with all that she'd seen, the Savage Land had still thrown her for a loop. Still, it was to her benefit now.

"-it's been a full two days," Maria said solemnly. "And I need to get him back."

Dial was important. Not more or less than any of the other members of BRIDGE and the Avengers, but even pragmatically speaking, he was valuable. And honestly? After losing Trip and Sharon? Maria was starting to take missing BRIDGE members as a personal insult.

"So you want me to send one of our operatives to aid you," Boris finished for her. His face had become incredibly still. "Into the jungle. Not just any jungle. A jungle that is full of the most dangerous creatures the world has ever developed naturally. Dinosaurs. Beasts so massive and powerful… do you realize what you've done, Director Hill?" Boris looked haunted. "If I ask this man, he won't even wait for those in charge of the Winter Guard to allow it. He's going to say-"

"I accept!" in the background, the sound of a man roaring as he ran could be heard, the voice of Kraven the Hunter drifting into the distance. "Boris, I'm headed to the airport! I have some smuggler friends, they'll drop me off!"

"Kraven, you can't just-" Boris held out a hand towards the door, only to drop it slowly. He looked like he was resigned to his fate. "He's gone."

Boris walked over to his door, the holoscreen turning to follow him as Maria continued to watch, the director wondering what the heck she was watching.

Chernobog walked up to the door just as Boris got to it. The massive dark god looked odd for a moment. Maria stared at him for a moment before realizing what was wrong. Chernobog, in all the time she'd seen footage or photos of him, had usually had a very smug appearance on his shadowy face. Here he looked…

Confused as hell?

"Hey, so… Kraven just passed me in the hall?" Chernobog said, pointing behind himself with his thumb. "He was grinning like a loon. It was _creepy_."

" _You_ were creeped out?" Boris said in surprise. Then he shook his head. "Look, Director Hill, I'll send Kraven out as soon as possible. Please send me everything we need," he turned to meet eyes with her. "If anyone can find him-"

"Oh, hello Miss Hill," Chernobog said politely, waving.

"...Kraven can," Boris said, looking like he was on the edge of a heart attack. "I'll make sure he understands the mission."

"Thank you, Boris," Maria said sympathetically.

Superheroes. Useful. But crazy, every last one of them.

With that, she sent Boris mission file through a secure email. As the file left, a sound came from nearby.

Maria looked around, confused. It sounded like… well, like a rocket blasting off? But none of the Towers security measures had activated. "Jarvis, what is that noise?"

The Avengers Tower AI responded immediately. "That was X, ma'am."

She calmed. Maria Hill was many things. But she wasn't an idiot. "He's headed to the Savage Land."

"Yes ma'am," Jarvis said politely.

Maria turned to look out of the window, walking up to it. New York City spread out in front of her as she stared outward.

"Kraven the Hunter and X the android are going out to the Savage Land…" Maria sighed. "I guess we'll have to hope this all doesn't end as chaotically as I think it will."

But she didn't hold much hope for that.

* * *

 _ **X**_

When a message came from the Savage Land two days ago, X had been watching over the Avengers Tower network. He'd known it would take a while for a message to get back, so he was rather surprised by how fast the first had arrived. After all, thanks to the Veil, if someone wanted to send a message to the mainland, they had to leave the Savage Land, making communication with those within a chore.

X had watched as Creel appeared on screen, speaking to Maria Hill on the emergency line, informing her of Dial's disappearance. The moment he had gained the gist of the events in question, X left a subroutine to continue to watch. The rest of him prepared.

Dinosaurs. While X sympathized with the need to protect endangered life, he knew he needed something powerful to take them down. He rolled through a digital file of the current arms available to him. A jungle with all the undergrowth that entailed. So something handheld he could reach easily, while still capable of doing immense damage. And something large he could carry on his back in case he had to kill something large or destroy a building containing Dial.

He quickly found the correct designs. Including a simple requisition order for a machete as well, he entered his android body and rose from the seat in his lab, walking to get them.

Now. How to get there. He had an android body now after all. The Veil could become a problem. Very well. Prepare to back himself up on a server and load his primary 'self' completely within his android form. That would take a full day, as he was quite a large AI if he said so himself.

Probabilities of surviving after 24 hours in a hostile environment wer- Disengage line of inquiry.

Transportation. Well, he didn't need a plane. Just a way to lift himself across the ocean. Months ago, Dial had created armor for Skye in his Jury Rigg form, including powerful jet boots. He'd recently made something based on those designs. Increasing the size of those jets and focusing them into a single unit became his new jetpack. With some improvements, it was even able to carry his hefty form.

Then, X waited. There were two reasons for this.

First, it would take time for his preparations to- Probabilities of survival after- Disengage line of inquiry. It would take time for his preparations to be complete. The weapons needed to be fine-tuned, and the jet pack refined. His AI mind had to be uploaded and backed up. Not to mention the tasks he pushed himself to complete before leaving.

Some would have seen the sudden need to complete as many tasks as possible as a way for X to distract himself. Those people would have had a fundamental lack of understanding of how AI were able to logically function in every situation.

Probabilities of survival in the Savage Land for Dial after a day and a half, with the possibility of dea- **DISENGAGING INQUIRY.**

The second reason X waited was to see if Mahmoud would be found. If Fantasma, Creel, and the BRIDGE soldiers found him, then this would all be unneeded. 48 hours. They had that long.

When Creel and Fantasma called back after that time had passed, X took a look at them. One read of their body language later, and he was entering the hanger.

In the corner he'd set up for himself, his weapons had been placed on a table. Without looking, he picked up a machete and place it on his hip. Then he took a massive revolver off the table, taking a pair of belts with pouches to hold bullets. While revolvers were less efficient than more modern handguns such as the Glock 19, X did not need a Glock. His body had enough power that a Glock was unnecessary. This revolver, sized specifically for him to fire bullets so large the recoil would have shattered the wrists and forearms of anyone mortal attempting to use it? It was for those moments where X needed to kill something and they were just out of arm's reach.

Once the revolver was magnetically attached to his hip and the belts of ammo were wrapped around his waist, he lifted his final weapon. The one he'd selected for the most massive of enemies. A double-barrel rifle made to fire bullets as big as three fingers across. He placed this giant of a weapon on his chest. His back would be carrying something during the trip.

He looked at his transport. A jetpack. That was wider across than he was, with rockets the size of trash cans. It would do.

X lifted it up and placed it on. After a moment's thought, he placed on a pair of aviator goggles. If any rain or snow fell on the way, he didn't want his vision receptors impeded.

Dial was alive. He knew it, even if the probabilities didn't.

Lowered into a crouch, X began a mental countdown from five. On three, the jets ignited. On one, they released plumes of green-blue light. He rocketed forward, moving his hands to grip the jetpack strap. For a moment, he flew over the steel floor of the hanger. Then he was in the open air of New York City. The jets truly blasted off then.

 _ **"**_ _ **FWOOOOOO!"**_

With that loud clap of noise, X flew past city limits. Freed from the possibility of hurting others, the jets went into overdrive. The sound of a sonic boom could be heard in the distance as X disappeared.

He would save Dial. If not… well. There was a reason they were called the _Avengers_.

* * *

 _Author's Note:_

Dial would have been fine after that fight. Well, no, he was beat to shit. I'm saying that he would have lived. But then someone had to interfere. Like a punk.

Anyway, this chapter. Lot to unpack. First, Dial is correct. After he got dropped into the river, was knocked unconscious and , he ended up encountering Anti-Metal while he was knocked out. His armor was melted to pieces, but the Omnitrix is only not functioning. Which is way more durable than you'd think. Anti-Metal is STUPID broken when it comes to going against even Vibranium, and instead the Omnitrix is just glowing with a white light. That's impressive, considering it should have been turned into a pile of liquid. That said, the poor thing is beat all to hell.

As is Dial himself. This chapter was important to me. This whole arc is. This is him at his weakest. No Omnitrix, no Catom armor or weapons, no allies. Everything he gets, every little win, even things as simple as cooking his own food. Those are all him. This is what he's been training to become, and now it's all being tested. We'll see how he does.

Other than that? The survival techniques I had Dial use, as well as his strategy on getting back, are based on things I researched as much as I possibly could. But that doesn't mean this chapter should be taken as some sort of survival manual. If they do, for whatever reason, end up saving your life, great! But always take a real professionals advice over mine. Remember, while I do try to be pretty realistic in my writing, my goal is always to tell an interesting story first. So take care of yourselves out there guys.

It was fun figuring out who had taught Dial what. He's tried to train with every useful skill he possibly could, so he's gained something from everyone. That said, Nat and Dial have been training together more consistently than the others, so their interactions are the ones Dial will think most of when he thinks of how to survive.

Now, X and Kraven. Both are headed to the Savage Land. I have some big plans for that, but I'm gonna keep this close to my chest for now.

But this is Dial's arc, and his attempts to overcome his weakness are the main story. Hopefully, I can keep to that.

Meantime, please consider supporting me on P a tr e o n, and adding to the TVTropes page! I like to think I must have added at least ten new tropes to this story in this chapter alone, and hopefully, you guys agree Dial's fight in this chapter is Awesome page worthy. Have a great day guys!


	90. Chapter 90

_Author's Note:_ I have realized that I always leave my responses to reviews on this site unsaid. I want to apologize for my oversight. From here on out, I promise to answer every single review on here.

Except for that guy who keeps posting 'Fuck you OC!' and 'Kill yourself!' on all my stories. Your guest reviews go in the bin, and it honestly makes me fuzzy inside every time I do it.

* * *

I woke up when I felt the Omnitrix getting pulled at. My head was hurting again. Everything was, to be honest. I was swaying for some reason, and lying on my back. Something was still pulling at my Omnitrix. I leaned my head up, blearily, only to curse when the sun smashed into eyes like a sledgehammer. Combined with the swaying around me and the massive headache that was just now fading, I did not feel good.

A scaled hand pressed against my head with near-crushing force. A voice like snarling granite filled the air along with the sound of wood creaking and the wilderness around us. My head felt like it was splitting open as the hand pressed me down against wooden planks.

"Fuck!" I shouted in pain. I tried to raise my left hand to fight back, but something was wrapped around my wrist. With my other arm broken, I was forced to twist my legs up to my chest, pressing my bare feet to a scaled chest, and kicking outward, trying to put my feet _through_ the son of a bitch.

"Geeeee!" Something shouted as it was lifted off of me and thrown back. I sat up and got my feet under me, looking around.

I was in a cage. A big cage made entirely of bamboo, right down to the planks my feet were balanced on. The cage was placed on wheels, rattling around as we moved, explaining the swaying sensation I had been feeling.

A feeling like blades had replaced my blood filled me, taking away any energy I might have had. I gasped at the pain, nearly falling to my knees, then grit my teeth and forced myself to stay standing, looking around frantically.

There were people with me in the cage. Four of them. And only one was human. The others were a big green lizard man that reminded me of Komodo, a woman with dark blue skin that turned pale near her chest who also had a single wing on her back, and a bipedal being made of black stone. I did a threat assessment as I stared at them, trying to figure out who I might be fighting. The lizard man, or reptile man I supposed, was lying on the ground, glaring at me. He hissed something, scrambling to his feet. To my surprise, the woman with a single wing hissed back at him. While the reptile guy sounded pissed, winged woman sounded sad. More than sad. She sounded like she was only speaking out of necessity.

Reptile man spun towards her, hissing. She winced back from where she was sitting against the floor. Then she curled into herself. Reptile man snarled, looking at the others. Rock man didn't say anything. The one human looked down at the ground.

I used that brief moment of quiet to look beyond the cage. We were in one of three cages currently rattling along through a field of green grass that was about knee height. People were walking alongside the cages or riding on top of animals. I noticed the animals first. Hard not to, considering they were really damn big. Our cart was rather big as well, standing far higher off the ground than I thought was normal. But these things were huge.

They were ankylosauruses, the giant tanks of the dinosaur world. Covered in layers of armor, the sides of which were spiked. They were faster than I imagined them, but still ponderous in gait. Three were pulling the carts along while four more roamed around us, two to each side, their long clubbed tails waving along. One gave me a droopy-eyed look before smiling the way a dog would. I couldn't figure out if that was cute or creepy.

The guy riding on top of it wasn't paying any attention to me. I took that as a good thing. He was sitting on a chair tied down with ropes attached by the spikes on the ankylosaur. He was scaled, just like the reptile guy, but his overall body shape was different. If the Reptile Guy was similar to a gecko in overall design, this guy was more like T-Rex shrunk down and shaped like a human. My life had become pretty interesting if him turning to give me a snarl made me only slightly cautious rather than scared as hell. I mean, dude was big, covered in red scales with orange stripes wrapped around a massive amount of muscle and more teeth than the Osmond family that gleamed in the light. But I'd fought alongside the Hulk, turned into giant monsters all the time, and wrestled things that could turn aircraft carriers into mulch. I turned away to look at the other people surrounding the cages. More dinosaur-humans, a good mix of them. A woman that was mixed with a pterosaur with a downy soft covering of blue feathers, a man shaped like an ankylosaurus and one massive being that was about 8 feet tall that looked like a brontosaurus standing on its hind legs.

My captors. Well, there's one threat confirmed.

I looked back at the reptile guy. I'd only looked away for a moment, but he was snarling at me. The noises coming from him were rising and fading in tone, with a slight click at different points. He was speaking a language. I stared at him while-

The Omnitrix, which had been glowing white this whole time, flickered for a moment.

 _"Give-_ hragggh! _Give the (bauble/jewel/shiny)!"_ Reptile Guy said. He licked his lips.

"Why?" I asked, trying to hold in my excitement. If this was the Omnitrix's doing, then maybe it was on it's way back to working!

The reptile guy snarled wordlessly, then spoke again. _"Give-_ sheeeee- _die!"_

Ah. Well, that's the drawback of knowing every other word. At a guess, he wanted the Omnitrix simply because he wanted to bully me into submission. He was trying to be the strongest guy in the room.

Even as he snarled at me, his eyes were panning around. He flared teeth, but his chest was rising and falling very quickly.

This was a guy trying to not be the weakest guy in the prison. I couldn't blame him for it. But it didn't take a genius to guess the thing he wanted from me was the Omnitrix. Not happening for a dozen reasons.

I lowered myself into a crouch, trying to breathe through the pain. As I did, I felt something in my stomach. I looked down.

In my stomach, in the cuts I'd gotten from the velociraptor, wiggling around as they ate, were dozens of… oh, fuck me!

I held in a gag, trying to pull at my arm, only to find it was chained to the cage. "Gross, gross, gross!"

The human, looking at me with some disgust, spoke in German, which surprised the hell out of me. I didn't speak the language, but I'd heard it a few times. "Überlassen Sie es einem Engländer, einen schwachen Magen zu haben."

Engländer? Whatever man.

I looked up at the cage roof, breathing heavily. Okay, okay. Oh, gross, I could _feel_ \- Nope, not thinking about that! This was normal. They were using them to clean out my wounds of infection. I could feel more in my hip. I kept the image out of my mind to look back at the reptile man. He was hissing rhythmically, almost as though he was laughing. Nope. He _was_ laughing. Still chuckling, he moved to sit against the wall, giving me a mocking grin.

Apparently, freaking out at the maggots had been enough to make him satisfied he was the big man on campus. You'd think my broken arm would have helped.

I laid back against the cage. "Yeah, good for you, being stronger than the one-armed guy. The second the Omnitrix is working, I'm turning into something big and punching you in the face."

The German-speaking human grumbled something, while Rock Guy just looked between all of us silently. The winged girl continued to mope.

I looked at the other cages. There were more prisoners in them. Various races, some of them dinosaur-humans as well, sat in the cages. Some were just as beat up as I was, or worse. I noticed someone else had wings. Two wings.

Once I noticed them, I looked back at the woman in my cage. She had a bandage wrapped around her chest, going around to wear her other wing would have been.

"...Damn," I mumbled quietly.

"Well, it looks like you're up!" a British accented voice said loudly.

I looked out of the cage to the speaker. He was a dinosaur-person as well. He looked a lot like a stegosaurus actually, with the same spikes going down to a long spiked tail, his scales a soft silvery color. He was grinning at me, which is weird to see when someone has a beak. He was riding an ankylosaur as well, though his mount looked more… ornate, for some reason. Maybe it was the skulls resting along the edge of his armor. "There he is," he said in the tone of a man being condescending to a child. "How are you feeling?"

"Like velociraptors tried to eat me," I replied, glaring at the guy. "Who are you? What is all this?"

"Me?" The British stegosaur chuckled, patting his chest. "I am Stend! Humble slaver and merchant."

"Well, if you're enslaving people, at least you're humble about it," I said grumbled. Slaver. I'd been enslaved. Well, now I had context at least.

"Yes, truly I am a great master, full of kindness towards those under my care," he said with a grin. Sounded like he believed it too. "I even took you under my wing after all! You may die in the pits, but at least you will die with a full stomach."

"Yipee Kiyay to that," I tried to channel as much Tony as I could now. "So how do you speak English?"

"I learned it from the New Britannians that I've had in my care from time to time!" he said proudly.

"New Britannia?" I asked.

"Oh?" Stend quirked an eyebrow. "So you speak the language, but don't recognize them? Are you an outlander perhaps?" I stared at him silently. He chuckled. "Yes, our shores do seem to draw in wanderers. It has been a few decades since we have seen such," his eyes, a green color like old copper, narrowed. "I wonder… Where are you from? Your armor was melted, possibly by the unmetal, but I could tell it was of an interesting make," he had an odd glint in his eyes. "Same with this," he reached for his side and took out my sword. The poor thing was still tipped with a big glob of metal, still much shorter than before, but it gleamed in the light nonetheless. "Sharp. Sharper than most blades I've seen and far stronger," he chuckled, swinging my sword. "I rather like my new weapon. I'll have to have it modified of course, but I thank you for it. Tell me, are there others who I can get blades such as this from?"

"...Yeah," I said with a grin. "And I can lead you to them. Let you get your ass-kicked by my friends."

His smug smile faltered. Then he smirked. "Imputent. I wonder how long that will last."

"Till the day I die."

"That will be sooner than you think."

"Maybe," I was still channeling Tony. So when I mimicked Tony's best 'I know more than you' smile, Stend didn't seem to like it much. "But I tell you what. It'll be after you, and I'll have that sword back when I do."

Stend chuckled. "Amusing. I was going to let you heal before I put you to fight in the arena. Seeing you at your full strength would have been quite something. But since you seem so willing to fight, I think I'll put you in for tomorrow."

"Sounds great man," I laid back against the cage so that I was no longer facing him. "Tell you what, you want to go in with me? We can enjoy the arena together! You and me against the world, Stend, what do you think?"

A clawed hand entered to the left of my face through the cage bars. Before I could move, it's clawed hand wrapped around my face with almost crushing force, turning my low headache to an echoing bellow of pain. Stend hissed from behind me through the bamboo cage.

"Slave… I will tolerate many things. But there is a limit," he squeezed just a bit. I scrambled to my feet, pulling at the chain on my left hand. "Tomorrow, you enter the arena, you and these others slaves. You will die for the glory of the Saur-Lords. Save your idiocy till then. Or I will kill you here."

He squeezed again, enough that I felt like my skull wanted to crack in half, then let go. I gasped in pain as he leaned away from the cage to step away.

I stared after him, at his spiky back. I hadn't ever personally hated someone that often. I like to think that I'm a pretty nice guy.

I was going to rip his spikes off and impale him on them.

I looked at my fellow prisoners (I refused to think of us as slaves). They all were staring at me. I grinned. "Some guys can't take a joke, right?"

They stared at me, not understanding. I chuckled, shaking my head as though I wasn't still hurting. "You had to be there I guess."

We went through the jungle for a while. As we did, I took in everything I could. I counted the number of captors and prisoners, the ones who had weapons and what they were, and every weakness in the cage I could find. I figured that the metal chain wrapped around my left arm, coincidentally my Omnitrix arm, was strong, the part wrapped around my wrist the same. But Stend had revealed a couple of things he may not have realized were important. He wanted me in an arena, one I would fight in. Presumably, that meant I'd be released into it. If so, then I'd have opportunities.

The cart jumped, and I held in a groan at the pain that followed my body bouncing with the movement.

Problem was, beyond the sick feeling of fear and anger in my stomach at being captured, I wasn't able to do much. My fellow prisoners weren't feeling talkative/didn't speak the same language as me, so I just had to sit and deal with it. That was the worst part. The waiting.

The jungle had been better. I could be proactive, could fight back in some way, could move. Sitting in the cage as it swayed, smelling my own sweat along with dozens of other gross scents, the hot sun beating down through the bamboo bars, hearing constant snarls and barked orders, my body in constant pain, trying to note everything I could about my surroundings. It was the worst combination of tense and boring, knowing that I'd soon end up in a fight for life, but not knowing _when_.

I didn't know what to do. We were a long way from the river I'd ended up at, and I didn't know the way back, so I was starting from scratch for finding my way back. The others were still looking for me though, they had to be. If I could get a signal out to them…

There was nothing I could do but wait and watch.

"...Engländer, hör auf mich (glaring), bevor ich dir die Augen ausreiße," the German man said, the Omnitrix randomly translating the word in the middle. I'd been eyeing him for a moment. Apparently, he didn't like that.

"You keep calling me that," I noted. "I'm not an 'Engländer'. I'm an American, dude. Red, white, and blue, baby," I ended with a wide grin.

"Dummer Idiot. Ich spreche kein englisch… (Butt violin)," he said at the end, as though adding a garnish.

"Butt violin?" I asked, confused as hell and wondering if the Omnitrix was somehow regressing in progress because there was no _way_ the German language had a word that meant 'butt violin'.

He scoffed instead of answering.

Okay then.

* * *

We traveled on and on. The guys transporting us got water, took shifts, rested in the shade. We sat in the sun and waited. I meditated, trying to rest that way, to keep my mind together.

I looked over at the rock guy. Or girl. The rock person looked at me. It opened its mouth and spoke for the first time, in a language that sounded like stones shattering rhythmically, hitting each other in a kind of beautiful cadence.

"Nice to meet ya," I said as casually as I could.

Then I looked past him/her and stilled. A frown grew on my face as I struggled to my feet, staring out at the place in front of us. The other prisoners had similar reactions.

In the distance, a city rose out of the jungle. Made of gray stone, it seemed almost like a mirage the way the fog of the jungle parted to reveal it. First, there were some small buildings, inns, and homes maybe. Saur-Lords, which I figured was the name of the dinosaur people, stepped out from the homes to watch us as we rattled past. I was surprised to see a few humans, reptile people, even a stone person like the one next to me, coming out. But the main population seemed to be the Saur-Lords. They were mixtures of various dinosaurs, but it was relatively easy to tell they were in charge. I tried to remember if any species like this had appeared in the comics. If they had, it wasn't often. The only dino-hybrid I remembered from the comics with any certainty was Sauron and Stegron. And as big as Stend was, he was no Stegron.

As we rattled along, the smells of the jungle faded and new scents hit my nose. The smell of fresh bread baking, meat cooking, along with more gross scents like the kinds that came from a sewer, or from when fruits and vegetables had rotted to near nothing.

Stend rode up alongside our cart, chuckling. "Ah, look at this! Home! Isn't it beautiful!"

I kept my opinion on that to myself. It was okay. All the buildings were made of granite, giving the place the feel of a medieval city mixed with Aztec culture. The buildings came closer and closer together the further we went, the dirt under the cart gave way to cobblestone, and the smells got stronger.

"So, Outsider!" Stend said to me proudly. "What do you think of our home? Humble, but strong, no?"

I thought about being pithy again. But not yet. Not until I was ready. "It's nice."

"Indeed," he chuckled. "A good place to die."

In the distance, I could see it. An arena, large as any basketball stadium I'd ever seen, built of the same rough grey stone as everything else around us. We moved towards it as Stend beamed proudly up at the thing. He mumbled something to himself before waving up at the arena. Far above, at the very top where windows looked out to the city, two figures could be seen. I watched them carefully. Watched everything. Tracked routes. Imbedded the path we'd taken into my mind, watched the guards roaming around, from eight-foot Brontosaur-lords to squat and strong Anklyosaur-lords. We entered the arena from one of the lower floors, moving from sunlight to shadow. The door closed as we finally entered.

When they stopped the carts, it was in front of more cages. The guards didn't waste time. They seemed pretty practiced at the whole 'enslavement of people' thing. They did each cart one by one, forcing the groups in with their spears poking, barking orders in that growling language that seemed common here. Only when every prisoner was secured in one of the metal cages did they move to the next.

We were last. Since I was in the back of the cart, I was ready when it opened. I thought, for just a moment, about attacking. But there were multiple guards, all armed, all presumably superhuman. I had to choose a better moment.

My chain was loosened, and I was pushed forth. I dropped down to the ground, looking around the stone room we were in, noting the number of guards, tracing my eyes across the cage. Stend was watching in silence. I pretended not to notice. Walking forward as docile as possible, I stepped into the cage. The others followed me, the reptile guy trying to shove past me. I slid around him, avoiding his bulk, leaving him to stumble inside. Then I took a corner and sat down. The others filed in, one after the other, the German guy last. Reptile guy hissed something to Stend, who hissed back, pointing for him to sit.

Stend looked at all of us. He spoke in English, one of the guards translating. "Some of you, the ones who have lived here for some time, know what the arena is," he panned his eyes across the room. "Others, you country-bumpkins," he noted the stone man, the winged people, and a few of the reptiles. "And those who are newer to our proud ways," he eyed me. "May wonder what it is. Let me be clear. The Arena is where you fight for a purpose greater than yourselves. The entertainment of our lord," he chuckled. "It's an honor. A privilege. I myself once fought there. Made a name for myself. Won my freedom. And if you win? You can do the same."

Nope. That wasn't how I wanted the story to end. I'd make my way out another way. Besides, I already had a greater purpose.

"Today, rest, eat, drink. But tomorrow, you will fight," he chuckled. "Make it fun, will you?"

He turned and strode out, his spiked tail waving with each step, followed by a lot of the guards. Two of them were left, glaring at us. I noted them. The first guy was a T-Rex hybrid, about six-feet tall, carrying a spear. The second one was a raptor, just a bit shorter than me, with a spear as well as a sword on his hip. Two exits, one of which was locked now.

A moment of waiting later, a few humans entered the room escorted by a guard, all of them wearing chains. My heart ached at the sight of them. Children. They were children, carrying buckets of food they were struggling to carry. One of them, a little boy barely older than my nephew back home, came up to our cage and struggled to lift his bucket to pour it in. I stood up, only to blink in surprise when the T-Rex guard stepped forward and helped him. I looked at him in surprise. The guard kept his gaze on the boy, giving him a smile, which the boy returned.

The food they poured into the cages was some sort of bread. I moved forward to take one.

Reptile guy hissed, moving forward as well. He reached out to shove me. Red filled my vision.

At that point, I couldn't take it. I was hot, in pain, tired, and hungry. I was imprisoned by guys I'd usually beat into a pulp. And now, this guy was trying to swing his centimeter ego at me. No. I'd had enough.

When his long arm reached out for my chest, I snapped my left arm out to wrap around it. He squawked in shock, trying to pull back.

"What?!" he said in clear English, followed by loud hisses when I twisted his arm around and swiped his feet out from under him in a kick. I pushed him down to the ground, keeping his arm high, and slammed him into the floor before bringing my knee down into his back, keeping him pressed there.

"Shove me again, asshole!" I shouted, pulling him up and slamming him back down to the ground, bouncing his face against the stone.

"GREEE!" he shouted, struggling against me, his green scales warm against my hand and under my knee. He struggled to stand, pushing up against me. He was stronger than me. But strength is nothing without proper leverage. I pulled his arm towards the center of his back. I looked around at everyone else. No one was moving. Even the guards were just watching. I stared down at reptile man. He snarled, struggling to rise. I shook my head.

"Dude. We're literally enslaved and you're still…" I shook my head again, unable to hide my disgust. Damnit. I didn't want to break his arm. We might be fighting tomorrow. Two people with broken arms wouldn't help things if we had to fight together, which I was guessing was going to happen.

I let him go and jumped back as fast as I could, waiting for what he would do next. He rose up in a scramble, roaring as he rushed me with his claws out for my throat. I ducked under his right slice, then punched out with my left arm, hitting him directly in the solar plexus. He gasped in pain. Then I kicked his right knee, bringing him to the ground, before kneeing him as hard as I could in the face. I couldn't afford to hold back. He was bigger, faster, and stronger than me. All I had was surprise and training. So as he landed on his back, I leaped onto him, ignoring the burning sensation in my wounds, and punched him in the chest again. He snarled, snapping up with his teeth. I uppercut him, dazing him before wrapped a hand around his muzzle getting ready to-

Someone kicked me in the back, sending me flying forward. I hit the ground and tried to roll with the impact, only to get pulled down and held to the ground. A snarling sound filled the air, someone speaking. I was on my back, so I could see the T-Rex roaring down at me. Reptile Guy was staring at me, his eyes wide, as raptor guard held a spear to his throat. I stared back, then looked up at T-Rex. He snarled. I nodded, trying to show I wasn't about to attack again.

"...Reh," he pushed me down, then rose to his full height. Raptor slowly stepped back while the other guards kept watching. I stayed on my back, waiting. The T-Rex finally exited the cage, then Raptor, before they shut it closed. T-Rex growled, low and deep in his throat. I shared a look with reptile guy.

The green-scaled man looked like he was about to snarl. I shook my head, then got up, ignoring him. Whatever noise he was going to cut off. I walked up to the bread, most of which had been stomped on by the little brawl. Big chunks of stale, moldy, dirty brown… huh. Not bread. Some kind of dry baked thing filled with meat. Well, I suppose a lot of us were carnivores. I hadn't expected them to waste meat on prisoners. Still, they were big. I picked up a piece, trying to keep my panting to myself.

God. That had been stupid. One moment, one mistake, and I'd be dead. I'd lost my temper. Nat would have killed me if she knew.

I pushed that thought down in favor of walking up to reptile guy. He flinched back. Winged girl, German guy, and stone person watched. T-Rex snarled.

So when I kneeled to hold out the breadmeatthing to the reptile guy, he seemed shocked. I sighed, holding it out. "Stop being a dick. Just eat."

He stared at me for a moment longer. I dropped the food in his lap and went to the beat-up bread. One by one, still clutching my broken arm to my chest, I grabbed two other pieces, then tossed them to Winged girl and German guy. I picked up another piece and looked over at Stone person.

"You want a piece?" I asked, holding it out.

Stone person shook their head. Instead, they reached for a piece of random rubble and began to chew on it. I sat down in front of Reptile Guy and began to eat, ignoring him. After a moment, he started to eat as well.

"...Dial," Reptile Guy looked up at me. I patted my chest. "Dial. Diiiiaaaal," I patted my chest again.

"...Gresh," he said hesitantly. He sort of growled it.

"Gresh. Nice," I grinned. "Look at that. I'm a master of communication."

He snarled. I chewed my food, trying not to look like his teeth were scary as shit sharp, and grinned.

* * *

Gresh was the Reptile Guy. Stone person's name was some combination of a boulder shattering and gravel bouncing. When I tried to say it, I felt like my lungs were about to pop out of my throat. So I called them Demi since Deadpool's voice was always described as Demi Moore's if she was gargling gravel. I am great at names.

German guy didn't want to tell me his name. He kept calling me Englander. German guy was a jerk, so he did not get a fun nickname.

The winged girl didn't want anything to do with us. I think she didn't want anything to do with the world at large. She had her one wing wrapped around her as she sat with her knees to her chest, her eyes low. I got a good look at her back. Her left wing was torn off, leaving a stump of bone. The winged people in the other cages kept singing to her in a flowing language, sympathy on their faces. She ignored them.

It was while we were all hanging out and making friends in the worst group setting I'd ever been to, I kept watching the guards. I noticed a couple of things as the day came to a close. They never seemed to have any less than two people around us. But they also kept sending people in groups of six to one of the exits. More than a few returned looking positively exhausted. Like they'd been fighting for hours. I also kept hearing something. A muffled sound, through the ground. Like something under us was moving over and over. At one point, a loud roar came from the distance.

"..." I looked at the T-Rex guard. He didn't show any surprise. "What the hell is causing that?"

He stared at me with those reptilian eyes of his. The raptor guard looked between us. Finally, the T-Rex spoke. His snarling voice rose and fell in a brief sentence, the Omnitrix finally translating something.

"Red Devil…"

Oh. Oh damn.

I had an escape plan.

* * *

 _Author's Note:_

Chapter after this will follow the buddy cop duo of X and Kraven. As for this one... well, Dial is in trouble. He's trapped in gladiator battles with a broken arm, and no one feels like treating him for it thus far. Oh, and maggots are cleaning out his wounds. Don't worry, it's a real thing people did.

And yes, he did win the fight here. Against a bully whose only advantages over Dial was his physical strength. That's all he's been training to fight against. He's been sparring with everyone from Skye to Black Widow to Thor, getting his ass kicked so that he wouldn't get his ass kicked.

Still. If Gresh had been ready and wary, he could have ripped Dial's throat out. Dial's broken arm kinda helped here, making him seem weaker than he really is. Which is weird when you think about it.

Oh, and Stend. Stend is made up. I kinda like him/hate him. Rest assured, the real Saur-Lords will be showing up soon, and they're all a vastly different flavor of horrifically badass.

Edit: Forgot. I need to post the German guys translations...

 **Überlassen Sie es einem Engländer, einen schwachen Magen zu haben:** Leave it to an Englishman to have a weak stomach.

 **Engländer, hör auf mich (glaring), bevor ich dir die Augen ausreiße:** Englishman, stop (glaring) at me before I tear your eyes out.

 **Dummer Idiot. Ich spreche kein englisch:** Stupid idiot. I do not speak English


	91. Chapter 91

**_X_**

X flew into the Savage Land at top speed, making no attempt to slow down as he came down towards the ice. A small beam of light flew ahead of him. The veil around the Savage Land opened. He passed through.

For a moment, when the veil closed behind him, he was disorientated. The veil cut him off from every satellite on the planet, the connection he'd had since the moment of his creation. He adjusted to the 'sensation' in microseconds, but it was uncomfortable. In many ways, this was the first time he had ever been left with the silence of his own thoughts.

He imagined it was how a modern teenager felt when left in the woods with no technology.

X stopped musing to press a button on his harness. The straps holding him to his jetpack released, allowing him to drop as he flew. For just a moment, X freefell through the air, his body streamlined with arms and legs tight to his body. At the last second he snapped his form outward, hitting the ground in a plume of earth and stone flying about.

 **Boom!**

X took a moment to let his android form adjust to the sudden stop before rising up and striding forward. He patted the weapons across his body while ignoring the jetpack flying away. Instead, he spoke on the radio signal being used by BRIDGE.

"This is X. I have arrived in the Savage Land. Acknowledge."

X used the long second's humans always took to speak to process the jungle around him. The river Mahmoud had fallen into was just a few feet away. Good. He made his way there, reaching for his machete. With brutal efficiency, he sliced his way through the vines.

"X!?" the voice of Carl Creel said in surprise over X's radio. "What are you doing here?"

"Finding Mahmoud," X kicked aside a boulder, ignoring the three-ton stone bouncing its way into the jungle. "Are you well, Mr. Creel? You look fatigued."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm- wait, you can see me?"

X had access to all BRIDGE camera networks, so he was able to see through the security cameras installed in the BRIDGE Savage Land mobile base (More of an RV than a base in truth) to watch as Creel looked around in shock. Creel was standing in a room surrounded by screens, with scientists and soldiers looking at the screens, all of which were covered in maps.

"Indeed, Mr. Creel. I am obtaining all the data I can from the mobile bases servers. I've extrapolated the last possible location of Mahmoud before the trail becomes muddled. I am headed there now."

"How-" Creel shook his head. He rubbed his eyes slowly. The superhuman had all the clinical signs of exhaustion and lack of sleep. He had dark coloration beneath his eyes, hanging eyelids, pale skin, and the corners of his mouth were sinking. Still, he was clearly motivated by the way his back was straightening. "Whatever, it's good to have the help. You want us to come along?"

"No need," X said as politely as he could. He stopped by the river, robotic eyes tracking across the water. "How is Fantasma?"

Creel hesitated. He looked towards a back room. X accessed the cameras in that room.

Fantasma was reading in a chair. The young Russian witch looked even worse than Creel. Her hair was straying about, far from the usual sophisticated way she had, her hands were shaking slightly, and her eyes were falling constantly. She was reading a screen, frantically taking notes. X took a look at the file she was reading. An upload of a book of magic. She was reading through spells on tracking items.

But she was making mistakes.

"Mr. Creel," X said at last. "Please, endeavor to rest. Both you and Ms. Fantasma. You are both exhausted. Exhaustion does not help us."

"X, we need to find him," Creel growled.

"Yes. But you need to sleep," X said firmly. "I do not. I can attempt to track him while you rest. Once you are rested, I will inform you of my position, and you can come aid me. Fantasma is currently writing a spell that, if I am understanding correctly, is meant to track Dial's sword. However, she has currently set it to summon a creature I believe is called a Flumph. She must rest. And so must you."

Creel stood in silence. X strode into the river until his head was submerged. Finding nothing, he exited and began to walk along the bank, his eyes taking in every bit of information he could process so that he missed nothing.

Creel lashed out suddenly, his fist shattering a tv screen before going through it. Everyone in the room stared at him. X ignored it, instead pushing aside a tree and slicing through more brush.

"Fine," Creel said, as though he hadn't turned perfectly good equipment into scrap. "I'll get Fantasma to rest. You're right. We need to sleep. But you tell us the second you find Dial. Because I'm going to break his arms if he's just hanging out having fun while I'm trying to find him."

"That is more than likely not what he is doing," X said dryly.

"One thing," Creel said. "Ka-Zar hasn't shown up yet, but we're planning to ask him for help the second he shows up."

"That would be welcome," X continued forth. He disconnected from the radio, but kept a subsystem monitoring the mobile base.

He continued to follow the river for a mile. From what he could hypothesis, Dial's armor had kicked in emergency functions when he had landed in the water. But for some reason, they couldn't access the emergency beacon that should have activated. So what had gone wrong? Where did his trail continue?

X continued along the river calmly, his processors taking in the footage from his eyes and going through it at immense speed. His large feet left depressions in the mud. His immense strength tore through the jungle with little regard, several times carelessly ripping a tree out of the earth to move it out of the way. His focus was absolute.

Soon, he'd left the jungle to find himself walking along the river as it cut through a field of short grass and weeds. Then he noticed it. At one point, the current of the river changed before continuing as normal. X stopped to watch the river. He'd been taking constant measurements. The river was diverting. But where?

It was probably best to wait to figure that out. X felt that he was currently being investigated.

He turned to look at the creature who was slowly walking up to him. It was about the size of a baby elephant. It toddled towards him awkwardly, large eyes looking up at him curiously.

A triceratops baby. Or at least, a descendant of one. It had two tiny horns that hadn't grown just yet, and was looking at him with the fascinated gaze of all infants. It must have been only a few months old.

X lowered himself to a knee as it approached. He reached out and pulled some grass up out of the ground before holding it out. The baby triceratops eyes lit up, and it rushed forward. It tripped over its own feet, struggled back up, and continued towards X, leaning it's head down to devour the grass in the androids hand with mewling sounds of happiness. X raised his other hand and rubbed it's head, getting more sounds happiness from it. It was covered in extremely soft feathers the color of mocha coffee, with some small amount of blue across it as well.

X noted it's actions calmly. It was a cute thing. It was part of why he'd felt the urge to feed it.

"RAAAAAGH!"

She had been just out of sight, in the treeline. X watched as the mother came towards them. The infant squeaked, rushing towards the mother, who nudged it back. As it did, X noted the size of the Triceratops. Thousands of pounds of flesh and bone, with feathers similar to its child, only more aggressively blue than mocha. It's horns were more like spears of solid bone three feet long, and it's entire body was built like an armored tank similar to a rhino, with it's crest rising high off it's head.

Once the baby had moved off into the treeline, the mother spun to glare at X.

This was very interesting. There were many theories on the behavior of dinosaurs, but no way to prove them. Of course, X mused, this triceratops may have evolved to act this way on the Savage Land, but it was better than nothing. She was acting more like a mother bear than anything else.

Oh. She was attacking.

She charged towards him with an aggressive roar, her elephantine feet crashing into earth with quaking force. X adjusted to the shaking and faced the animal, who outweighed him by tons. He felt some digital approximation to excitement.

This would be his first fight in the real world.

He waited for the mother to reach her full speed, an impressive 25 km/h. He calculated the time to impact, his own physical bodies reaction speed, weak points across her body, and the rules in place for the Savage Land, as well the moral implications of any of his actions.

By the time she was three feet away from him, he had ducked her horns and sidestepped her. The mountain of furious dinosaur missed him by inches. She slammed her feet into the ground, grinding herself to a halt and trying to turn around. X dived under her, crouching. Then he placed his hands against her belly. Servos and pistons spun within him. He rose up.

And so did the triceratops.

"Eugh?!" the mother waved its feet in shock as it was lifted off the ground. X stood to his full height, supporting the weight of the dinosaur. He took a moment of synthetic pleasure in the ease of the movement. His body was taking the weight very well. He kept its weight distributed across his shoulders, mimicking the way human weightlifters did similar feats. Then, as the triceratops continued to wave its feet around and look around in a panic, he hefted her up and pushed. It took some careful movement to make sure when she landed, she wouldn't shatter or break anything. She still landed with a ' **Boom** '. Confused, the triceratops slowly rose to her feet and faced him. X turned his back on her and walked into the river.

The triceratops was smart. Apparently, being lifted off the ground and dropped by something that followed that by ignoring her was too much. She slowly backed away, making sure to keep it's cub behind her while the baby watched with adorably wide eyes. X ignored them both even as he recorded the incident. Internally, he thought that had gone rather well.

Back to business, however. He disappeared underneath the water. His advanced cameras tracked along the river bottom. Based on the movement of the silt as it was lifted by the water… Ah. There.

He walked up to the opening that was in the side of the river, deep under it. An underwater tunnel. This explained everything. The river had a small amount of it constantly pouring into the tunnel, but no one would know that unless they swam under its surface as X had. So when BRIDGE had attempted to follow the river, they missed this area, which was where Dial must have been swept into.

However, Dial's chances of survival had significantly dropped.

X ignored the statistics running through his mind. He simply walked up to the stone tunnel and pressed into it. For a moment, his squat form struggled to enter it. He pressed deeper, the stones scratching at him and moved on, shoving aside hundreds of tons of stones to enter the tunnel.

He moved into it, finding himself in almost claustrophobic conditions. All light was left behind, forcing X to turn on a function in his eyes that activated simple LED lights within them. He crawled for several minutes before the tunnel opened up into a larger cave. X made his way out of the tunnel and looked around the cave. It was twenty feet around, with stalactites and stalagmites in one corner, and the river cut its way through it. X updated his internal map and strode forward. He could see small scratches on some of the surfaces of the stone along the river, possible where Dial had bumped into as he had floated. The cave continued to open up as he moved forward. At one point, he found himself in a cavern that was dozens of feet high above him, opening up at the top in a large hole that revealed the sky. X noted the plantlife surrounding that hole, as well as the waterfall pouring down it to join the river. He also noted the large temple in the middle of the cave, about the size of a house, the stone building having fallen apart centuries ago. The statue of some figure still stood in the center where the temple had once been, though it had been beaten by the elements for some time. It appeared to be some sort of… feathered being? With a rooster comb on the head?

X took footage, then continued on. It was as he left the cavern to continue deeper into the tunnel that he noticed some metal imbedded on a wall along the cave, a strain of some oddly silver-

 **ALERT!** X's internal systems screamed a warning the instant his body's structure was compromised. X leaped back the instant he understood what was happening. His right hand, which had been reaching forward started to flake and turn to liquid as he got closer to the metal. X got back as far as he could before the melting finally stopped. He stared at his hand.

The hand was still intact. But the metal on it had been melted and left to drip. His hand now looked like liquid silver had been poured across it, only to freeze midway. He twisted his hand and was forced to shatter a piece of his armor to allow him to move it freely. The sound of steel cracking filled the air as he squeezed his hand into a fist, watching dispassionately as he returned his mobility to his hand. It shouldn't have been so easy to shatter the metal on his hand, even with his enhanced strength, but the damage had weakened the metal as well. Then he looked up at the cave ahead, staring at the strains of metal.

Anti-Metal. Antarctic Vibranium. Dial had told him about it. An element that could make other metals fall apart at the atomic level. He didn't have any sensors to see if the damage to his hand's casing had truly been down to the atomic level but it was easy to surmise what had happened.

And if Dial had floated along the river, then that explained why he had gone missing. If the Omnitrix had fallen apart in response to the Anti-Metal…

X activated his radio. As of now, he had no way to follow Dial. He'd only made it a couple of miles, but already needed aid. It was… disappointing. But logic prevailed. He needed a humans help from here on out.

"This is X," he said over the radio, reconnecting with the mobile bases cameras. "I have a lead on Dial, but I require help from a human."

In the base, several people looked at each other before one man, the BRIDGE soldier in command of the unit on the Savage Land, came up to the mic. "We read you, X. We have an asset in the field heading out to you. He said he should be able to find you soon."

X acknowledged that. "Very well. I'll track their armor and contact them through it."

The BRIDGE soldier hesitated. "That… won't really work?"

"Why not?"

"He doesn't have armor. The only thing he went out with was a knife."

* * *

 ** _Sergei Kravinoff/Kraven the Hunter_**

Kraven shook his head as he ran through the jungle. He'd had a fun day so far. Met up with some old smuggler friends willing to ship him to Antarctica. Always good to start a hunt off meeting old friends. His friends, French pilots who had some familiarity with flying into the ice cold regions of the world, had been doing well.

He'd then air-dropped over the cold of the most remote region of Earth with nothing but a parachute and a beam emitter that Boris had given him, really a laser that had been modified per BRIDGE specifications to emit the light they'd discovered could open the veil around the Savage Land.

That had been a thrill. Falling towards a world of ice, feeling the chill wind pass him by. Then, a single laser flying out of the boxy device he'd lugged along, and he was headed down for a jungle instead. What an incredible thing to see!

From there, things had been much more familiar note. He parachuted into the jungle and made his way to the BRIDGE mobile command center. When he got there, the BRIDGE soldiers immediately pulled him in.

"Where is Fantasma?" Kraven had asked curiously.

"She and Creel are knocked out," the BRIDGE man in command had told him. "They've been up since Dial disappeared. We're letting them rest until we get news."

Good. Sleep was as necessary to survival as sustenance and shelter. While Kraven had long since trained himself to only require 30 minutes of sleep 4 times a day, he still needed that rest. Lack of sleep could kill a man as effectively as any animal, and in many cases lead to dying by animal anyways.

Kraven rubbed his chin. "Then I will head out for the hunt."

"...You mean rescue?" the BRIDGE soldier said hesitantly.

"Is there a difference?" Kraven scoffed. Honestly. As though he hadn't saved tourists from their own stupidity before. " Where was our shapeshifting friend last seen?"

"Here," a scientist said nearby, pointing at a map.

Kraven studied it for a moment before nodding. "Very well! I am off!"

"Alone?" the soldier asked.

"If I want to go quickly, yes," Kraven said with a scoff. Honestly. While these men may have some skill on the battlefield, especially if they had even the slightest amount of skill the lovely Melissa May had displayed, they were not hunters.

"Well, we currently have an asset in the field tracking Dial right now," the soldier said. "X, an android. He said he had a lead."

An android? In the jungle?

The soldier shivered at the interested smile Kraven displayed.

"Uh, do you need anything before you go?" the soldier asked. "We have more armor, weapons-"

Kraven shook his head, patting his sides, where a steel and bone knife hung on each hip. "I will be fine as is."

Then he turned and left, ignoring the stuttering of the soldier as he left.

From there, the hunt began. And it was an interesting one.

First, he went to the cliff where Dial had fallen, and leaped off of it, hopping his way down the rocks with incredible agility until he had gotten to the bottom. Then he leaped into one of the trees along the river and made his way along the shore, jumping from tree to tree with practiced ease.

The Savage Land was a delight to the senses. The scents of animals he'd never encountered, plants larger than he could have ever believed, even the insects here were enormous and powerful creatures, if the dragonflies that frequented the river were any indication. Kraven revelled in how _hostile_ this place was. After half a lifetime of hunting, he'd nearly memorized almost every jungle on Earth. Not entirely of course, the very nature of jungles made such things impossible. But he'd gained a sense for how they worked. He'd hunted every manner of animal, survived floods, forest fires, and hurricanes, turning predators into prey. Over time, Kraven had only gotten stronger and more skilled. He'd taken the wild and made it a home.

Not the Savage Land. Here, the trees stretched upwards for hundreds of feet, a city of green to rival the likes of New York, the brush was thick enough to entangle the largest of animals, and the scent of the jungle was almost aggressive. Everytime he jumped from tree to tree, using the tall foliage the way lesser men would use trails, the land spoke to him. 'You are not welcome. You are prey. Make one mistake and you will die. I care not for the great empires of man, for I have survived while they have risen and fallen.'

How enticing. To be once more a novice. He hadn't felt such a thrill since he'd been a young man in Kenya. For all his experience, he couldn't help the feeling within him. The thirst to prove oneself that only the greatest of men felt deep in their hearts.

Either that or he was having his first mid-life crisis.

His amusement at the internal thought faded when he noticed an irregularity. A crater alongside the river, on the opposite bank.

In a twisting movement that would have left the most avid Olympic gymnasts gasping in awe, Kraven leaped out and grabbed a branch in his hands, the bark under his palms cool as he twirled around it three times before releasing it to fly across the river in a somersault. He landed in a roll on the other side and came to an instant stop next to the crater. Then he took a long hard look at it.

"Hm… newly formed," he mused to himself. Dust from the crater had flown up to land on nearby plants, proving that true. It was about three feet deep, but nothing stood in its center. He took a deep sniff. The scent of metal, ozone, and silicone filled his lungs. The android.

He looked around and found the tracks. The android had a heavy gait, but the ground was dry enough that it took a small amount of effort to discover where he had gone. He'd entered the river for a brief moment, then left it to begin trekking alongside the river. So the android was on the trail as well.

Kraven leaped into the trees again, moving rapidly to follow. If the android found Dial before him, Kraven would never live it down.

It was during this next leg of the hunt that he discovered something interesting. The android was among the easiest things to follow he'd ever encountered. The android had apparently taken the same method tanks did when it came to tracking prey. Simply stride forward and bulldoze anything that blocked you. Kraven found ancient trees ripped out of the earth and discarded on their sides as though the thousands of tons of wood were little more than driftwood. He'd also sliced his way through the brush with brutal efficiency, leaving long trailing gaps of devastated foliage and large footprints. Kraven noted a few boulders that had been ripped out of the ground as well. Apparently, whenever the android came up against anything it was faster to tear through rather than walk around, he simply ripped through it.

It was almost impressive.

Soon, Kraven found himself dropping from the trees to land in a small field. He looked around, face neutral as he took in the scents and sounds of the area.

X had been here, the footprints said. But so had two others.

Kraven leaned down to look at some grass that had been torn in half, as though by a hand. Then at some small footprints like those of a baby elephant in terms of the way the weight was being distributed.

Of course, then there were the massive footprints that must have come from a being that outweighed elephants by several tons. Kraven eyed the footprints, including the ones that showed the largest animal had been running towards the android.

Kraven laughed when he realized what had happened. Impressive. This android must have been quite strong!

Then, the android entered the water, and never came back up.

He eyed the water. After a moment, Kraven dived in, disappearing beneath the waves. Some close examination revealed the existence of the tunnel. Any normal man wouldn't have gone in without some form of oxygen tank.

Kraven had no such fears. He'd hunted in caves and deep beneath the ocean, lakes, and rivers of various parts of the world on many an occasion. The world's longest recorded dives often lasted over 10 minutes, with the divers requiring time hyperventilating oxygen beforehand in order to last that long. Kraven had no need for such things. He took the only piece of technology he had brought with him, a small flashlight, and placed it between his lips before entering the tunnel.

The hunter crawled in the hole for long minutes, fingers pressing to stones, the cold water pressing in around him. The conditions were less claustrophobic than he expected. He soon discovered why when he realized that the tunnel had been pushed to be wider than it had been, with scratches along the walls and some portions opened up so wide that Kraven managed to grab some air.

He rose out of the end of the tunnel and blinked up at what he had found.

"Good afternoon," the android said. The large being in front of him had eyes that emitted a powerful beam of light, illuminating the cave around them. Kraven pulled himself out of the tunnel as the android stepped forward. "I am X."

Kraven stood to his full height and face the being warily. He was built thick and strong in size, his body made of smooth metal all across. Kraven noted the machete, revolver, and rifle the AI was wearing. Apparently he'd come prepared for a fight. Interesting. "I am Kraven."

"Yes, I know," X said quickly. "I have been stymied in my search."

Abrubt. Wonderful! He had no wish to waste time with pleasantries!

"What happened?" Kraven asked.

"Anti-Metal, a substance so named by Dial for its ability to dissolve the bonds of atoms in metal," X said. "Of course, that is a rather brisk description of the material, but it will suffice until it can be studied."

Kraven eyed one of the androids hands, which had been partially melted. My. That was an interesting material. "I suppose that would be an issue for a man like you."

X nodded. "I require organic assistance."

"You have it, my friend," Kraven laughed, walking forward. "Come! Let's continue the hunt!"

* * *

Author's Note: No real author's note, working on next chapter, will finish asap, please support me on the website ff won't let me mention, see you later, stay safe


	92. Chapter 92

Devil. That had to be Devil Dinosaur.

I was in the cages with Gresh, Demi, Winggirl, and German jerk. It was the middle of the night now. I'd slept for a good long while after filling my belly with whatever that meat-filled bread was and a lot of water that was kinda gross. I had woken up early, lying on the cold hard dirt. My right arm was feeling much better, oddly. The wonders of rest. I was still hurting, but my headache was gone.

I sat up against the cage bars and looked around. Demi the rock person was standing in the center of the room. I kept still other than my head. I'd been doing this consistently. Since we had entered the city, I'd compiled every bit of information I could get, creating a mental picture of the world around us.

My escape plan was simple. Anyone with even the slightest bit of knowledge on tactics knows the best plans are simple. It's kind of like in a fight. You can build a crazy contraption that magically breaks someone's nose, or punch someone in the face as hard as possible. You get style points for one, but the other is not only easy but also has a good record for working.

The plan was first, survive the next day and figure out my weapons. In this case, the weapons I had available were simple. My brain, my allies, and time. I'd taken a good look at the locks on these cages. They were primitive things, made of crude iron. Any lockpicker worth a damn could open them. I was worth a damn. I could open them as long as I had the right tools.

Then there were the guards. Two guards, rotating shifts. I'd have to take them out of the proceedings. Once they were out of the way, I'd release the prisoners. With enough people, we could charge our way out. But that wasn't the real goal. The real goal was to get to BRIDGE. Just one quinjet and a small squad with catom armor and weapons would help me take these guys apart, not to mention any Avenger's helping.

But that was the plan. Unlock cage, take out guards, escape, get help. Simple, and subject to change. It had to be flexible, to be able to shift as new information and obstacles appeared.

As I was thinking this, three people entered the room. Both guards turned to face her.

A human woman, maybe a little younger than me, came up with two Anklyo-Lords. She looked caucasian, with a tan. She surprised me by speaking the language of the Saur-Lords to the guards, who moved to let her pass. She surprised me more when she walked up to my cage. She eyed everyone in the cage for a moment before facing me.

She was tall and muscular, with long pale brown hair and tanned skin. She had some scars around her wrists, and her eyes were brown. She met my eyes.

"Lord Stend wants you," she said in English. She sounded British.

"I'm currently dating someone," I said back, smirking at her. "And no offense to Stend, but he's got stiff competition. Plus, she'll kill him."

I wondered what Jen was doing now. She should have been on a mission by now…

"Lord Stend has offered to heal your wounds," the woman said in a monotone voice. "If you will answer his questions."

"Awwww, he's inviting me out on a date?" I rose to my feet, ignoring the pain that followed any kind of movement. I was still covered in bruises. "That's adorable. Well, let's go. I'll let the big lug down easy."

The woman frowned at me. I grinned. Huh, I might be spending too much time with Tony and Nat if I was being this sarcastic.

"Well, I'm down," I took a hold of the cage bars and grinned at her. "So. Take me to your leader."

I sat as calmly as I could while the cuts on my body were cleaned by the woman. She'd brought me to a small room higher up the building we were in. I don't think she or the two Saur-Lords with us noticed me carefully tracking my way through the building, noting the area around us through the windows, marking directions.

The room she'd brought me too was clean, well lit by torches, and had a large table in the center and some drawers made of wood. I'd been guided to sit on the table, after which the woman got to work. She cleaned out the two cuts I'd gotten from the raptors. The one on my hip was especially deep, and it stung as she used water to wipe it out before pouring something that smelled a lot like alcohol into the wound, pinprick stings following every motion. Once clean, she packed in some goopy green substance into the wound before wrapping it in a bandage. Then she removed the makeshift wraps around my broken arm. It looked red and slightly swollen, but not bad. She rewrapped it with expert precision, then put my arm into a leather sling.

I was starting to look pretty primitive when you took the leather sling in along with the rest of my clothes. My jeans and shirt were replaced by a leather vest and loincloth.

Yeah. A loincloth. I knew the Savage Land would get me into one sooner or later… Thank god I'd worked out for months so I looked more like Tarzan and less like… I don't know, some fat caveman.

As soon as the woman was done, she stepped back from me. "You are healing well… Lord Stend. He is ready."

"Good," Stend stepped into the room. He'd been waiting for his moment. The Stego-Lord walked up to me. My sword was still bouncing at his hip. He came to a stop in front of me and smirked. "Leave. Now."

"Yes, my lord," the woman bowed and turned to leave.

"Hey," I said. She stopped to look at me. "What's your name?"

She stared at me. I think she was thinking about answering.

Right up until Stend turned and grabbed her by the throat, lifting her in a smooth motion. He grinned up at her as he squeezed on her throat.

"Oy!" I stepped forward, shocked. One of the guards snapped forward to bring his spear close to my chest, stopping me in my tracks.

"Her name," Stend said smugly. "Is slave. Isn't it?"

The girl was choking, clutching desperately at Stend. She nodded quickly, tears in her eyes.

"Then, slave. Follow my last order. Leave," Stend spun around and tossed her out the door. She let out a pained gasp as she hit the floor. She didn't say a word though. She just rose up as fast as possible and rushed away.

Stend turned towards me with a chuckle. "Now. You. I have questions."

"What, you want me to teach you my advanced wedgie technique?" I snarled. "Because I'm pretty sure Biff Tannen and Draco Malfoy would be proud of that little stunt."

Pathetic. That's what it was. This roided up dino was throwing his weight around at people who couldn't fight back. At that woman. At me. He was a bully. And the worst part of that was that I didn't have a way to fight back.

I kept myself as calm as I could while staring at him, keeping a neutral expression on my face. Don't show your feelings. Sarcasm and calm were my allies in this fight of wills.

"Ohhhh?" Stend smiled viciously. "No love for a fellow human?"

"I never fall in love on the first date," I shrugged. "What do you want, Stend?"

"Answers, my dear Outsider. Answers," he walked out. The guard poked at me, forcing me to follow. Stend strode through the halls with the calm demeanor of king in his castle. "Our civilization is young. Only twenty years old. I remember the old days. When we were but savages, running through the jungles like the others. But then, our Lord came. He taught us about forging steel, building the great structures around us. He taught us many things."

Stend's hands clenched into fists. "And yet… he never spoke of where such things came from. The source of his knowledge. And as we captured slaves, two groups stood out to me. The New Britannians and the Neu-Deutschlanders. Descendents of outsiders like you. Men who were at war landed on our shores and made a home here while continuing their war. They told stories to their descendents. And I listened to those stories. Stories of cities and civilizations far beyond ours. Of wars between vast armies, with medicine, culture, and people far advanced from our own. Twenty years of progress. And we were still primitive buffoons."

We entered an office. I was beginning to get a sense for who Stend was, so I wasn't surprised to see that his office was ceiling to floor with books. Among them was a map, resting on a nearby wall. A map of the Earth, next to one of Antarctica. Except that the map of Earth was very rough, printed onto thick parchment, while the one of Antarctica was full of green and blue. Didn't need to be a genius to know the map was depicting the Savage Land. It was far cleaner and more detailed than the other one was.

"I have some theories," Stend strode around his desk to sit at a roughly hewn chair that was built with a long divide in the center so his stegosaur fins and tail would pop out the back. "Our Lord has been good to us. Or so I believed. But recently, I have begun to question just how _good_ he truly is."

Stend pulled out a journal. "He taught us the secrets of medicine… but then I enslaved a Britannian who taught me about antibiotics. He taught us about iron. A Deutschlander had a book describing steel. He taught us the rudimentary tactics of war, strategies we used to dominate the jungle. Then I discovered this," he tossed the journal to me. I awkwardly caught it out of the air with one hand and looked at the cover.

"Art of War… pretty old too," I mused to myself. "Looks handwritten. The cover's some sort of leather."

"I'd surmise it was copied from the original," Stend rested his elbows on his desk. "Our Lord is either not the wise and intelligent man he claims to be… or he is holding back. Refusing to give us more knowledge in an attempt to keep us under control," Stend scowled. "I fought my way out of the arena to stop being a slave. I swore ever after to be a master. To have no one hold me back."

He took out something and placed it on the table. I eyed it for a good long moment. A gun. My gun. Melted, but recognizable. I'd carried it with me mostly because you never know when a big chunk of metal will be useful in the jungle.

"Now, I find this. I find you," Stend glared at the gun spitefully. "This weapon. Your armor. Your sword. They're not just advanced. They are beyond anything I could have imagined. We aren't just behind in technology. We're behind in so much more, aren't we? I fought my entire life to find freedom. But I've discovered my ignorance has shackled me all along."

"...I'd sympathize more with you, if you weren't enslaving me," I said as bitingly as I could. "I don't know man, it's just tough to relate to a guy who does that kind of thing. Oh, and you promised to send me, a dude with a broken fucking arm, into an arena to fight to the death. Really feeling for Spartacus about now."

Stend smirked. "How about if I propose a trade?" A trade? I didn't say anything. Just waited. He seemed to take that as a reason to continue. "I want information. I have often made sure slaves who have value to me are kept from the arena. Men and women of all species who can aid me. Such as our weapons," he nodded towards the guards.

Both of them stepped forward, holding out their weapons. After working with Tony and Fitz, as well as memories from my time as Jury Rigg, I recognized damascus steel on sight. Their swords had the swirling pattern of dark and light that I remembered. Nowadays, it was outclassed by many modern methods of forging. But around here, it might as well have been a lightsaber. Well, not quite as insane, but still stronger than the iron I'd seen everywhere by a wide margin.

"...A Saur-Lord slave, a young woman about to enter the pits, told me she had been trained in forging," Stend said softly. "I took a chance. And she made me blades the like of which I have never seen. She works for me now."

Stend rose to his feet. "I reward intelligence. I reward information and loyalty. And I can keep you from the arena. Keep you from dying. Just tell me about the world beyond," Stend looked calm. But I noted the way he swallowed. "Tell me how it is grown. Is Rome standing? The Soviet Union? How far has science come? Tell me. And for the rest of your life, I will make sure you never go hungry. You can have women and men to sate your lusts upon, alcohol, sport. I cannot promise you everything. But you will have much in return for information."

"...And if I just leave? Just turn my caramel brown ass around and head back home?"

Stend smirked. "Not possible. No one can escape the Savage Land. Not even me. You are stuck in our world. But if you work with me? Then you'll never be uncomfortable."

Yeah. Show's how much you know.

Fact was, BRIDGE had managed to crack the entry/exit to the Savage Land. We hadn't figured out how to do the whole communication thing yet, but we could at least do that.

But what Stend was offering was of strategic value, if not in the way he was thinking. His offer was time. Time to wait things out, survive, plan and escape. Maybe even time for the Omnitrix to repair itself if my increasing ability to understand Gresh was any proof. I could play along for a bit, pretend to work with the guy.

Gresh… the people that I'd been captured with.

"How about my little Breakfast Club down in the cage?" I asked cautiously. "You gonna help them out too?"

Stend quirked his head. "The other slaves? They're worthless to me."

"That's not true," I crossed one arm over the other. "You want what I know? I'd like my new best friends to be safe."

Stend scowled. "That is not reasonable. I need fighters. The arena requires them. And these new slaves are useless as anything other than dying for the crowd."

"Well yippee for them. I'm useful enough for all of them," I leaned forward to look Stend in the eyes. "You want to know about smartphones, titanium and the invention of the dab as the world's greatest dance move? That's my deal. My fellow prisoners don't go into your death games, and I will introduce you to anime. You seem like an Isekai kind of guy."

Stend couldn't have looked more pissed if he'd tried. "I will _not_ put away everything I've worked for just to- No. You will work with me, alone. Or you will die."

Shit. That wasn't going to work.

"No deal."

"You are being unreasonable," Stend snarled.

"Good," I glared at him. "I'm an Avenger. A hero. Unreasonable is what we're about. We're a greedy bunch. You offer us our lives, and we take the lives of everyone around us. Ask for surrender, we steal a victory."

Stend snapped to his feet and raised a fist to punch me. I got ready to roll with the blow. It never came. Instead, he glared at me. "I'm giving you a chance to be logical. To realize that sacrificing yourself for men and women you've never met before is foolish. This is not some soft and cushy world. This is the Savage Land. We kill, survive and grow. Martyrdom is useless. Simply another log on an already blazing flame."

He wasn't entirely wrong. Doing this, sacrificing a good chance at survival for a few people, some of whom didn't even like me, was dumb. Nat would have beaten me red and blue for it. Tony would have made a sarcastic comment while giving me a grin like he was half-proud, half-pissed. Steve would have stood right beside me. And if we're being honest? I think they would have done the same thing I did.

"I told you. I'm an Avenger. We don't adapt to cruelty," I smiled. "We break it. My deal is, don't put anyone into the arena that doesn't want to go in, and I will tell you everything about the world you want to know. Otherwise, I'll go into the arena and take my chances."

Stend glared at me. Then he waved at the guards, who came up and grabbed me by each shoulder. "I should have realized how crazy you were when I first saw you. Fighting a suicidal battle against an army of velociraptors."

"Yeah well," I said quickly while I was dragged away. "You can't blame the raptors. They didn't know fighting me is always a suicidal battle."

Hopefully, that sounded tough. Because I knew as I was dragged away that I'd done a very dumb thing.

We were all quiet later as we were led out of our cages. It was the middle of the day now, long after Stend and I had spoken, we were guided into a room full of weapons and armor. After a random Saur-Lord growled, everyone walked up and stared choosing something. I would have suggested going to for the escape then, but they locked the gates and raised some crude crossbows across the room, the guards watching all of us. With little choice, I got ready.

Weapons. There were all kinds, all of them were made of the same iron. Guess we didn't get to play around with the damascus steel Stend had shown off. I took a longsword for myself, placing it off to the side. Gresh took a pair of daggers, Demi a big ax. The German guy took a short spear. The Winggirl took nothing. She sat in the corner and watched us all.

The others, the people with wings, other reptiles, and humans, crowded to each other, trying their best to show affection despite the guards glaring. One of the guards stepped forward to stop some of the winged people from going over to Winggirl, only for T-Rex guard to stop them. They came around her, touching her around the ripped out section her wing had once been, crying for her and singing softly.

I watched them for a while as I grabbed a piece of armor made of some sort of lacquered material. Then I looked around the room. I had a longsword. But I needed more weapons. The weapon that kept people alive for centuries.

Cooperation.

"Anybody here speak English?" I called out to the room around us.

Everyone looked over at me. After a moment, a few of the humans hesitantly raised their hands. Three of them. "You guys also speak the language the Saur-Lords are using?" One of them dropped their hands. "I need a translator. You mind?" One of the hands dropped like it was on fire. The last person, a short and skinny young man that looked like he was in his late teens, looked terrified. But he clenched his fist and nodded at me shakily.

"Good," I walked up with my longsword and stood next to him. "Repeat after me. And if anyone has questions, translate, kay?"

The kid nodded nervously. He had blond hair covered in dirt, was wearing brown rags, and his blue eyes were shaky. He was a twitchy kid. But he was meeting my eyes.

"Okay. We're about to go into that arena and fight something to the death," the kid hesitated before he began to speak in that hissing and growling language that seemed to be the common language here. The other prisoners stared at me, then at him. "So we need a plan. I want to get in there and survive. More than that, I want _all of you_ to survive too."

German guy snapped to his feet and hissed. Some of the Saur-Lord prisoners joined him, a couple of humans shouting in German.

The kid looked scared as he turned to me. "They're asking why they s-should listen to you. They um… also said something bloody mean."

"Ah, they just have to get to know me first," I grinned at him.

I was faking so much confidence. I had no idea if any of these guys would listen to me or not. But they had to. We had to coalesce, to work together as a team. I tried to mimic Steve, to stand the way Captain America did, to project my voice. I didn't know if I was the best warrior here or anything, but no one else has stepped up to try and bring us together. Not to be arrogant but… none of these guys were likely to have seen what I had in terms of being outclassed in a fight. Hopefully.

God, please don't let this be a mistake.

"Are any of you warriors?" I asked. The kid translated. Some of the group grumbled, looking at each other. "Then you know that those of our little Suicide Squad that aren't fighters are going to die."

German guy stilled at that.

"We have elderly, injured and kids in this little group," I looked around at everyone. No time to be kind or subtle. Just lay it all on the table, Mahmoud. "People who will be first on the chopping block. But if we work together? We can have each other's backs, support each other. Keep each other safe."

I took a step forward, then hopped up onto a table. I was trying to keep moving, to keep all eyes on me. "Some of you hate each other. Maybe it's a generational grudge. Maybe you've been at war with each other," I met eyes with German guy. "But is that going to matter when we're all going to be trying to survive?"

A Saur-Lord spoke then. He was hissing at first. He stopped. When he spoke again, it was in English. Surprised the hell out of me, until I noticed the Omnitrix had begun to glow just a bit brighter.

"-know you won't just hide behind us?" the Allosaurus Saur-Lord said. "You've got a broken arm. What good are you?"

"He asked if you were going to fight with the rest of us, even with a broken arm?" the kid wasn't just translating. He was asking the same question.

"Of course I'm fighting," I scoffed. Everyone in the room looked startled. I guess the Omnitrix translator was kicking in strong. "I'm frontline, broken arm or not. Nobody dies before I do if I can help it."

Got some skeptical looks for that. Couldn't blame them. I was terrified at the idea of dying. I liked my life now. But I couldn't let these people die.

"Look, I get it. I'm not one of you. You have no idea of knowing if you can trust me," I waved around. "But that's your advantage. I'm the only here who doesn't have a grudge. I don't give a shit who you are or where you come from. All I know is, we're being sent in to die, and I've been trained to be able to handle it. We group up, grab the right weapons, support each other, and this becomes a fight we can win, instead of one where we die. And hey," I shrugged. "We're all going together. What've we got to lose by working together?"

There was a moment of silence. I swung my longsword onto my shoulder and looked around. "So how about it folks? Wanna go to war together?"

Nobody cheered the way they did whenever Steve did one of his speeches. But I guess things were just hopeless enough that people were willing to listen to the loudest voice in the room.

"All right then," I looked over at Gresh. "Gresh buddy. How good are you with those daggers?"

He stared at me for a long moment before blinking, like he'd only noticed right then that I was speaking to him. He spoke, and for the first time I heard Gresh speak English. "I was taught by my mother. I can _hiss, gragh. Heeeet, caaaa-_ can fight as well."

The Omnitrix cut out part way through, but he was nodding towards some of the members of his race, who straightened.

"Great," I looked around, marking things out. The people I'd been carted in with had been joined by more people, so we had about… fuck me, 26 people? Seemed like a lot for a gladiator fight. But it would do. "Okay. I have a plan."

I laid things out while the Saur-Lord guards watched blankly. Guess they didn't mind us strategizing. What did they care? We were going to die anyway.

Gresh helped me with my armor. I must have made an impression on him because my former bully seemed more amiable all of a sudden.

The armor I was wearing now was ill-fitting. Guess Stend hadn't taken my measurements. Still, it was the best one I could wear. The armor was a mixture of Roman and Medieval-style like a gladiator and knight had come together to design it. And it was all crap. Just mismatching iron and leather. But it's better than nothing.

The chest piece was an iron vest, dented and beaten, with the chest showing the image of a screaming ape. My shoulders and right forearm had leather of different colors and designs to protect them. I'd chosen to use an iron piece of armor to protect my left arm. With the right one out of commission, it was best to protect the one I could fight with. My left leg had the only piece of armor I could find that could fit either one of my legs. Thicc thighs apparently don't always save lives.

So I was looking pretty asymmetrical as we were all lined up and forced to head toward the gates. I did, of course, take time to really support my broken arm, reinforcing it with extra padding made from pieces of leather and a dagger to dull to cut anything. If anything was going to get me killed, I didn't want it to be my right arm breaking again somehow.

Gresh and I stood side by side near the front. I had asked someone to take the first steps out of the door after making sure they were confident in their abilities. Still, I felt guilty for it. So as we walked, I spoke to them.

"Hey. You want any help?"

A feminine voice as smooth as silk spoke back to me. "No need. You were right to place me in front. I can take any blows the moment the door opens, allowing you and Gresh to survey the area and strike with me. I appreciate your concern," the Omnitrix must have glitched again because the next words from them sounded like a boulder cracking.

"Got it," I looked around. The 26 people around me looked scared, nervous, angry, calm… I felt almost happy, personally. I was tired of waiting for a fight. I was beginning to breathe a bit easier. Sure, I was still scared and tense. But the wait had been the worst part.

We came to a set of large doors. They were made of cheap wood, with the sunlight outside coming in shafts of light. The Saur-Lord guards locked metal gates behind us, leaving us to stand in the dark hallway. Dust floated in the air, the scent of sweat and piss noticeable. Along with the copper tones of blood that had soaked this place for years.

I looked at the people around me.

"When those doors open!" I shouted to everyone around me. German guy raised a hammer. "Then all hell breaks loose. But that's okay," the Allosaurus Saur-Lord who had questioned me earlier snarled, his long slashing teeth clenched. "Because we have each other's backs. Don't falter. Don't give up," I clenched my sword high. "They wanted to sacrifice us. So we make them pay. Understand!"

"MAKE THEM PAY!" Gresh shouted.

"Say it!"

"Make them pay!" The German guy yelled.

"Make them pay!"

It was panicky. Desperate. But as everyone around me said it, I began to shout. "Don't stop! Let them hear you! Make them pay!"

"GRAAAGH!" The Saur-Lords shouted. The winged men and woman sang out. My fellow humans roared. The lizard men barked out. And in front of me, the sound of a mountain shattering erupted.

"Make them pay! Make them pay!"

The doors swept open. Outside, a T-Rex Saur-Lord, laughing in enough armor to cover a tank, rushed forward swinging a sword. He'd been planning on striking while we were bottlenecked in the tunnel. Dick move.

And his mistake.

Demi stepped forward to meet him. The T-Rex was startled when his sword bounced off of the stone person's skin, right before Demi's fist smashed into his chest, the sounds of ribs breaking barely discernible.

I rushed around her body and stabbed out. I knew this would suck. Killing people was something I'd never get used to. But in the choice between this and death, I was able to push myself through the feel of my sword stabbing through scales to enter the T-Rex Saur-Lord's chest.

The cheering of the arena around us was immense. I ignored it. We had work to do.

In front of us, a group of men and women of varying types faced us. All Saur-Lords. And all _way_ better equipped than we were. Not to mention, all uninjured, young and more muscular than Ahnold on his best day. I counted them up, ignoring Gresh as he leaped forward with a shrill screech to bring the T-Rex I'd stabbed to the ground, blood spraying while the savage lizard man stabbed the dying dinosaur to death.

Twenty people, well, nineteen if you didn't count the guy Gresh was stabbing, spread out across the battlefield. Fifteen of them were Saur-Lords. Combined with the guy I'd stabbed, that was sixteen Saur-Lords of varying subspecies, most of them being the bigger types. Bit biased if you asked me. The remaining four were human, all just a little smaller than me in muscle and height.

As for the battlefield, while it did have the sand that I expected and was shaped like the great coliseum in Rome, there was something I hadn't expected. Physical obstacles. There was a chariot that had been tipped over and half destroyed in front of us, some crappy weapons strewn all about, and boulders. Two big ones resting randomly in the field, one the size of an RV, the other in the shape of a pillar.

Those opened up options.

"Aerians, take the platform!" I barked, pointing out the biggest rock.

The winged people, who were the aforementioned Aerians, flew upward. There was a large cage surrounding the top of the arena, but they had enough room to fly up to the platform and land. Winggirl watched them before running to join me, Gresh and Demi. German guy roared while running with his own group.

In some attempt to get us all out alive, I'd made the most basic of strategies. The fact was, I'd need months of work to get us all working with any amount of synergy. So instead, I just had to mash us all into groups based on who could fight and who needed help. Sadly, there weren't a lot of fighters in our group.

Counting Winggirl, there were six Aerians. I advised them to grab long range weapons like spears so they could provide air support. Even though two were an elderly couple and one was a kid in the middle of his teens, they were the best I had to work with. Luckily the two left over were a former hunter and a warrior.

They were only six out of our group though. 26 People. And I was pretty sure a lot of us would die. I tried my best to mitigate it, to group everyone up and make up strategies for them to follow. But of our group, there were just too many injured, elderly and inexperienced.

Whatever. Focus on the battle. Move to help when you can, but focus on the fight.

In front of me was a group of three, one red-headed human woman carrying a trident and net, a Ptero Saur-Lord with green skin holding a short sword, and the biggest one, a Triceratops man holding a giant battle ax in one hand and a shield in the other.

"Gresh, new targets!" I barked out while running forward.

He snarled, rather than answer me, flipping off the T-Rex and moving forward. Demi, slower than us, went in as well, Winggirl hovering in the background.

The plan was surprise at the start. Don't fall into the enemy pattern. Instead, rush in and take the flow of battle for ourselves.

I headed for the Pterosaur, moving as fast as I could. The Pterosaur, who had been temporarily horrified at the death of the T-Rex, adjusted quickly, raising his blade to meet me. We met in the center and began to clash, my longsword and his shortsword clacking together.

He was faster and stronger than me, but I had reach and technique. My broken arm meant I couldn't take the advantage as well as I wanted, so I had to work twice as hard.

He stabbed at my stomach, I dodged and tried to take his head off with a short cutting slice. He ducked under it and stepped back. I noted the way the guy was built. Despite being a pterosaur hybrid, he didn't have wings. Instead, it seemed like he was designed for speed, with lean muscles and quick reactions. Best for me to face him.

I parried a sword slice at my arm, our blades clanging on contact. Gresh sped past me to head for the human woman, who raised the net in her hands high. The triceratops ran for Winggirl, Demi moving to intercept. Then I was forced to focus on my opponent.

I raised my sword high and brought it down as fast as I could. My opponent raised his blade to block it. Too bad it was a feint. I pulled my arms in during my swing, bringing my sword to my hip, then thrusting forward while twisting my hips out.

"Raagh!"

My sword sliced through flesh again, entering through the Pterosaur's chest. He gasped in pain, stabbing at me again. I tried to back away, but he was too close. His sword entered my right shoulder.

"Fuck!" I hissed, pulling back. He swiped at me as I pulled away, the short sword slicing into my cheek. He fell to his knees as blood poured from the new hole in his chest. I stared at him hard, sword raised, then slashed outward to cut into his throat. I ignored the horror deep inside me at the fact I'd killed again to spin on my heel and rush for Gresh.

Gresh had gotten wrapped up in the human woman's net and was trying to cut himself out. As he sliced his way out using his daggers, he snarled and shouted, looking enraged as his blades slid across the ropes.

I'd tried to warn him. Retiarius, fighters who wore light armor and carried tridents and nets to battle, were pretty famous when it came to Roman gladiators. They were among the worst kinds of fighters to take on, trapping you in their nets before striking with a trident while you were trapped. A simple and dangerous tactic. I heard they had a rough reputation, but I gave less than a shit about that.

What mattered was that this woman was trying to stab Gresh with the trident.

I slashed out at her while she was trying to bring the three points down on his skull. She was forced to dodge but still got him in the thigh. Gresh shouted out in pain as a single spike sliced through his scales, then pulled back out with barbed hooks when the woman pulled back to face me. I tried to stab her in the throat, but she twirled her trident to send my thrust out to her right. She reached for her side, where a dagger was hanging, taking it up to stab at me. Cursing, I stepped back. The woman snarled at me in frustration. Somewhere behind me, I could hear the sound of metal bouncing on stone as Demi and the Triceratops battled. Gresh was slicing himself out of the net.

And the sound of someone dying filled the air from where I'd last seen the other fighters.

I raised my sword and took a deep breath. The stab wound I'd gained on my shoulder was sore, but adrenaline let me ignore it a bit. The retiarius woman in front of me was unharmed and pissed. Whatever happened next, it wasn't going to end clean. I rushed forward and got ready to put more blood on my hands. That or die.


	93. Chapter 93

I slammed my blade against the shaft of the retiarius woman's trident. She tried to twist away, but I forced my weight into my blade, making it a battle of strength.

Against the Saur-Lords, I was less-confident in that kind of fight. But most of the humans I'd met in the Savage Land were not as well-fed as I was. It's something people don't tend to think about. modern humans have a massive amount of access to protein, fat,and calories, so that when we worked out we could get to truly immense sizes. Despite what people think, most primitive people didn't look like Hercules (Actually, where the hell was that guy? Did he exist in this version of Marvel? Thoughts for later assuming I survived).

Even this woman, despite her physical health, wasn't Captain America. I actually trained with that guy.

She was finally forced back, dodging the slice I followed up with. She was pretty skilled. Must have been fighting a lot longer than I was. I tried to bring my sword up, but with one arm down, I wasn't able to maneuver my sword as easily as I was used to, getting nothing but empty air with my slice.

"Damnit," I mumbled to myself. Never had to adjust to using one arm for so long.

She twirled her trident around and stabbed it out. I side-stepped it and tried to get in her range to cut of a hand, only for her to kick out at me, keeping me back. We both lashed out with our weapons. The 'clack-clack-clack' sound of longsword and trident hitting each other filled the air between us. My heart beating in my chest like a drum. I wanted to kill this woman. Not because I hated her. But because she wanted to kill me. Most pure and horrifying reason in the world.

We stepped back and forth, growling and hissing, our weapons clattering against each other, sweat dripping along with blood, stinging my wounds. It was in the middle of that chaotic exchange that Gresh sliced his way out of the net. He was on his feet and rushing forward in an instant, a sound coming from his lips like a revving engine. The woman stepped back in a panic. I let Gresh get to her, the lizard man bringing his daggers forward to try and stab her as she blocked with her trident.

In that moment, when she was distracted by hundreds of pounds of scales and rage, I sliced her stomach open. The disgusting smell of blood exploded into the air as her intestines spilled out. She stared at me blankly. I looked away, running to the next fight.

That look on her face. Her, the Pterosaur. Seeing their faces. One human, the other a Saur-Lord. They'd been horrified. Hateful. Shocked and desperate. And then just… gone.

Then I pushed that down. We were all fighting. All killing. Later, I'd think about that. But right then, I was onto the next fight.

"Gresh, back up the others!" I shouted.

"Stop stealing Gresh's kills!" he shouted back.

"Then go get some more!" I ran past him to head to Demi and Winggirl, who were still battling the Triceratops. One group of our people, four of them, had been killed off to the side. I couldn't see around the big rock in the center of the arena, but I imagined those weren't the only deaths.

The four I could see lying dead had been murdered by a Anklo-Lord with a greatsword and a Raptor-Lord with a spear, both rushing towards Demi and Winggirl from behind. On top of the rock platform, one of the Aerians tossed a spear at the Anklo-Lord, only to have it bounce off his armored hide.

With Gresh rushing around the boulder to find his own prey, Demi, Winggirl, and I were on our own. Two people, both down a limb, and stone person against three powerful and healthy Saur-Lords. We'd have to make our stand.

Demi was trying her (I still wasn't sure if Demi had gender, but Demi's voice was very feminine so my brain defaulted to female pronouns. Something to ask about when we were _not_ fighting to death) best to take down the triceratops she was fighting, swinging her mace at the Saur-Lord with crushing blows. Still, strong as she was, she had none of Thor's speed, who was the only person I knew was a true master of maces and hammers.

The Triceratops slipped around a swing that smashed the ground he'd been standing on, then swung his own axe at her. The metal scraped against stone, sending up a shower of sparks. A small line was carved into her face, adding to the dozens more she had. Demi released a sound like concrete being poured, and raised a fist to try and punch him, only for the Triceratops to side-step it. Damn it. He was fast as hell for such a big guy.

Winggirl, meanwhile, had turned her back to Demi to face the Anklyo and Raptor running for her. She raised her spear in her hand and stared in fear as the pair came towards her. I headed for her, trying to get myself there in time. As I came up, an idea came to me.

"Jump!" I shouted desperately. She spun to look at me with that pale blue face, not understanding. "Up, get behind them!"

Still uncomprehending. It was only when she was moment from getting hit by the Anklyo that her single wing spread out. The single wing beat the air as she jumped upwards.

For just a moment, it was beautiful. Anklyo and Raptor stared up at her, coming to a brief stop in their shock. Her face, when she took off like that. She must have been stronger and lighter than she looked, because she really lifted off. Then reality hit. She spun ungainly through the air as she reached the apex of her jump. I could see the horror, sadness, and panic in her expression.

" **LAND!** " I shouted as loud as I could, coming in on the Raptor with a swing. He stopped gaping at the sight of Winggirl to raise his spear to block me. I smashed my longsword against the shaft of his spear, metal on metal sparking for just an instant. "Land and fight!"

I don't know if she heard me. All I know is that, in the middle of her fall, she stopped trying to fly and pulled her wing in. With the luck that only comes in the best of moments, she managed to land behind our opponents, spinning to face them frantically.

Then the Raptor and I started trying to kill each other while the Anklyo spun to face Winggirl.

I swung, parried, blocked, kicked, dodged a claw headed for my stomach before taking a slice to chest from the spear. I stabbed the Raptor in the shoulder for a shallow wound, twisted to parry his spear thrust aside, then stepped into his guard to shoulder rush him, throwing him back.

Far behind my opponent, behind where Winggirl was trying to stave off the Anklyosaur, I could see some of my people fighting off some Saur-Lords. The Allosaur was on her own, battling a two saur-lords.

I kicked out at the Raptor, my foot sinking into his stomach, then shouted up to the Aerians still on the rock. "Help her!" I pointed at the Allosaur.

The Aerians were in bad shape. The elderly couple were dead, spears thrown into them, and the kid was crying as he huddled in a ball. But the two left over leaped off the rock to fly over the Allosaur, supporting her with thrown spears before flying down to pick them up and throw them again.

Behind me, Demi caught the triceratops' axe by the blade. With a sound like brick shattering, she roared, squeezing hard. The blade crunched and bent until it was crumpled steel in her hands.

The Raptor I was fighting rolled to his feet. Winggirl was retreating, and the sounds of the dying and wounded melded with the sound of a cheering crowd.

I grit my teeth, clenched the blood-soaked grip of my sword, and rushed forward.

 _ **Stend/Slaving Asshole**_

Stend watched calmly from the stands, eyes panning across the battlefield. All around him, Saur-Lords, humans, lizardmen and people of other species cheered and shouted at the bloodshed below. This little fight was supposed to be nothing but an exhibition. A brief battle to exercise the warriors.

Instead, one of the strongest warriors of the arena had died in the opening moments.

Since then, the crowd started cheering louder and louder, losing themselves to the excitement of the arena.

As the Outsider dueled with Erend, a Raptor Saur-Lord, Stend felt two people walk up to join him, walking up along to his right. He looked over at them.

"I see you've once again decided against wearing your traditional robes, Lord Stend," the smaller of the men said with a slow smile. He was an orange-scaled Pterosaur-Lord, built larger than the others in the crowd. He wore a white toga across his body and a single sword on his left hip.

Stend ignored the comment on clothing. Ever since reading about the fashions of the ancient Greco-Romans, he'd decided against wearing the 'traditional robes'. More proof of his theories that the Saur-Lord society was nothing but a copy of already outdated ones. Instead, he turned and bowed.

"My lords. I had not expected you until the main event."

The larger man didn't respond. He simply stared down at the arena with his arms crossed. He was a full head taller than almost every other being in the coliseum, even the Brontosaurus-Lords. His scales were a muted yellow that bunched and twisted atop layers of muscles like steel. His frill was high and spiked, his paired horns stacked one atop the other and his eyes were sunken into his skull. His eyes were the color of fire.

"Well, we weren't planning on it," the Pterosaur said, looking up at the larger man. "Lord Styro and myself were attracted by the calls of the stadium. Rather interesting to hear that for a simple exhibition."

"To say the least, Lord Pter," Stend told the orange Saur-Lord. "It was supposed to be a simple exercise. But the slaves I have recently captured had more fight in them than I expected."

Lord Styro turned to look at Stend. For a moment, Stend stared back. Those eyes, like a blazing flame, seemed to burn with more ferocity than normal. Then Styro looked up. Stend did so as well.

High above, he circled. The Lord of all Saur-Lords. Their king, floating on the winds, watching them.

"End the fight," Lord Styro said. "The useless ones are already dead. Your slaves are strong. They will fight another day," Styro looked down at the arena. "Who led them?"

"The Outsider," Stend said without hesitation. His guards had told him of the Outsider's attempts to rally the slaves. Stend approved. Seeing them fight together, prove they could defeat a stronger foe, only made the Outsider and the slaves more valuable. He'd still need to be punished. But that was fine.

Styro waved to a man standing near a bell. The man nodded, raising a hammer before slamming it into the bell.

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

The Raptor took a slash to the face, blood spray hitting my face. Demi finally got a hold of the Triceratops, raising him into the air. Winggirl screamed when the Anklyo swung his tail, the mace-like end of it almost taking her head off.

Raptor reached out to attack me. Winggirl screamed again. I felt something in me snap.

Nat had taught me more than once that holding back in the wrong moment could lead someone to get hurt. That lesson never screamed louder than right then.

A loud ringing sound came from somewhere. I ignored it. Instead, I watched the Raptor's spear come once more for my heart. Then I twisted down. The blade of the spear sliced open my face, a white-hot line of pain screaming at me as metal opened skin like a zipper. I ignored it, stepped forward and stabbing. My sword entered the Raptors shoulder, exiting out the other side, before I tackled him. Using my sword like a handle, I lifted him up and ran, muscles screaming, legs burning, until we hit the Anklyosaur from behind, bringing him down.

Then, the sound of footsteps filled the arena. I ignored them, rising up to-

Something hit me from the side. A person. I was tackled to the ground and held there by someone, while a blade was held to my throat. I stilled at the feel of the cold steel, looking around frantically.

Guards. All wearing the same black armor, pouring into the arena. They separated the fighters, bringing the battle to a halt. Gresh, who had been stabbing one person that he had tackled to the rock pillar, snarled when he was forced to stop, but rose to his feet. Demi dropped the corpse of the Triceratops, who's head had been beaten in. One of the Aerian's rose to his feet, clutching his abdomen.

"Well done, warriors!" the guard pinning me down lifted me to my feet roughly, allowing me to look up at Stend. "You have earned your right to survive!" he grinned down at me. "Yes! This was a magnificent battle, truly worthy entertainment! Thank you all! As a reward, you may all witness the next bout!"

Stend made sure his eyes met mine. "Till the next time, warriors!"

The guards began shoving and pushing us inside as the crowd cheered. I counted up the survivors as we walked. Well, hobbled.

There had been twenty-seven people on my side. Twenty on the other. Out of forty-seven people… only twenty-four had survived. Twenty-three people, dead, just like that. We'd lost ten people, and the enemy had lost thirteen. Numbers had given us an advantage.

But it still felt like we lost. Or at least, neither side had won.

Asymmetrical warfare is like that. Win-Loss-Draw. It's all relative. For us, survival was the only way to win. No. In fact, no longer being enslaved, free to leave the stadium, go back home, have our captors imprisoned. That was total victory for me. For Stend and the Saur-Lords, having us fight on their behalf willingly, even eagerly, giving them a good show and staying useful. That was total victory for them.

In this case, we had to take what we could. We had survived, despite losing a lot of people, getting injured, and still being enslaved to possibly do this crap again. And they were entertained, despite losing slaves and having one of the last surviving ones more than ready to kick their asses the second I had a chance. Still, that was the nature of things.

Asymmetrical warfare. Where nobody wins, just loses less than the other guy.

I kept that to myself.

We were shoved into a room together. Both groups of people. There was a tense moment as we shared a look. The warriors whose friends I'd killed glared at us. The Raptor I'd stabbed in the shoulder glared at me, growling. I smiled a bit. Gresh barked out something that made the guards tense. German guy, who had survived the fight, looked exhausted but yelled something as well, to which one of the humans on the other team yelled back.

Then more slaves poured in. Carrying two things more sacred at that moment than any temple. Food and medicine.

We calmed down, waiting patiently as we were treated. With some chairs nearby and a big metal grating that showed the arena outside, we had a nice view of the next fight.

It took some time for them to clear the bodies out. I watched, trying to hold back from flinching, as the bodies of my allies and those I had murdered were pulled out. Once done, the cleaners left the arena as fast as possible, with terrified looks on their faces.

I watched through the grate as a young man started to treat me. I was roughed up. I had two large cuts on my face, a big hole in my shoulder, and bruised everywhere. Plus, all the combat hadn't done anything good for my previous wounds anyways. He put paste into the cuts and tried his best to work with me. I wasn't a good patient. I was watching the arena.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Stend stood out in the stands on a pedestal, his hands wide. "What a show! A simple exhibition match turned into a true test between warriors on equal ground!"

Equal ground my ass. I'd failed those who ended up lying on the ground of that arena, but things hadn't been anywhere near 'equal'.

"But now, we have our main event!" Stend pointed at one of the bigger doors on the side of the arena. "Three great beasts of our great land, brought to you to battle to the death against the Red Devil!"

Slowly, one of the gates opened. Behind me, one of the guys who had pushed us along spoke to another guard.

"Red? The damned thing is orange."

Wait, what the fuck? I spun to look at the speaker, startled.

"Stend wanted to call it red," the other Saur-Lord said with a shrug. "Whatever. Still a damned monster."

Orange? Wait, so who-

The slowly rising gate exploded outward, the being behind it tearing it out of the wall with horrific ease. It leaped into the arena and glared around with glowing yellow eyes. I stared at it, my jaw dropping in shock.

Horns. That was the first thing that popped into my head. It had long curling horns on either side of its head and one on the back of its- no, _his_ neck, with a purple membrane stretching down to it's back.

"I…" my right eye twitched, all my aches and pains fading to the back of my mind in favor of the beast in front of me.

His body was stacked with muscles bunching up under dark orange scales that came on the edge of being red. A pair of small wings extended from the base of his tail.

"That's…" I clenched my left fist, trying to understand what was happening.

His lower legs were armored in some kind of bird-like carapace, the long slashing nails a deep purple.

"That's not Devil Dinosaur…" I said weakly.

Hauzer. Hauzer from Red Earth, his mouth wrapped in a giant muzzle that kept his lips together. He couldn't roar. But his eyes flickered with power as he raised his head to look around. The earth rumbled under his steps, as though rather than his weight causing it, the Earth Dragon was trying to control his own element. He jumped into the air, reaching the height of the iron cage surrounding the arena, and landed on the center of the large rock platform, looking around angrily.

So. My escape plan hadn't changed. But it had gotten a lot more interesting to say the least.

Stend looked down at me. I tried to school my features, but I don't know if he caught the shock and awe on my face or not.

Before I could say or do anything, Stend waved a hand. One of the other gates rose up, three shadows prowling inside before the began to exit. "Our current champion of beasts will battle three Allosaurs! Ferocious beasts, strong and hungry, left without food for a full week! Let us see how he fares against them, shall we!"

Compared to Hauzer's explosive entrance, the three Allosaurs entered with almost a grace to them. They had a soft coating across their bodies that gave them a striping of brown patterns through their almost inky-black feathers. They looked pissed off as they prowled into the arena. And, unlike Hauzer, their mouths had no muzzles, allowing them to roar as they stepped forward.

Then they saw Hauzer, freezing. Their nostrils twitched. Hauzer glared down at them from his perch.

One week. That's how long Stend said they'd been without food. That could drive anyone mad. And you could see it in their eyes. Madness and hunger.

They roared. Hauzer crouched. I was standing at the grate with my left hand wrapped around the bars so tight my knuckles had gone white, my eyes straining to take in every detail.

The Allosaurs charged Hauzer with blistering speed, covering the ground between them and sending sand flying about in arcs. Hauzer waited until the lead one got close to the rock. Then he jumped up into the air.

No animal that big should ever be able to jump like that. But Hauzer did it, soaring over the three allosaurs like a more traditional dragon, heading for the one in the back. As he did so, the horn on top of his head moved, coming down to point over his head like a spear. He hit the allosaur in back like Mjolnir, the earth shaking once more under his weight. The allosaur screamed. Hauzer wrapped his talons around the dinosaurs neck and stabbed downward, once, twice, three times, blood spraying into the air as the horn on his head split flesh.

The other two allosaurs spun to face him, one rushing him from behind. With incredible agility, Hauzer released his first victim and turned to face the dinosaur trying to kill him. When the allosaur lashed out with it's teeth to try and bite Hauzer in the throat. Hauzer stepped back just before his throat could be bitten and turned in place, his tail snapping like a whip as he twirled at high speed on one foot. Orange tail hit black feathers with a mean slapping sound, teeth flying out of the allosaurus' mouth as they shattered. The allosaur staggered back while Hauzer came back around to face him. The Earth Dragon raised one leg and kicked out, the long purple talons on his feet cutting through the air. The allosaur tried to retreat, but got hit by the deadly kick to it's chest. Hauzer spun around the other way, tail whipping once more to hit the allosaurus and send it flying back into the rock platform, where it lay unmoving.

The last allosaur stared at Hauzer. Hauzer stared back. For a moment, I could see what the smaller dinosaur was thinking about, the wish to run. But he was trapped. And from the look of excitement on Stend's face high above, he wasn't getting an out.

Left with no option, the allosaurus roared and charged Hauzer. The dragon couldn't roar in response, but he charged forward as well, the horn on the top of his head lowering down once more.

Both dinosaurs met. I stumbled, almost thrown to the ground by the force of their impact, keeping my eyes on the fight.

Hauzer, as the dinosaur and dragon wrestled, got under the other behemoth and _lifted_ the allosaurus off the ground. He tossed him into the wall of the arena, the wall shaking with the impact. Then he hit him with the force of a train, his horns slicing into the dinosaur with ease before the rest of his body followed, the wall behind the allosaurus cratering behind it as it was killed.

The crowd roared. The allosaurus died. And Hauzer, removing his horns from the dead dinosaur, looked around. Red Devil. With blood spilled across his face, dripping down his horns, he looked it. Then he saw someone. Another Saur-Lord, this one standing next to Stend. A big yellow one that towered beside his peers, a ceratopsian like a Triceratops. Hauzer's eyes blazed. He raised his head and tensed his muscles. You didn't have to be a genius to tell that he was ready to kill, and his target was big yellow.

"Guards!" Stend roared, panic in his voice for the first time.

Hauzer leaped for the yellow guy. He hit the cage hard, falling back to the ground. Still enraged, he twisted to his feet like some mix of T-Rex and gymnast, just back to grab the cage. I could hear a low enraged hissing sound as he clung to the side of the iron cage, bashing his head into it. The cage squealed, and the spectators began to run as Hauzer tried to rip his way through the cage.

"GUARDS!" Stend shouted.

The yellow guy didn't move. He stood there, wrapped in his toga, hands clenched behind his back and cocked his head to the side, staring at Hauzer.

Hauzer would have been roaring if it hadn't been for the muzzle around his jaws. As I watched, the muzzle began to rip, one of the straps coming undone. But Hauzer was too pissed to just wait for the muzzle to come apart. Instead, he tried to force himself through the cage. Metal squealed as his talons bent at them, his arms pulling the bars apart.

" **SHOOT HIM!"** Stend shouted at the Saur-Lord guards that surrounded arena ran up to the cage, metal bending and cracking as Hauzer tried to force himself through. " **SHOOOOT HIM!"**

The guards raised something to their mouths. Blowpipes. That explained what had knocked me out before, when I had been in the jungle. As I continued to watch, they fired, little darts piercing Hauzer's skin while others fell to the ground or missed.

Hauzer snarled, finally able to make the sound. With a sound like nails on a chalkboard, the cage bent enough for his head to pass through. He snarled again, pressing through. But he was slowing down. I don't know what was in those darts, but apparently it was fast-acting and thirty or so were starting to affect the big guy. His eyes were drifting closed. The top horn on his head was sinking back to lay flat on his head. He reached his head out for the yellow guy.

The yellow guy, once Hauzer had come close enough, stepped forward. Then, he cocked his fist back and unleashed a haymaker into Hauzer. The punch was worthy of any of my superhuman friends or forms, launching Hauzer back. He fell back into the arena and hit the ground with earth-shaking force for the last time. The guards kept shooting him even as he tried to struggle to his feet. The big dinosaur gave the yellow Saur-Lord a hate-filled glare. His muzzle loosened, beginning to come undone. I saw something between his jaws, beginning to flicker to life.

Then his eyes closed, and Hauzer slowly limped to the ground. More darts hit him for a minute or so. But the big guy was done. Yellow Saur-Lord smirked and turned away.

"...Fuck," Gresh said next to me. At some point, we'd all stood at the grating, watching our fellow prisoner fight. I nodded slowly, then looked for Stend. He looked back at me. Then he turned and walked off.

Then, the Omnitrix blinked. I looked down at it, tense.

For just a moment, green flashed, blinking three times. Then it went back to white. I subtly tried to hide it from the guards, but Demi and Gresh, who stood on either side of me, noticed. Bringing the Omnitrix to rub against the wall, I twisted the dial, tried to press it, have it do something. Still nothing.

Okay, it was okay. The Omnitrix was coming back. And when it did.

I was going to carpet bomb this entire place to the ground.


	94. Chapter 94

_**X and Kraven: Jungle Steel!**_

X walked up to Kraven. The hunter and android had been walking together ever since leaving the caves and finding their way back to the river and had now come upon something Kraven had wished to investigate.

A trail, this one headed in the same direction as them. X watched Kraven as he sniffed the air, pressed his palm to the tracks, and generally wasted an infuriating amount of time.

"We need to move on," X said firmly.

Kraven looked up at X, then away. "Not yet. I'm trying to get a sense for the animals that made these tracks. To understand them."

"I do not care. We need to find Dial."

The hunter stood up and turned to scowl at X. "And that is what I am doing. I know you believe that a search requires smashing the jungle beneath your feet with all the subtlety of a drill to a watermelon, but I have some experience with this sort of thing."

That was true. X didn't have the full files, but Kraven was well-reputed for the times he had helped with rescues in the wilderness whenever a tourist, child, or fool got lost.

"How may I help?" X finally said.

"Ahhhh," Kraven sighed. "That is the question I wanted from you! Now, while Kraven does have excellent senses-"

"You just referred to yourself in the third person," X said dryly.

"Please, Kraven is speaking. Now, even with my senses being as acute as they are, they are useless without _context_. Without understanding. So, I must study my prey's movements first. For example, here," Kraven walked about twenty feet away and kneeled down, pressing his palm against the dirt. "The animals walked in a pack, following something similar to the patterns of wolves. They were larger animals, as tall as a man. Predators, based on the fact that they never stopped to devour the foliage. And their feet are interesting. Similar to that of birds of prey, but with a single long talon on each foot, made to slice and into prey."

"A descendant of raptors," X said.

"Possibly," Kraven stood. "But the talon is a boon to us. Here, the talon is lowered to the ground, relaxed, not ready for use. Further down," Kraven walked forty feet up along the river. "The pack hesitates. The talons raise. And they begin to move with purpose. They sensed prey. We should confirm if our part-time alien was the target. This way."

Kraven began to run, leaving X to follow.

X was glad. If Kraven had stood there talking for a moment longer, he would have lost his temper.

* * *

When they got to the site, they found they weren't the first to arrive.

In a bamboo forest, they found a makeshift shelter formed out of bamboo, a fire that had gone out long ago, makeshift spears, and the dead bodies of three animals.

And blood. Blood spilled in spots where the raptors hadn't fallen.

X walked forward slowly.

"Kraven. Explain the sequence of events as you see them," X said softly, his southern accent faded to something more robotic.

The Russian hunter didn't respond. He simply strode forward and began to roam the camp. He stared at the corpses, the fire, the shelter, took a sniff of the air, examined the blood on one of the spears, then stared off into the bamboo forest.

"...Your boy bedded down for the night. He was walking along the river and stopped here because of the bamboo, using it for tools and water, obviously. I can smell something similar to scorpion meat, so he must have found a couple of them if the scent is this strong."

"Prehistoric scorpions could be several feet in length," X interrupted.

Kraven blinked. A savage smile of excitement grew on his face for a moment before he shook his head. "Well. He was attacked by these big boys. But when he managed to fight and kill three of them, the others ran off. Big boys like this eat on the spot after all, so his corpse would have been laid here, and there would be signs of feeding even if he'd been dragged off later by scavengers.  
Then…"

Kraven strode around the fire, his gait low. X had noticed that about him. He didn't walk the way a human usually did. Not even like the various spies and martial artists X had interacted with. He walked like… well, like some combination of man and big cat.

"Here," Kraven leaned down and reached down. When his hand came up, a single dart was held in his hand. Kraven smirked. "They caught your boy at his weakest. Bleeding," Kraven pointed at a spot of red on the floor. "Exhausted. They hit him with this," Kraven sniffed the needle. "I've used similar toxins. But it's hard. They need to be the exact dosage. Too much and you get an overdose death. Too little and you just get a pissed off target. Whoever shot this knew what they were doing. They wanted him alive."

Kraven pocketed the dart and stood. "Their footsteps come up to him. When they leave, they're deeper. Dial is alive. And we have an actual trail to him now. No more river following, my dear X. Just the hunt."

The last word was said with intense relish.

X nodded. "Good."

"Strange," Kraven looked around. "I wonder-" Kraven stopped, eyes narrowing. X heard the same sound in the same instant.

It rushed out of the jungle about forty feet from them, shaking the ground with it's footsteps. It was utterly silent beside that. This was an ambush after all. Kraven and X spun to face the beast. In the split-second they had, Kraven took in the sight of the animal. His eyes came alight with an eager flame.

X recognized the Tyrannosaurus Rex on sight. Despite being heavy with muscle, its back covered in black and red fur-like feathers with a bare, scaly face, and moving faster than had been predicted, there were too many indicators to ignore the fact. X hypothesized it to be about 8 metric tons. It was incredibly huge, powerful, and fast.

With the incredible reaction speeds afforded to AI, X was able to assess the moment, to truly look at the T-Rex. The sun shone off its feathers in an array of patterns. Bamboo and wood shattered under its bulk. Its eyes were a deep honey gold, gaze ferocious as it stared at Kraven. X stepped forward to attempt to protect Krav-

" **YES!** " Kraven roared, running forward while ripping his two daggers out of their sheaths.

X felt the closest he could feel to shock.

Kraven, in a complete reverse of what any rational human being would do, ripped a spear out of the ground and rushed _towards_ the dinosaur. "Don't do anything! Let me handle it!"

X reached for the rifle on his back, not knowing what to do now. He projected his voice. "The smartest thing to do is to have me shoot the-"

"Let me have this!"

Then it was too late. Kraven and the T-Rex met in the center of the forest, both loud roars. Kraven, just before the T-Rex could get to him stabbed the bamboo spear into the ground, using it as a pole vault to jump high above the T-Rex as the dinosaur tried to bite him half. Kraven landed on the dinosaurs back with the grace of a cat.

"GRUCH!" came the sound of surprise and anger. The T-Rex spun around, trying to throw Kraven off.

"I traveled thousands of miles for this," Kraven said happily. He rode the back of the dinosaur, struggling to stay standing while tens of thousands of pounds of pissed off animal bucked underneath him. Kraven took his two daggers and stabbed deep into the dinosaurs back. The T-Rex roared as blood sprayed into the air. The T-Rex, further enraged, dropped to the ground and rolled. Kraven leapt off it's back as it twisted to the ground, getting swatted by the larger hunters' body, only for Kraven to take the blow and roll backward, snapping back to his feet and jumping back onto the T-Rex. This time, he landed on the dinosaur's neck, straddling it like a prehistoric cowboy. Then he raised his daggers high.

Bone and steel slashed down into the eyes of the T-Rex. She screamed in pain. Kraven laughed, raising his daggers again and slashing into it with vicious cruelty. She fell to the ground, blinded, trying to get him off her back. Kraven stayed atop her and slashed her throat. Blood spilled across the earth, steam rolling off of it. The dinosaur twitched and shook on the ground as Kraven panted atop it, eyes gleaming with mirth.

X watched the scene as Kraven finished killing the dinosaur. "That was unnecessary."

Kraven, his chest, face, and arms soaked scarlet, gave X a smile. "No. It was. She wanted to hunt me and I wanted to hunt her. I won."

"She was-"

Kraven scoffed. "Don't. I'm quite sure an AI would have no concept of what the thrill of a good clean kill is like. Believe me. She would have been just as ready to eat us. This is the way of the  
jungle, X."

Kraven reached down and patted the dinosaur's head. "She was strong. Powerful," he took hold of one of the T-Rex's teeth and ripped it out of the jaw. "It is only a shame that we have work to do. Even with scavengers on the way, quite a bit of meat will go to waste. We should have scientists come out to collect it for research, yes?"

"... They'll be on their way. Let's go," X said, keeping his displeasure to himself.

What a waste of time. Kraven may have enjoyed himself, but all X had was an acute understanding that every moment wasted was a moment Mahmoud could have died.

"Well, tell them to leave the skin for me if possible. And don't worry yourself," Kraven walked away, pocketing the fang he'd ripped out of the T-Rex's head. "We'll find him. The trail is clear," he pointed at the ground. "This way."

X followed with some trepidation. It was becoming very clear that while they shared the same mission, their differing methods and goals were going to cause some issues…

* * *

 _ **Maria Hill/Director of BRIDGE**_

Maria stood in her office, tracking through the various operations happening across the world. As of now, the mission reports she was getting were beginning to throw her just a bit. Right now, she was looking at a map of the Earth with small markings showing the teams.

Steve, Sam and Bucky were in Argentina chasing down weapons smugglers who had somehow got their hands on Chitauri technology (Seriously, they had shown up on Earth for about an hour, how had they left so many weapons behind?). She tried not to look at that one too often since she couldn't play favorites. Thankfully, Sam was safe.

Tony was in Rio, finishing some of the clean-up that had to be done. He'd been there for a while and ended up meeting on of his… contemporaries.

* * *

 _ **Tony Stark/Iron Man**_

Tony floated above the city of Rio, watching as a set of prefab apartment buildings were being completed for refugees to use. They were basically big blocks of premade apartments stacked one on top of the other, allowing for buildings to be built in mere days. In other words, perfect for rebuilding Rio.

He was also having an argument.

"-having all these gadgets makes my suit _adaptable_ , not _glitchy_ ," Tony snarked to the woman standing on top of the building they were watching from. "Do you realize how much crazy shit we deal with? I can handle _all_ of it. Meanwhile, you find one guy who is lightning and explosion-proof and you fall apart."

 _"_ _I do not fall apart,"_ Galina, the Crimson Dynamo, glared up at him from inside her massive suit. _"_ _I am more than adaptable, I am simply stating that you have so much junk inside your armor that you risk much more instability."_

"Junk?!" Tony looked at her, the slits on his armor gently glowing. "Look, I admit that the fact you can fire lightning is brilliant and we should trade tips on the ion cannon you made, but I'm willing to bet I can hack this entire city, fight off an army and do that in a temperature-controlled environment while streaming Ghostbusters right to my HUD!"

 _"_ _You Americans and your need for superfluous tech,"_ Galina said dryly. _"_ _As beautifully designed, surprisingly robust and powerful as your suit is,what need. Do you have need for half the tools within it for a_ war machine _? You use the suit for battle, must it have the ability to hack planes and play AC/DC?"_

"You have no sense of style," Tony snarked. "I mean, that carborundum alloy can't be beaten for its ability to conduct electricity, but did you have to make it so damn bulky? You look like Robby the Robot with that big bulbous head there."

 _"_ _Yes, well, the high-tensile strength of your gold-titanium is impressive, if it were not for how ostentatious the colors you always choose are,"_ Galina teased. _"_ _You look like a woman's purse."_

As the two continued to do some odd combination of complimenting and critiquing each other, the apartment was almost finished, cranes moving about.

Then, a message came through to them both. "This is freight vessel 24, off the coast of Rio! We're being attacked by… I don't know, some sort of gremlins?!"

Tony and Galina didn't hesitate. The instant the message came through, they lifted into the air.

Flying over the destroyed buildings as tanks, jeeps, and crews roamed the streets below, they soon reached the beach and began to go over open waters.

"Old school rockets, really?" Tony teased while they lifted off.

 _"_ _Focus, please!"_ Galina said. Tony imagined she sounded just a bit chagrined through, as her rockets blew fire to push her through the air. _"_ _Besides, they work very efficiently."_

"We'll trade tech later," Tony promised. Just then, they reached the boat that was being attacked. A large freighter carrying dozens of shipping containers. It was one of many ships that were being used to bring food and supplies to the refugees of Rio.

Right then, as they came close, they were under attack by-

"Little green men?" Tony said in confusion as he came close to the ship.

Indeed, the attackers were dozens of short green creatures shaped like people with long pointed ears and jagged teeth. They were jabbering at each other with abandon, almost as though they wanted to speak but just ended up screaming at each other instead.

Tony took a moment to float over the boat before he raised his hands and fired a repulsor from his palm. One of the goblins was hit hard by the blast, sent flying back into a shipping container and denting it inwards.

The rest looked up at Tony. One raised a gun.

At least, it looked like something in the shape of a gun. It was just a big pipe strapped to a piece of wood. Like, he couldn't even see any sort of way for it to shoot at all.

So when the goblin started shooting it. In a machine gun hail of bullets. " **HAHAHAHA!"**

"Wait, what?!" Tony let the bullets bounce off his armor to fly down and punch the goblin, who kept laughing even as he was tossed back. Then Tony grabbed the gun and lifted it up to look at.

"What the hell? It's just a piece of pipe!"

The other goblins also started shooting at him, despite having the equivalent of rubber bands and string for guns. Tony stared at the weapons shooting at him.

"Good lord, that one has a sponge for a handle. Make sense damn it!"

Galina watched, bemused, as Tony started shooting and punching the tiny laughing goblins with a sense of vengeance, deciding to keep her suspicions on where the goblins had come from to herself for now.

* * *

 _ **Maria Hill/Director of BRIDGE**_

Thor was speaking with some historians in Canada as part of a fundraiser. It was one of their attempts to make sure the Avengers were seen being a part of things that involved more than just punching things. However, they were also supposed to do research into the Wendigo they currently had in captivity, where it had come from, who it once was, that sort of thing. Except that, despite bringing Bruce Banner along, they had to invite Thor's friends along for an outing.

 _ **Thor Odinson/God of Thunder**_

" **HULK SMASH!"** Hulk brought his fists down on Thor, who blocked the blow with upraised arms, the ground cratering beneath the God of Thunder.

Thor twisted and wrapped his arms around one of Hulk's, doing a throw that sent Hulk flying back to smash into a wall.

"Oh, well-executed!" Sif cheered. Then she took a handful of popcorn into her mouth.

"Hulk, try a powerbomb!" Volstagg cheered.

"Powerbomb?" Fandral asked, surprised.

"It is an American wrestling move," Volstagg grinned. "I tell you Fandral, the world of Midgard has become quite fun now!"

Hogun raised an eyebrow before focusing once more on the spar.

Thor grinned at his friends before turning back to his opponent. He, the Warriors Three, Sif and Bruce had decided to take a break from talking to stuffy academics to practice together. It was something Hulk had requested of Banner, a chance to continue to develop his combat skills and combine the Jiujitsu of Bruce Banner, the strength of the Hulk and the ancient fighting styles of Asgardians made just for those of superhuman power and durability.

So, they had headed out to this pit deep in a decommissioned quarry to duel in peace. Thus far, it had been quite invigorating!

Hulk rolled to his feet and rushed Thor, blocking Thor's right cross and countering with an uppercut that sent Thor crashing into the stone behind him. Thor grinned.

"Well met! Now take this!"

Thor dropped down with a crushing blow.

"Do it again!" Sif cheered.

Thor and Hulk grinned at her, then went back to trading blows.

* * *

 _ **Maria Hill/Director of BRIDGE**_

So yeah. That was happening. Thankfully they'd gone somewhere remote, but she still had to find some way to convince them to stop turning big chunks of the landscape into something out of WWE.

The agents of SHIELD were almost a relief in comparison. They were doing a simple investigation. Nothing had come back from them just yet, which she took as a good thing. That group of 'normal' people tended to get into the weirdest little missions, but last she heard, Coulson had been having a relatively boring mission. She'd hear about that later possibly, but for now she could be assured that the swamps of Florida did not have the giant swamp monster that Dial had warned her about.

Then there was Jen Walters. She'd been sent out with a team to investigate a few bank robberies with some marks of superhuman aid. Nothing happening there, but she was on the trail of the robber in charge, an unidentified redhead.

Jennifer Walters. Maria frowned. She'd have to be prepared for _that_ encounter once She-Hulk came back.

Maria still hadn't told anyone outside the tower about Dial's disappearance. Not Jennifer, Natasha, Cap, Tony. None of them knew about it and all of them would have some sort of reaction to the news. Possibly a bad one.

Director Hill pushed that problem aside to focus on two new reports. First, Sir Magnus the Knight was reintegrating into society. Their contact in the Vatican had sent the files on his progress.

* * *

 _ **Sir Magnus of the Danes**_

Magnus stared at the board in front of him. The large man had changed his armor for a sweater and jeans, at least until he could upgrade. Even then, his clothes were just a bit too small, his biceps, pecs and thighs close to bursting through his clothes.

As of right now, Magnus was standing in a warm plush room, reading the markerboard in front of him with a fiercely determined look on his face.

"Sir Magnus?" a tall, thin man dressed in priest's garb came into the room. "I have the files you asked for?"

"Ah, thank you, Father Timeas," Magnus turned to take the folders out of the priests hand. He opened it and began reading through it, smirking just a bit. "Incredible. In just a few moments, you have managed to hand me more information in a single file than the best of my own time could have compiled in years."

"The wonders of modern technology," the priest said pleasantly. "The printer, internet, they've all made things much simpler and more complex at the same time."

"I must agree," Magnus scowled, his craggy face twisting. "I apologize, by the way. I truly believed that man was in need of aid."

"There is no need to apologize. We've all had to learn about internet scams before," Timeas pointed at the board. "But then, that isn't where your expertise lies."

"Indeed, not," Magnus looked up at the board, where a single photo stood out. A man, his mouth soaked in blood, tossing a young woman aside. "It is disheartening to know that the skills of a killer are still needed by the church. But I am a man of God. And I will bring God's vengeance and hatred upon his enemies, in this time as in the last."

"...You are really intense, you know that?" Timeas said with a calm smile.

"So I've been told."

* * *

 _ **Maria Hill**_

In the meantime, Fury was handling something for her. It felt odd, having the former Director and one of the most powerful men on Earth head out to run what was essentially a simple errand. But he'd volunteered.

* * *

 _ **Nicholas J. Fury**_

Fury stood outside a nondescript brick building leaning against a black vehicle, watching as someone exited the house. She walked down the steps from her home with an elegant stride, the walk of a woman who had all the time in the world.

"Nicholas," the woman looked him up and down. "You have become fat in your retirement."

"I hope so, Agatha," Fury smirked. "I hear that's something you're allowed to do as you get older."

"Whoever said that is a liar," the woman had her hair spread outward behind her head, was wearing a purple dress, and had a white shawl over her shoulders, a gnarled and knotted cane made of wood in her left hand. "But to each his own. I assume you already have a room to my specifications?"

"That we do," Fury leaned away from the car and turned, holding the door for her. "As well as for Ebony."

Behind the woman, a cat strode forth. With the regality that any cat owner could recognize, the inky black feline walked forward and hopped into the car. The woman didn't smile, but she had a pleased look in her eyes.

"You're a good boy, Nicholas."

"Thank you, Mrs. Harkness," Fury waved for her to enter, following politely in her wake. Once they were both sat in the back of the car, Ebony resting in Agatha's lap, Fury nodded to the driver, a caucasian woman who nodded back before beginning to move the car. "You know, even my mother still calls me Fury."

"Well good for her," Agatha scoffed. "I suppose it does add to your mystique."

"You're one to talk."

The spymaster and the witch shared a look of mutual respect before turning back, heading to the Avengers Tower.

* * *

 _Author's Note:_

Recently I've been getting some pushback on chapters like this when I leave Dial to show how the rest of the world is doing. And that isn't an unfair complaint. Lately, there's been a lot more Marvel than there has been Ben 10 in this story.

So this might be one of the last of the big interlude chapters. Instead, I'll focus more on the SI, with POV changes being more things happening in response to his actions. The next interlude will be a media one, having the big news outlets, various people, and some Marvel characters responding to the changes of the last six months.

One thing I like to mention is that this story has ended up having a lot more good guys running around than bad, something that makes me happy. I mean, sure, lots of nameless mooks, but who cares about those guys anyways?

Wade. Wade cares.


	95. Chapter 95

Later, we were in a new cell. No nicer or anything, but it had more room. We'd been placed in together with the guys we'd been trying to kill earlier, which made things tense as hell, even with the guards watching. My guys took the right side of the cell, while the other guys took the left.

I broke the tension about a moment after by looking around at everyone.

"Hauzer. Where'd he come from?"

Everyone looked confused, if still pissed at each other.

"Hauzer?" Winggirl asked. Hearing her voice for the first time surprised the hell out of me. I tried not to show that instead looking her in the eyes as she stood between Demi and the male Aerian.

"The orange T-Rex with horns. Any story about him, about where he came from?"

Winggirl looked around. German guy seemed confused, as did the others.

"In the ice of the East," someone said outside. We all spun around.

Yellow Triceratops guy was standing there, Stend on the right side of him and the orange pterodactyl on the left. Oh, and the requisite group of angry-looking guards.

"Hauzer," the triceratops said softly. His voice was deep, almost echoing. "I had no idea of his name. We have been calling him Devil."

Stend began to speak. "My lord-"

The triceratops didn't make a move, but Stend cut himself off anyway. The triceratops continued. "I found him when I went to the icelands on an exploratory expedition. He was encased in ice, completely frozen through. I thought him dead. But those eyes were alive, staring through the chill. He wanted to kill me. And I decided that a beast of such stature and interesting design was worth bringing back."

The triceratops turned and walked out, surprising the hell out of me. "Stend. He knows the Devil by another name. Make of that what you will."

"Yes, my lord," Stend said, bowing.

The big yellow triceratops continued on his way. I thought about making a BJ the dinosaur joke, but I decided against it.

"So you're the Outsider," the orange Pterosaur said. He sounded like how movies portray snake oil salesmen.

"Nah, that's the guy from Dishonored," I could never help my nerd side. "I'm Dial. Who are you?"

"Lord Pter, ruler of all the Ptero-Saur-Lords," he said proudly.

"...Why don't you have wings?" I asked hesitantly.

Behind me, I could hear Winggirl let out a small sound. I winced internally.

Pter chuckled. "I'm afraid that only our lord has been given such a gift," he leaned forward to rest against the bars. "Tell me, Out-... Dial. Who are you, in the world beyond? A warrior? A hunter, like myself?" he smirked at me. "I imagine you'd make better prey than predator."

I walked across the space between us and leaned against the bars as well. "You know, I have a friend I should really introduce you to. It'd be _hilarious._ But that aside, I'm a superhero."

"And a fool," Stend said, walking forward. Pter stepped aside to let him past. "You should have taken my deal, Outsider."

"Not a chance," I shrugged. "So. What's next?"

"Your punishment," Stend nodded to the guards. As he did, I brought my left hand behind my back. I prayed Gresh, Demi, and the others would notice it when I flashed two symbols with my fingers. Hopefully the fact they didn't move when two guards entered the cell and grabbed me. They pulled me out with no little amount of roughness. Stend watched them pull me out until I stood before him. We eyed each other.

Stend… looking up into those reptilian eyes, I don't think I'd ever personally hated anyone more.

It didn't help when he grabbed me by the neck and lifted me in a smooth motion.

"URK!" I grabbed his left arm with mine, trying to get air, panicking. The pain of his scaled fingers squeezing around my neck was followed by a taloned finger stabbing into the hole in my shoulder left from the arena. Fresh blood poured out as I tried to scream.

"I'm not doing this to get answers from you," Stend said coldly. "While I am pleased that you survived, you have still defied me. This small bit of pain," the talon sliced through flesh, digging out a chunk of me to spill more blood on the floor. "It's what you deserve."

"Fuc-" I tried to say, only to choke.

He held me there, choking and bleeding before tossing me aside.

That first gasp of air hitting my lungs again was like a drug. I got to my knees and filled my lungs with air, gasping and panting.

I knew he'd do something like this. But I still fucking wanted to kill him for it.

"I'll be locking you in a new prison," Stend growled. "Come."

The guards forced me up and dragged me along. That was fine. I was fine.

Deep breaths. Take in oxygen. Focus on the goals.

We walked along, Pter, Stend, the guards, and myself. Soon, we were in one of the more remote sections of the arena, a place that looked like it had been built years before the rest of it.

"You must have done something special," Pter mumbled quietly to me. "I've rarely seen Stend so ready to torture a man."

"I'm a charmer that way," I grumbled in return.

We came to a locked door, which one of the guards opened. Then we entered a massive circular cavern, covered in dust. I could tell at a glance it was made as a prison for something big or very dangerous.

In this case, both. Hauzer was passed out in the corner still covered in darts. Stend stared at Hauzer for a moment before turning to face me.

"I am glad you are alive. It gives you more chances to come to your senses," he smiled slowly. "I'm going to lock you in with the beast," when I tried to speak, he punched me in the face. I fell to my knees, bumping my left hand into the crossbow-wielding guard next to me, my palm brushing against the pouch on the guard's hip.

"What the fuck dude!?" I shouted in pain, my head ringing.

"Enough," Stend snarled. "I have had enough. You will be locked in with the beast, with this," he took out a bell from his pants pocket. "And be given until the beast wakes to decide if you will surrender the secrets I want," Stend lowered to the ground. "If you ring it, I will save you. If you do not… well. You know the creature's name. You must know of its ferocity. It's rage and hatred towards all life," Stend smirked. "You're a smart boy. I'm sure you'll make the right decision."

He grabbed me off the floor by the back of my neck and tossed me into the cell. Then he followed up by tossing the bell at my feet. "Live or die, Outsider. You have five minutes."

"And if I decide I'd rather be dino-food!?" I yelled at him while rolling to face him.

"Then clearly you were a waste of my time all along," he said dismissively. "Which is fine. That monster hasn't been fed since we found him. You'll make a good meal."

The group left the cavern, Pter laughing all along. Then they closed the door behind them with a loud quaking thud.

Just as planned. Well, sort of as planned.

I slowly rose to my feet and opened my palm. In it was the small crossbow bolt I'd lifted off the guard I'd bumped into. I grinned with blood-soaked teeth.

"Stend. You're gonna want to watch a few movies, one day. Never depend on the death trap to work on the hero."

With that, I rose to my feet and looked at Hauzer. The big guy was asleep, snoring, with the horn on his head raising and lowering as he lay on his stomach. But I doubted that would last.

Okay. My plan had been simple. All of them had been. Plan A, the Omnitrix heals itself.

Plan B, the Avengers show up to break me out. Plan C, open the lock to the cell, take care of the guards, get fellow prisoners out, head out of the city. Plan D, free Devil Dinosaur Hauzer, break out in a torrent of super-dino fury, probably riding his back.

Like I said, all simple. The best plans had to be. You could have a complex one, sure, but be ready to toss all the Rube Goldberg machines out of the window when just throwing a rock would do the job.

The instant I'd gotten wind of the giant super-dino, my plan had changed. I didn't have powers until the Omnitrix healed, but I could borrow them from someone.

Thing was, I had to depend on somehow convincing thousands of pounds of Earth Dragon that I was his friend. And somehow do it without the raw masculine charisma of Zangief.

I walked over to him and leaned down to look him in the face. He was huge. Even without feathers, he was built with layer upon layer of muscles. Even lying down, he was as tall as Thor was.

"Where did you come from, big guy?" I asked softly, patting his nose, feeling the unnaturally warm scales under my palm. "Rio is a long way from here."

Damn Rio. That had to be how he'd gotten to a Marvel universe. At a guess, the Rio Incident had _pulled_ at every dimension, time, and realm close to the one I was now sitting in. And Capcom had been smashed into the Marvel universe more than almost any other franchise. Outside of, ironically, the DC universe.

What a fucking mess Rio had caused. We still had no idea what made that happen, but I was taking that whole thing personally.

I looked Hauzer over, then walked back to a wall, pressing my back to the cool stone. Then I fell to sit my ass on the dirty floor, my loincloth fluttering upwards. I took a moment to adjust myself. I was still wearing the armor I'd had in the arena, with fresh blood on it, though the stab wound in my shoulder was freshly bleeding. I took a handful of the bandages that had been covering it before and roughly treated the wound. Then I sat to wait.

Five minutes. Stend had predicted it would take that long for Hauzer to wake.

He was up in three.

First, he began to growl as best as he could around the tight muzzle that wrapped around his jaws. His eyes fluttered. His breathing sped up and he began to move. It was really something, watching all that dragon-dinosaur lift itself hesitantly off the ground. I stood up as well, slowly, continuing leaning against the wall while cradling my arm.

Hauzer looked around. Eyes the color of caramel gazed at his cell. Then he made a sound that seemed to get choked off by his muzzle before spinning around, anger in his eyes. He stomped the ground, the area around us shaking, the horn on the top of his head twitched upward, and he sniffed the air.

"Hauzer," I said hesitantly.

Immediately he was facing me, head low, eyes blazing.

"That's your name, right?" I said as calmly as possible. Which wasn't much. He was just… big. Big the way everything is when you're a little kid. I remembered being, I don't know, 10? And my class went to a Fire Station in my town on a field trip. We'd been allowed to interact with one of the fire trucks. I remembered looking up at that big red truck and feeling so small in comparison.

In this case, the fire truck was pissed off. He took a step in my direction.

"I'm not with those assholes!" I said quickly, raising my left hand. He seemed undeterred, lowering his head to stare at me and prowl forward. "They threw me in here as punishment!"

He roared, speeding forward. I steeled myself and waited before diving aside.

Hauzer hit the wall I'd been leaning against with incredible power, his horn slicing through the stone with ease. Despite that, the wall was pretty intact.

"They locked you away, but they don't know your true power!" I shouted as I rolled and ran for it before turning to face him. "But I can help you! I can get that muzzle off you!"

He pulled his head away from the wall and turned to look at me. This time I could see what I'd been depending on. Intelligence, resting in the surprised look on his face.

"Hauzer the Earth Dragon," I declared. "You're not just some dinosaur. You're a force of nature. But you haven't eaten in days. I'm willing to bet that the ice you were frozen in ended up weakening you too. Enough that that yellow bastard could capture you."

Hauzer growled. The sound could be felt in my chest, shaking my heart. His eyes blazed with rage.

"Yeah… I get that," I said softly, my face twisting. "I get that kind of hate now. Having someone catch you at your weakest, imprison you, force you to fight. And all along, you know that if you had even half of your real power you could take them apart with a breath," I was clenching my fist. "It's infuriating. Getting pushed around by someone who would usually not even be worth paying attention to. Isn't it?"

Hauzer glared at me. Then, slowly, he nodded.

"Then let's escape together," I tossed the crossbow bolt I'd stolen at the ground. He stepped back as it skidded across to him, then leaned forward to look at it. "I want revenge, Hauzer. I want to help my fellow prisoners escape, sure. But what I want to do," the words felt harsh in my throat, my eyes felt hot, and my fist was beginning to turn white. "Is to destroy this place. Kill the person who put me here, and show these guys just who the fuck they were messing with… How about you? You wanna light some shit on fire?"

Hauzer's eyes lit up.

* * *

 _ **Stend/Slaving Asshole**_

Stend stood outside the Devil's prison, standing dozens of feet away from the main entrance. Around him stood dozens of guards. Pter was there as well, jabbering away as always. Stend ignored the smug bastard's speech to focus on the problem at hand.

He didn't like this plan. Putting the Outsider in a cell with the Devil couldn't end in any way that Stend would benefit from. But Lord Styro had told him to do it and his word was law, even more than the other Lords barring their true master.

Stend had his suspicions as to what Styro hoped for. Ever since the Yellow Lord had found the Devil, he'd been obsessed with the beast, studying the creature's battles, inquiring into its condition, drawing sketches of it. And ordering the Outsider locked in with it? There was something there, Stend was sure of it.

Hauzer. That was what he called it. The Outsider knew more than he was telling. Once again. That infuriating little slave, larger, taller, and more muscular than all but the better-trained warriors he'd ever seen among humans. The way his eyes glittered with emotion and intelligence. In fact, that more than anything made Stend notice him. He was insolent, yes, was keeping the secrets of his world behind a veil of humor. But the anger behind his jokes had something more behind it.

Stend had captured dozens of slaves. But never had he felt as though the people he was capturing felt superior to himself. Always, they had been aware of their place.

Not the Outsider. That one seemed to believe that he was _equal_. It was in his stance, his brash words, even the way he fought was cautious, but not cringing with fear.

Deep inside, Stend was worried about one more thing. That bracelet around the Outsiders wrist. They'd been unable to remove it, finding it was somehow melted into his wrist, joined to his skin and bone. Just another mystery.

Stend was thrown from his thoughts when a loud sound came from the prison. The guards shuffled nervously when it was followed by the familiar sound of the Devil smashing its head into a wall, then the Outsider shouting.

"Ah," Pter said at his side, smirking. "Pity. It looks as though your nemesis is about to be killed by another."

"Nemesis?" Stend couldn't ignore that little jab, glaring at Pter.

"Oh, don't be coy," Pter chuckled, orange scales bouncing in the light of a torch. The sun had begun to fall, making the torches a matter of necessity. "You hate that human. And he hates you. There is something between you both, something so adorable I almost want to squeal," he hissed out a pleased laugh. "The way you clench your jaw when you look at him, the way he eyes you while clenching his fist. I wonder, are you pleased that he is dead now? Or disappointed you never had the chance to commit the deed yourself?"

Stend opened his mouth to speak before snapping it shut when he realized something. He turned from Pter to stare at the door to the Devil's prison.

The door, made of wood reinforced by layers of steel, had begun to smoke.

"What-" Stend began to say.

 _ **BOOM!**_

 _ **FWOOOOSH!**_

The door exploded in a burst of flame that turned into a jet of intense red heat flying forwards, cooking the three guards in front of it alive in an instant.

Stend, in a burst of speed that had kept him alive in the arena long ago, dived backward and ran, Pter squawking right next to him as the guards shouted and followed.

The fire followed them with predatory intent, filling the hallway, setting two more guards alight in a chorus of horrific screams, and heating the stones until they began to melt. Stend screamed wordlessly as he ran, the heat on his back was painful. The flame only stopped about thirty meters from the door, leaving Stend to continue running before turning to face the door.

"What the blazes was that!?" Pter gasped, apparently not noticing his pun.

"The Outsider," Stend spat out, the thought filling him to his core. "He did this!"

"The Outsider can summon fire!?" Pter gaped at Stend. " _Why didn't he do that before!?_ "

Before Stend could answer, a sound came from the prison of the Devil. The fires that had been blazing in front of them, cooking the bodies of the dead and melting the stones, were blown out in an instant. Stend, Pter, and the remaining guards stared at the doors.

Out from the doors, walked the Outsider. Dressed in the armor of the arena, his long hair fallen about his shoulders, he came to stop in front of the destroyed remains of the door. He smirked at them. Then he tossed something towards them, some sort of leather.

Behind him, the head of the Devil slowly came forward until it was on his right side. Stend's eyes widened when he realized something.

The muzzle was gone.

Stend stared at the leather object the Outsider had tossed, then at the man himself. The Outsider's smirk widened.

Hauzer's jaws opened, revealing his lethal teeth and the sound that left them hit Stend with physical force.

 _"_ _ **SKREEEEEROOOOONK!"**_

It was insane. Loud, echoing, and haunting, a screeching noise that made the primal instincts within all life want to hide. Then, deep in the Devil's throat, something flickered red.

"Oh shit," Pter whispered.

"RUN!" Stend shouted, spinning.

"Go ahead!" the Outsider was laughing, a gleeful insane laugh, one that echoed off the walls. "Run! But I'll find you! I'll have my vengeance, in this life or the next!"

Then fire erupted from the Devil, a great plume that tore the world in front of it apart as it passed. Stend looked back for a moment.

The Outsider stared at him, the red light of the Devil's fire flickering across him, his brown eyes glowing in the flame. The Devil roared alongside him, flame exploding from his jaw. But Stend only saw the Outsider, standing there. Waiting.

Stend ran. Though it galled him, though it burned in his soul more than the scarlet flames coming to kill him, he ran from the Outsider.

* * *

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

Stend, Pter, and the guards ran for it. Hauzer stopped breathing flame and panted next to me. I took in the warmth that followed Hauzer's attack, letting it soak into my bones.

Even with the crossbow bolt I'd pickpocketed helping, it had been a job and a half to cut through Hauzer's muzzle. Not just because leather is tough as hell and I only had one hand to use, but because he didn't trust me, glaring at me as I used a sharp bolt near his face to cut at the leather. Honestly, I didn't trust him either.

Hauzer may not have been evil, but he had no real good intentions towards me either. He was a bad guy in his first game appearance after all.

Still, I'd gotten it done. A couple of cuts in the right place, a few tugs on the knots and ties, and he was loose. In truth, I think half the reason I was able to do it was that none of the people who had muzzled him had ever expected _anyone_ to want to help Hauzer. Only human-ish hands could have untied him, and the big guy wasn't exactly cuddly.

Then there was our prison. The doors had been covered in steel layers around wood and had been heavily dented from Hauzer smashing into them over and over. But the second he was able to breathe fire without it getting stuck in his mouth and turning his tongue into charcoal, he was able to pour on the heat. Even weakened, that had been enough to get business started.

Now we'd been unleashed. And it was time for revenge.

"I know my way out," I told Hauzer. "We can free the others and get out of the city, get you fed. Then we come back. Deal?"

Hauzer growled, giving me a look.

"Yellow Bastard will be waiting for you, I promise," I grinned. "Mind breaking a wall?"

Hauzer crawled through the door until he was in the hallway entirely. I backed away to let him pass. With a roar, he spun and rose, kicking outward.

The hallway turned into rubble, opening up to the night sky. Hauzer lifted his head into the air and looked up at the night sky. I did the same.

 _"_ _ **SKREEEEEROOOOONK!"**_

The sound that left him reminded me of Godzilla mixed with a lion. Another plume of fire left him, rising into the air and turning night to day for just an instant. Then he turned to look at me. And I began to worry that I'd made a mistake.

He didn't need me anymore. I could see the look in his eyes. That calculating expression. He could leave now. Head off on his own. That wouldn't have been so bad. But he could also kill me. Just being in the vicinity of his flame was scorching. If he tried to attack me with it, even a miss would still superheat the air around me enough to kill me.

We stared at each other.

"I made you a promise," I said softly. "I'll get you food. I'll get you revenge. But if you want to leave? That's up to you."

His large eyes blinked and narrowed. Then he scoffed before lowering his head.

I grinned before climbing onto his back, straddling him just behind his shoulders, my knees clenching to him tightly. "All right Hauzer. Let's do this!"

He roared in agreement, charging forward as the alarms of the city rang about us. We went down a street straight out of a medieval city, his taloned feet crushing the cobblestones, the wind rushing past us, people screaming as they leaped aside to dodge us.

"YAAAAA!" I shouted joyfully, head down low as I felt the rush of escape.

 _"_ _ **GRAAGHH!"**_ Hauzer roared as well, his tail whipping behind us, a wide grin on his saurian features.

I rode on the dinosaurs back through a city built out of time and felt… good. Great, even. I felt at peace.

Ever since I'd come to this world, this Marvel universe, I'd felt unworthy. Given immense power out of nowhere, for no reason I could understand, I'd tried everything to make myself worthy of it. Of every good thing. The Omnitrix when I first got here, the friendships I made with people I'd admired from across dimensions all my life, the money I'd gained from robbing HYDRA, my relationship with Jen. All of it was something I'd worked to be worthy of. But it had always been tarnished by a voice in the back of my head, that self-doubt that whispered it was undeserved.

I was a fake hero. If I didn't have the easy power of the Omnitrix, my friends, my armor, I'd fail.

But now? I'd gotten lucky a few times. But that didn't account for my survival. I'd made it through the jungle and chased off a pack of velociraptors. I'd been given the choice between an easy survival and risking my life for others at my weakest point, and chose to try and save someone. I'd been shoved into a gladiator match and survived. And now, I'd turned my enemies' death trap against them.

I never had to prove anything to anyone but me, and now I had. I was more than just a guy who had the strongest weapon in existence on his wrist, I was able to fight without that tool. Hell, I was able to fight and survive even with a broken arm against superhumans!

All the training I'd done, all the work, had been in an attempt to silence that voice. And now, under the stars, with tons of Earth Dragon under me as we ran together? The voice was faded. Still there, like it was for every human being that wasn't a sociopath. But no longer as insidious as it once was.

The Omnitrix beeped as I thought that. I looked down at it.

White shone from its lens. Then, as I watched, it switched over to green. It was still half-melted and beaten, but it was glowing a bright and oh so wonderful green once again.

"...Now? Really?" I mumbled. "Right when I don't need you for an escape?"

Yeah, this thing had a sense of humor, that was for sure. I tapped the faceplate experimentally with my nose.

The Omnitrix blinked green at me and I couldn't help the warm smile that lit up my face when the dial rose up and the hologram came to life.

So when a giant fireball began to fall from the sky to arc down towards Hauzer and I as we ran through the streets, I didn't dodge it. I didn't leap, I didn't panic. As the big ball of flame approached, I just pressed the Omnitrix against my chest.

 _"_ _ **IT'S HERO TIME!"**_

* * *

 _ **Malia/Raptor Mom**_

Malia ran with her daughter in her arms through the streets of the City of Saur-Lords, her, legs pumping beneath her as her little girl bounced in her arms. Behind her, the Devil was prowling through the streets, leaving people to run or hide.

"Mommy, mommy, he's coming!" her baby screamed in terror, her adorable scaly features set in childish fear that made Malia's heart ache.

"It's okay baby, we'll be okay!" Malia cried out, ignoring her fear. "Close your eyes, Ami!"

Obediently, her daughter screwed her eyes shut. Malia looked back. The form of the Devil, his three horns high, came after them, a familiar gladiator sitting on his back.

How had this happened? They had been shopping before, having a good day. Then, without warning, someone started shouting about the great Devil of the Arena coming towards them. She hadn't believed it at first. Then it came running towards them, an insane human whooping and hollering on his back as the Devil roared.

Malia had been running since, heading in the same direction as the crowd around them. She'd instinctively headed for the nearest guard tower, which she could see in the distance. Others were running towards the same tower, with guards guiding them in. She knew that the tower was the closest one to the Arena cells, but didn't see any significance to that thought.

Then, a familiar screech drew her gaze to the sky.

It was _him_. The Lord of Lords! King of the Sky, Cloud, and Sun!

"It'll be okay, Ami," Malia whispered, rushing into the tower. She and the rest of the civilians watched as he spiraled down from the clouds.

His skin was a dusky green, his scales stretched over a taut muscular form. His eyes were deep and wise, set into a pterodactyl's skull. His wings spread wide as he began his attack. His mouth opened wide and he breathed the night air in. When he breathed out, the holy flame came from his eminence. Malia watched in awe as he released a ball of fire the size of a large man, dropping it onto the Devil and gladiator.

It came in an arc, landing on top of the pair and exploding in a plume of red-hot flames. Ami cooed in her arms at the sight.

The Lord of Lords dropped down to land before them. He was even more impressive up close, towering over them all, literally in most cases, metaphorically in _all_ cases. When he spoke, it was in a deep booming voice that echoed. With the flames behind him as he spoke, he cut an intimidating figure, his shadow falling upon them all.

"Guards! I believe you have a job to do!" the Lord said, bringing his hands behind his back to stand proudly, his wings spread behind him, a single loincloth wrapped around his waist.

"Yes, Lord Sauron!" one of the guards shouted. "Get the civilians moving! I want them safe in the tower."

"Most excellent choice, commander!" Lord Sauron smiled, his red eyes glowing. He noticed Malia, then Ami. "Ah, young one! Are you and your mother okay?"

Ami nodded quickly, her eyes wide in wonder, her tail wagging happily. "Y-Yes, Lord Sauron!"

"Lord!?" Sauron barked out, before throwing his head to laugh extravagantly. "My dear, you are but a child! There is no need to worry about such titles as a child! Only the joy of play and learning! Until you have come of age, I am only Sauron!"

Malia's heart swelled at the kindness of her Lord, who walked forward to rub the top of her daughter's head. Ami giggled happily.

A growling sound came from behind Lord Sauron, freezing everyone in their tracks. They stared at the fire, which was still raging.

Then, before anyone could move, a green ball of some sort of goo came rolling out of the fire. Everyone stared uncomprehending, as it spun it's way towards the right, heading towards the arena. As it passed over pieces of stone and debris left in the wake of Lord Sauron's fireball exploding, it gathered the pieces and became larger and larger. The guards who were in front of it had a moment to comprehend this before the now child-size ball came to a stop.

And exploded in a burst of green that sent shockwaves outward, sending the guards flying about. They landed in a heap of broken arms and legs.

"You know," an almost minuscule voice said somewhere. "This alien? In a medieval world? Kinda broken."

More and more green balls were suddenly flung from the fire, rolling towards the arena.

"Get inside, my children," Lord Sauron growled. "I must deal with this threat, and protect our world!"

Malia and the others were pulled into the wooden doors of the tower. The last thing she saw before the doors closed was Lord Sauron taking flight as the world around him exploded apart into fire and green.

* * *

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

When the fire came down and I transformed for the first time in days, I had a moment where I'd felt a bit hot. Then Hauzer huffed, and the heat lessened significantly. Didn't surprise me. Fire cannot kill a dragon after all.

(Huh. Wonder how Game of Thrones ended.)

While the fire blazed around us, I began to change. Well, the change was beyond light-speed as always, but I could still kinda comprehend what was happening through it.

First, my body began to shrink, something that surprised me. Smaller and smaller, until I was about the size of a football. My skin became a smoky yellow, then hardened into a carapace of armor. My hands became legs, and two more came from my mid-section. My mouth went vertical instead of horizontal, and a pair of antenna replaced my hair.

" **Ball Weevil!"**

I stared down at my front left leg in surprise. "Huh. I did expect Humoungosaur," I said in a squeaky voice. Hauzer lifted his head around to his back in confusion, eyes widening at the sight of me. Then he moved to sniff at my new form, snorting a bit. "Still me, big guy."

He didn't seem to know how to take that.

Then again, an insect did kind of make sense in a dinosaur world, considering how _big_ bugs were in this place.

Ball Weevil though… that was broken. I was a living grenade launcher in a place that had just discovered iron was a thing.

If it wasn't for my new insectoid features, a wicked grin would have come to my face. Well. I had promised to carpet bomb this city. Still not gonna kill civilians, but the guys who'd been stabbing me were fair game. "Okay boy. Let's go blow the shit out of this place."

I opened my mouth and a green ball of plasma came out, solidifying into a slimy orb. I tossed in the direction of the arena and watched as it quickly rolled out of the flames surrounding us, absorbing debris to become bigger and bigger. When it hit the guards, the ball just… it was like C4 going off. I could see them sent flying, the shockwave of the explosion breaking arms, ribs, legs, and spines. It was horrific.

"You know," I said in my minuscule voice, raising it for the peanut gallery. "This alien? In a medieval world? Kinda broken."

Good lord, I had severely underestimated how powerful these green balls of explosive were. I needed to dial down the boom on these things if I wanted to avoid killing these guys.

Hauzer growled. I opened my mouth and spat out another ball, then tossed it, before following it over and over. Over a dozen green balls launched out, rolling to become as big as three or four feet before exploding in cascades of green.

Even though I was trying to limit the size of the explosions, they still tossed the guards aside. No one died, but the streets around us started to get covered in broken guard bodies. "Come on, Hauzer! Let's get moving!"

 _"_ _ **SKREEEEEEEONK!"**_ Hauzer roared in agreement. He unleashed a plume of flame outwards, turning a group of guards to charcoal. I tried to keep the thought of that from my mind, focusing on my goal instead.

In front of us, something rose up, flying into the air. I stopped throwing explosives to stare at him as he lifted into the air.

Sauron. An enemy of the _**X-#*!$**_.

I hissed, my head suddenly feeling like it had been about to burst in half. Damn. The Omnitrix must have still been acting up.

I looked back at Sauron, who had fought Spider-Man alongside Stegron once. He'd also taken on the Avengers a couple of times. He was currently circling for another pass at us. Right, he'd once flame breathed a Black Widow. Not Natasha, the other one.

"Hauzer, let's move!" then I hesitantly added. "And can you stop killing people? I kind of want to keep that a minimum if I can?"

He replied to that by burning someone else alive. This person had thrown a spear at us, but I got the feeling Hauzer would have done it anyway.

"Good talk," I grumbled. Still, it felt good to be on the attack again. No more broken arm, no more broken Omnitrix. Just me, a powerful ally, and my body filled with strength and power once more!

We rushed for the arena, tossing people aside. The pair of us must have made a hell of an image, an orange dinosaur breathing flame while a giant yellow bug on his backfired exploding balls of green plasma that sent Ankylo, T-Rex, and Bronto-Saur-Lords flying about with ease.

We reached the arena in record time.

"Okay, big guy!" I hopped off of Hauzer and spun to look up at him as he leaned down to look at me. "You wanted food, right? There's gonna be tons if you go this way," I scratched out a quick map on the dirt with one of my claws, marking out the kitchens based on my observations of the place. "Should be enough to feed you for decades. I'll meet you there."

He gave me a hesitant look.

"I made you a promise," I said as fiercely as my adorable form could, spitting out a green ball and hopping on top of it. "I intend to keep it. That Yellow Bastard is all yours."

He still looked a little hesitant, but he nodded and spun to head the direction I'd indicated. As he did, I looked at the arena.

Six guards opened the doors that led to the prison cells my allies were in and rushed towards me.

I narrowed my eyes into a smile and ran backward, the ball under me moving forward in a simple display of physics. I quickly reached my top speed, picking up dirt and debris until the tennis ball-sized plasma goo under me became as big as a car. The Saur-Lords in front of me skidded to halt.

"Oh gods!" one shouted, the entire group spinning to run.

"Someone play the Katamari Damacy theme!" I shouted in glee as the ball hit the first guard.

 _Schloop!_

He was absorbed into the ball of plasma goo, spinning inside it like a hamster in its ball. For a funny moment, he stared up at me through the sea of green.

I hit the next guard, then the next, before I leapt off the ball, letting the massive explosive slam into the doors as the last three closed them.

The ball didn't explode all that hard. I'd formed it as more of a bubble than a ball anyways, more to restrain, not kill. It still tore through the doors and sent all six guards flying. The Saur-Lords didn't look like they'd broken anything, but the three I'd rolled around in a demented hamster ball were going to be fighting their lunch for a while.

I landed in the chaos and spat out streams of plasma, wrapping each in restraining webs of the stuff.

"Would you look at that!" I chirped once I was done. "I'm multi-purpose!"

"You're an asshole," one of the guards rumbled, before losing composure to throw up on the floor while stuck to the wall.

"You help enslave people, you have no moral high ground," I scoffed, before running deeper into the prison.

* * *

 _ **Gresh/Saurian, which is different from Saur-Lord.**_

Gresh watched as the guards ran out of the room, leaving the prisoners behind. A while ago, the guards, along with Stend, had pulled out the Outsider and taken him somewhere.

But not before the Outsider had brought his unbroken arm behind his back and signaled to them.

The Outsider, in the time they had known him, had been odd. When Gresh had first seen him, he'd dismissed him. With a broken arm, what good was he? Gresh had already worked on establishing his rank. As a slave, the only thing worse than simply being a slave was being the weakest one. He had known this, and thus had taken steps to ensure he would not be the one on the bottom of the pecking order.

So, he had continued to do it with the Outsider. For all the Outsider's impressive build, his broken arm had slowed him down. He had not responded to any of Gresh's displays, only taking them. Still, something in his eyes had been defiant. Unbroken.

So Gresh had kept pushing until he tried to push the Outsider aside to steal his food.

Then the Outsider had smashed his head into the floor with a single arm and told him in no uncertain terms to stop.

Gresh was not a man of deep thought and introspection, but he did understand violence. So when the Outsider had offered his food afterward, he knew the gesture for what it was.

Dominance. The Outsider had a broken arm and yet would fight. He took food but did not need to hoard it. He was strong in the way Gresh's mother had been, the matriarch of his family, standing above their petty squabbling, but coming down with a strong blow when her intervention was needed.

So Gresh had watched him. And when the Outsider demanded all listen to him, he had seen all his fellow slaves follow.

Even the Neu-Deustchlander, who hated the Outsider, bowed to him. The Rock Woman, the strongest being in the room, even stronger than the guards, had listened to the Outsider.

The Outsider was a tyrant of some kind. He took the people around him and forced them to become his army. And when they fought on the battlefield, he had stolen the first kill with the sort of eager greed only a tyrant would show. He was a fierce warrior, killing without mercy (Gresh had not seen the look of anguish when the Outsider killed his opponents, only the blood that sprayed.)

Gresh had tried, one last time, to demand something from the Outsider in battle. To stop stealing his kills. And what had the Outsider said?

"Then go get some more!"

Inspiring! If one steals from you, then why despair!? You had already gained that which was stolen! You know you are capable of obtaining it. If it is stolen, then a man of the Outsider's caliber would simply gain it once more! Gain and gain, until any slight against you, was a bump in the road!

To be so uncaring of any other, to dominate so easily, to fight like a demon and yet impart such wisdom!

And then, while he was pulled out, he had flashed those signals. Among the ones he taught them in case of their necessity, had been 'attack, retreat, wait, defend, flank'.

When he had been pulled out, he had flashed two signals. First, 'wait' the symbol a simple hand clenched in a fist. Then, 'attack', the middle finger extended like the blade of a deity, followed by wait again.

Wait to attack. That was what that sequence meant. Even as he was dragged away, the Outsider had a plan to attack.

Gresh knew the Outsider now, saw his eyes as Stend had tortured him. The Outsider had most likely even planned for the torture, had planned for the pain to follow!

So Gresh waited. And when the first explosions began, he was gratified.

"You think it's him," the stone person, Demi the Outsider had named her, asked Gresh.

"Of course it is!" Gresh said to the larger being. "He told us his plan."

"Wait, attack, wait?" the Neu-Deutschlander asked skeptically in an accented version of the common language of the Savage Land. "I'm pretty sure that's not the same as 'I'm about to start blowing things up.'"

"Will he be okay?" the Aerian with a single wing asked softly.

"He's dead," one of the gladiators they'd fought, the Raptor who the Outsider had stabbed, said snidely. "Probably killed in style, the prick."

" _You're_ a prick!" Gresh said, quite proud of the incredible turn around he had made with the insult. "And the Outsider is alive. After all, he helped us defeat you."

"It was a tie," the Anklyo they had also fought said, quirking a scaled eyebrow. "And honestly, it wasn't like there was anything personal. You all fought well," he gave a nod to the Aerian with the single wing, who nodded back with a sad smile on her blue face. "But do you think he's alive, coming back to us, and somehow causing explosions? I know of no weapon that can do such a thing."

The Anklyo's calm assessment pierced through where simple stubbornness had not. For a moment, Gresh's faith faltered.

Then, an explosion came from nearby. Some guards shouted. Another explosion. A scream of pain, and someone joking about babies whining.

The next explosion came from the doorway, followed by a guard tossed into the room wrapped up in a ball of green goo. Everyone stared at the Saur-Lord guard. The T-Rex Saur-Lord stared back at them helplessly.

"I… I don't understand what's happening," he said in wide-eyed confusion.

"You got your ass kicked by cuteness," someone quipped.

They all looked at the door. Then they looked down.

A yellow insect stood there, balanced on a green ball. It waved at them. "Sup guys. Told you I'd come back."

"...Outsider?" Gresh asked, the insane idea popping into his head.

"No way that's-" the Neu-Deutschlander said.

"Oh good, we all speak the same language," the bug said. "First, German Guy? You're an asshole."

"W-What!?" the Neu-Deuschlander said before something registered. "German guy!? My name is Dietrich!"

"Sorry, had to get that off my chest," the insect said apologetically. "I'm sure you're a nice guy, man. I'll help you escape this place, don't worry."

German guy opened and closed his mouth, as if unable to understand what was happening.

"Gresh, Demi, everyone who wants to escape and get free?" the Outsider said in this impossible new form. "I can turn into superpower beings, but that power was gone for a bit. It's back. Now let's kick some ass."

Then it kicked the ball it was standing on at the cage door. The ball exploded, shattering the lock and hinges, letting the door fall to the ground.

"Follow me!" the Outsider spun and rushed out. Gresh immediately moved to follow.

But not before giving the Anklyo a smug look. "I told you!"

The Anklyo gave him a befuddled look. "Told m- You can't take credit for this! No one in their right mind would accept bugs with exploding goo as a possibility!"

Gresh, clearly the wiser of the two, simply followed the Outsider. Demi and the others followed quickly, not wishing to be left behind.

As they left, the Aerian with one wing asked Demi, "So he can just become a bug now?"

"It is the Savage Land, sweetie," Demi said kindly. "A Chicken God is running around out there."

"...At least he is cute, I suppose."

Through the hallways, they saw evidence of the Outsiders passing. Strands of green hung about the walls, guards were wrapped up in balls or attached to the walls, and doors had been torn apart. Oddly enough, the disgusting smell and debris that had once filled the place were entirely gone. Now everything smelled almost like the tea that Gresh's grandfather had enjoyed, a hint of spice and warmth to it, but still fresh, and the floors were almost sparkling.

"This way!" the Outsider said in front of them, scuttling his way through the halls on a ball of green goo (later the Outsider would inform Gresh they were highly concentrated plasma). "We should be almost there!"

"Where are we headed?" Demi asked.

"The kitchens!" the Outsider squeaked.

"Is this the time to eat?" the Raptor Saur-Lord grumbled.

"It is for my partner-in-crime," the Outsider said.

Down the hall, a pair of Saur-Lords came running towards them, swords raised. Without missing a beat, the Outsider hopped off the ball he'd been rolling and tossed it forward, the ball exploding and sending the pair flying.

"Down here," the Outsider made another ball and sped forward atop it, somehow outpacing all of them. He led them for a few moments more before a loud sound came from down the hallway. The group came running around the corner, only for all of them to stop in shock at the sight before them.

First, was the human, a man tall, well-built, with some sort of animal fur about his shoulders so that it appeared he was wearing its face as a vest. The man smiled at them, panning his eyes across the group before stopping on Gresh. For just a moment, Gresh felt as though a blade had been pressed to his throat before the man looked at the Outsider and grinned just a bit. He raised the knife in his hand, then stabbed down into the Bronto he'd been holding down with a single hand, an impossible feat of strength for a human. The blade slid into the struggling Saur-Lords eye, slicing deep into the brain and ending its fight.

"Dial! You are alive!"

The other man was even stranger. Made entirely of metal, it towered over them all, it's body built with a very stout strength. The man was holding a pair of Anklyo's by their throats, the two Saur-Lords trying to stab him, only for their blades to bounce off his metal skin without a scratch.

"Mahmoud…" the metal man said softly, tossing the Anklyo's aside to step forward.

"X, Kraven!" the Outsider said with glee. "Where the hell did you guys come from!?"

"Shiny," Demi blurted out, staring at the metal man, X, with avid interest.

"I came the instant you were pronounced missing," X said. "Are you well?"

"Weirdly, I think I made a psychological breakthrough," the Outsider said. "But that doesn't matter now. I want to share all the fuzzy feeling man, but we have business."

"Understood, sir," X kneeled to the Outsider, further proving to Gresh that the Outsider was clearly the leader of whatever nation he came from. "What are your orders?"

"Take the arena," the Outsider's eyes narrowed. "This place is the slavers' center of power. We make it ours, we force them to come on our turf. Lock it down, make them show up."

"A sound plan," Kraven said with a smile. "But they will know this place well."

"They will," the Outsider looked around. "But they don't know my allies, my powers, or how fucking _pissed_ I am. Call in the boys, X. I made two promises. One to a dragon, and one to myself," Gresh reveled in the look of anger in those insectoid eyes. "I intend to keep them both."

* * *

 _Author's Note:_

Okay... Some people might get mad. Maybe even furious. But I'll let them come as they will.

For now, I'll say I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. And I'll also add one thing. Dial will get the big guy soon. Just not during this little adventure. Humoungosaur was just way too expected for this adventure. I mean, NRG was fun because bringing the Russian Nuclear Reactor on the Russian adventure to stop a nuclear bomb was so great. But I was convinced by my editor, and in fact strongly agree with him, that doing such a thing twice would be bad for story reasons.

But Ball Weevil is perfect. He's a giant bug, first of all, something that fits in really well in the Savage Land. But he's also an explosives expert. In many ways he's one of the Savage Land's worst nightmares. He can sneak anywhere, blow an entire building to kingdom come, survive things that would turn most cars to ash. He's a straight badass. A blend of primitive animal and modern 'blow the fuck out of the world' mentality.

So yeah. I'm sticking to this decision. That said, when the big guy does show up, it'll be a fucking awesome show.


	96. Chapter 96

I stayed in my Ball Weevil form. I just wanted to enjoy being in alien form for the first time in a while, rather than going back to human. Not because of some deeper reason, just enjoying the moment.

We got to work clearing out the whole arena as fast as we could, blasting aside the guards, rushing out any slaves, and freeing other gladiators. A couple of gladiators, the ones who had chosen to join on purpose, tried to kill us. Those guys got stuck in a wall.

As we ran through the halls, I caught up with X and Kraven, who told me what they had been up to and how they got to us.

* * *

 _X and Kraven: Jungle Steel-Reforged!_

X and Kraven stood side by side in a field of rice paddies, up to their ankles in the flooded waters. No farmers were in the field right then, so the pair had the time to study the city in the distance, watching people walk in and out of the gates. While there was some diversity, most of those inhabiting seemed to be some sort of hybrid between various species of dinosaur and humans. Intriguing. Any biologist worth their salt would have loved to have known how such beings had come to life.

"So, he was captured then," Kraven said. "Then things have become simpler."

"Simpler?" X asked.

"Cities are interesting to hunt in," Kraven wiped his brow of sweat. "Every trail is instead a street, alley, and hallway. All the nests are clearly marked as apartments, houses, and even simple cardboard boxes. And yet, it is also a compelling place to hunt. You must dodge detection for all eyes, for only in the city do prey gain aid from predators in avoiding your blade."

"...That's called law enforcement," X said after a carefully calculated pregnant pause.

"I am using metaphors," Kraven scowled.

"No, you were not."

"Fine, I just don't like you pointing out things all the time," Kraven scoffed with look at X. "The point I am making is that we are closer than ever before. But I may have to leave you behind now."

X didn't ask why. After all, there were some humans roaming the city, many of them in chains, but a few were clearly free, and dressed in leather much the same as Kraven. None as tall or healthy as Kraven of course, but that was to be expected for peasants in the jungle.

"Do you have your radio?" X asked critically.

Kraven nodded, tapping his ear. "I'll enter the city and find out where prisoners are brought too. While Dial's scent may have faded if the scents of the city mask it, I can still remember it. You should stay out here."

"I would prefer you wait just a moment," X said. "It appears someone wishes to speak with us."

"Yes, it may be best to deal with them," Kraven agreed.

With that, both turned to look behind them, the water around their ankles rippling as they turned.

Standing there looking surprised to have been caught were a young boy and girl. Both were dinosaur hybrids, similar in shape to the various Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, and other massive sauropods that roamed the Savage Land. Thus, despite being the size of a human teenager, X guessed they were but children. The boy had skin colored a vibrant purple and pink, while the girl looked much more brown in color. The boy was also smaller than the girl and clutching at her skirt as he peeked from behind her. The girl was holding a shovel in her hands and staring between Kraven and X with wide eyes. She said something softly.

X took in the language she spoke and compared it to those that he knew. Hm. Similar to East Asian languages in structure at a guess. She spoke further and X began to break down the language as she continued to look at them nervously, her tone questioning but not threatening.

That was good, her continuing to speak. It gave him more to work with. X had long suspected he had a gift for language, since he had little to no issues with taking them in, even for an AI.

In fact, it was one of many things he'd noticed about himself. As an AI, he had a lot of time for introspection. The only AI he had to compare himself to was Jarvis of course, but there were differences between them that were clear. For example, while Jarvis and X both had the ability to take in information faster than any human as well as design several objects, Jarvis was 0.25 milliseconds faster when it came to what could be considered 'support' information and technology, as well as hacking and other aspects of cyber warfare. On the other hand, X was around 0.35 milliseconds faster at developing weapons, learning new military technologies, and learning military strategy.

It showed in their designs when they built their android forms. X had made a combat platform, Jarvis had created a support one.

X believed it came to their origins. Jarvis, at his heart, had been created to aid Tony Stark. To be his ally and helper, later becoming one of his closest friends. While he had later evolved to become an experienced mechanic of weapons such as the Iron Man suits, the core of him was someone made to help people.

X, however, had more complicated origins. He was born of three things. First, the cold and ruthless intelligence of Arnim Zola, a horrific HYDRA scientist responsible for the deaths of millions, trapped in a computer with nothing to do but scheme for decades. Second, Jury Rigg, a being of incredible intelligence balanced by mania and a specialization for 'rough and tumble' engineering, Macguyvering, Mahmoud had called it, but taken to the most extreme level. And finally, Mahmoud himself, someone who, however subconsciously, had his own thoughts and ideas on AI and robotics.

So he became a being that was a combination of those things. The cold scientist, enthusiastic engineer, and warm-hearted hero. He was made from a weapon of military strategy and tactics, molded by an engineer, to aid a hero in matters of combat.

This capacity for languages however, the one he used to translate the girls words as they flowed from her. He believed that came from the Omnitrix. He wasn't sure of it. In fact, to the logical AI mind, this belief was almost an oxymoron. But maybe the watch had more of an influence in his creation than anyone knew.

Regardless of that, he finally managed to piece together something of a lexicon, compared to dozens of languages. In fact, it seemed the young woman's language had been directly influenced by those of many countries and cultures, suggesting someone from outside the Savage Land had created it. Intriguing.

"*Are you from the city?*" the girl asked in her language, looking nervous. "*Why are you standing in our field?*"

"*Are you going to hurt mommy and daddy?* the young boy asked quietly and tearfully.

"*Incorrect,*" X replied back in their language, getting a surprised look from Kraven. "*We are trying to find a friend of ours.*"

The girl frowned, saurian lips twisting. "*A friend?*"

"*Yes. He was lost in the jungle. But we think he entered the city,*" X kneeled down slightly to match their height. "*We just want to find him. Do you know anything important about the city?*"

"*Just the arena!*" the boy finally stepped around his sister, looking eager instead of scared now. "*Momma says all the great heroes fight there! Is your friend a great hero?*"

"*Depends on who you ask,*" X said honestly. "*The Arena. Where is that?*"

"*In the Northern District,*" the young girl said softly. "*Are you really just here to find your friend?*"

X nodded. "*Yes. We will leave now. But I hope you both have a lovely night.*"

"*You too, shiny man!*" the boy waved happily, his long tail wagging, then rushed towards a hut nearby, the girl giving them another suspicious glance before going away. When X rose, he turned to see Kraven giving him a similar measuring look.

"You really have a way with the little ones, don't you?" Kraven asked.

"If I do, I have never had much reason to express it," X said. "I have information on the city. There is some sort of arena deep within it. Based on the dimensions of that building," X pointed out the particular structure, the stone poking above the other buildings and glittering in the sunlight. "That should be it. Based on the historical significance of such structures in other civilizations, as well as the signs of slaves we can see, I believe Dial may have been taken there."

"Hm," Kraven nodded. "Very well. I'll head there and see what I can find."

"I'll be waiting."

The pair parted ways, X moving to hide, and Kraven walking down the trail with a wide smile on his face.

As Kraven entered the city on his own, he felt his smile growing. Usually, he disliked cities massively. But this own had a spirit that reminded him more of the various villages he sometimes stayed in on hunts. There was an openness to it, a blend of the jungle and the building melding and flowing together with the trees, animals hopping through the branches and leaping off rooftops.

He didn't have long to enjoy it however. Instead he focused on his job, namely tracking down Dial. The Arena, as X indicated, was to the North. Kraven strode through the crowd with his head held high and proud, stepping around dinosaur-driven carriages, dodging a pickpocketer, and ignoring the store owner hawking their wares at him.

It was as he approached the arena that he began to change his gait, eyes panning the city streets slowly. The instant he saw the right alleyway, he ducked inside it. Taking care to make sure that he was unseen, Kraven jumped from wall to wall, making his way up until he had gotten to the roofs. From there he ran across the buildings in a show of agility and speed, staying out of sight of those around him. He noticed a guard patrolling one of the roofs ahead of him. The guard was covered in a natural brown armor that made him look more like a living tank than anything else.

"X," Kraven whispered. "The ones that look like sharp armadillos. What are they?"

"Ankylosaurus," X replied through the radio in Kraven's ear. "Or at least, a member of the suborder of thyreophora known as ankylosauria."

"Interesting," Kraven trailed his eyes across the guard's form. It looked bored, eyes blinking lazily as it walked back and forth, it's three toed feet sending pieces of the straw strewn about the rooftop into the air. It was fascinating to watch a being with reptilian features display such a human emotion as boredom.

Still, Kraven needed to get to the arena, and the guard was in the way.

Kraven moved in a burst of speed, leaping from rooftop to rooftop in a straight line towards the guard.

The Anklyo guard, just about to turn back around, spotted Kraven just as the hunter landed on the same roof as himself. The dinosaur-man had enough time to see the steel knife that spun into Kraven's palm. Then he had a blade in his throat.

Kraven moved on, leaving the guard to fall behind him, and headed for the arena, finally stopping outside on a roof close by, where he kneeled by the edge. "Okay… I'm there. It looks as though we were right."

"How so?" X asked.

"This place is at the center of everything," Kraven said, eyes following the crowd, noting every little point. "Every street leads here. There are dozens of restaurants all about it, as well as posters and little toys being sold. I can even see a couple of plays."

Indeed, a group of cheering children of various species were watching as a pair of men acted out a mock battle with hammy movements, a swooning T-Rex woman in the background acting as the love interest. It was all very Shakespearean.

"Then our plan is simple," X said. "We have to find someway to track him down, if possible with no one knowing we're looking. I'd rather no one take him hostage before we can save him."

A good point. Kraven looked towards the sun, which was dipping in the distance. "It'll be night in just a moment. We should move then. I'll lead you to the Arena."

"Understood," X said. Kraven had to wonder if, for just a moment, he could detect excitement in that robotic voice.

Kraven turned and started leaping from rooftop to rooftop, passing the guard he'd killed on the way without a glance. It was while he was doing this that the explosion came.

Far off, near the arena he had just left, the sounds of stone shattering were followed by a plume of fire rising into the sky. Kraven turned to look at the sight, mildly surprised. This was followed by a loud roar that echoed in the night.

"X, I believe we may be able to move faster than we expected," Kraven said with a savage smile. "We have a distraction."

* * *

 _X_

As soon as the plan was finalized, X wasted no time. He rose to his feet, pulled his sidearm off his hip, and began running towards the city. He had no wish to kill anyone. But then, he also wanted to do a blitz attack. A simple running assault. Kraven had told him that whatever was currently attacking the city was doing so quickly. They had little time to waste.

So X thundered forward on the road, blue eyes alight with power. Even with his immense weight, the machinery in his body enabled him to run at speeds far beyond even the greatest athletes on earth not named Steve Rogers.

He must have made quite a sight to the guards when he came charging towards them. A man of metal, eyes glowing with an unearthly light, a strange weapon in hand as he came at them faster than any living thing should.

To their credit, the guards immediately prepared to counter his assault. A group of archers immediately came forward, with more people holding spears supplementing them. They wasted no time either, immediately firing arrows at him, with some doing so with crossbows.

The arrows hit X's body, then shattered on contact. He continued to bull forward through the crossbow bolts as well, letting them clatter to the ground.

Someone threw a spear at him. X calculated the speed of the long weapon, followed it with his eyes. In the instant before it could hit him, X snatched it out of the air in a display of incredible speed. Then, still running, he spun on his heel and cocked his arm back. When he threw the spear back, the weapon had all the force behind it that his metallic body could produce. The air split apart at it's passing. It hit the man who had thrown it with enough force to go _through_ him, the raptor man tossed back onto the ground as the spear continued on to pierce through a stone wall behind him.

X didn't give the group time to process the feat. Instead, he raised his revolver. For a normal being, firing a gun while running, especially one as powerful as the massive one X carried, was impossible to do accurately. X had the advantage of an extremely fast mind and a powerful body however. He waited for the exact moments his body would be stable enough to take each shot, pulled the trigger, then kept running. At that pace, he fired off six shots before meeting the group. Where he'd fired, the guards fell, at one point a round going through two men and ripping into the shoulder of another.

Kraven struck at the exact same time. From behind the group, as they scattered in fear from the loud weapon slaughtering their group, Kraven jumped down from a nearby rooftop. He came down with both his bone and steel daggers out, landing atop another guard. When he stabbed down, blood flashed in the air. Someone tossed a spear at him, which Krave sliced out of the air with a proud laugh of joy, jumping at the next person.

That was when X hit the group. He smashed into them like a truck into a wall, sending them flying. Then X kept going.

"You're leaving?" Kraven asked X as the robot passed.

"My only goal is to find Dial," X said quickly.

Kraven smiled, then faced the small group of guards. "Good. More for me! I'll see you there!"

As X continued on, Kraven leaped back into the crowd with a whoop of joy, the guards roaring as they went to fight him in return.

X ignored that to move on. He could hear a series of explosions moving through the city, headed towards the arena. His legs moved faster. Up ahead, more guards were gathering, running the same direction, only to stop and face him when he came towards them. Without skipping a beat, X twirled his revolver to place it back on his hip with one hand while pulling his rifle off his back with the other. The massive double-barreled weapon was set on his shoulder as he ran. He fired twice, so fast the sound of both blasts blended into one. A raptor that would have slowed his run was killed in nearly the same instant a stegosaur guard prepared to tackle X.

He kept running, boots shattering cobblestones, reloading his rifle, then his revolver. Ahead, another explosion sounded out, while behind he could hear Kraven landing to run alongside him.

"They almost killed me," Kraven said conversationally. "Very tough bastards."

"You sound pleased," X replied idly, not really paying attention.

"Of course I am!" Kraven barked out a laugh. "What is the point of a hunt without danger!?"

"Food," X responded.

Before Kraven could say anything else, they found their path blocked by a massive gate made of wood, blocking off the way to the arena. X didn't hesitate. He raised a fist while continuing to run at his full speed, and punched outward at the immediate moment he was about to connect. The full force of his run went into the blow, shaking the entire structure, the wood groaning. X stood before the gate and hit it again, a blow that echoed in the street, the stones beneath him crumbling under his boots.

The wooden gate, standing over three stories tall and thick as a human being, swung open with a crash as the beams barring them shut shattered in a spray of wooden shards under his heavy blows, the metal man flying through the door in a dynamic explosion of wood. Someone shouted in shock as he landed, a Brontosaurus man spinning to punch at X.

X raised his right forearm to divert the attack, then tried to punch his opponent, only for the dinosaur to take the attack with little issue. X's blue eyes narrowed, taking in his opponent a little more. How interesting.

This Brontosaurus wasn't like the others. He was a full foot taller at 8 feet, more muscular, and colored a rich emerald, his body covered in black plate-like armor than acted as a natural defense. And he wasn't scared.

The pair stared at each other for a heartbeat.

"I am Bronto, a lord of the Saur-Lord's," the large dinosaur said.

"X, an AI created by Dial," the android said.

That was all they spoke. X could hear Kraven leap past, shouting. He ignored that.

Instead, he raised his hands up in a defensive stance, the now-named Saur-Lord doing the same. Then, in a blur of motion, they stepped forward and began to brawl.

From the outside, all that could be seen was Bronto and X, their fists blurring at their sides to smash into each other, the pair stood still in the middle of the courtyard just outside of the arena. To X, everything was going in slow motion. He parried, blocked, attacked, pulled back when he himself was diverted, struck in a moment of weakness. Bronto did the same, his eyes harsh on the AI. Someone tried to step into the fight.

"He's mine!" Bronto roared. "Focus on the human!"

An illogical decision. It would have made more sense to have people aiding him in battle. Kraven was currently fighting the other Saur-Lords, taking them on in hand to hand combat. X could see the hunter dueling with a pair of Saur-Lords. Kraven's body was covered in dust and cuts, sweat pouring from his muscular form. Despite this, his smile was downright orgasmic as he took a shallow cut to his forearm to slice into the thigh of his opponent, leaving the Saur-Lord to bleed out on the floor. More Saur-Lords rushed towards Kraven, until he was surrounded.

"Yes, come at me!" Kraven laughed. "Make this a day worth remembering!"

The insane lunatic.

X ignored him for the moment to focus on Bronto. The larger man was more than interesting. He was an anomaly. While all of the Saur-Lord's X had encountered thus far were beyond human levels of power, none had been beyond the ability of an enhanced, trained, or well-equipped human to take down. Until now, as he punched his opponent in the face, only to take a blow to the chest in return.

Bronto had strength comparable to some superhumans. Not the high level ones such as Four Arms, the Hulk duo, or Thor, but certainly enough to fight the Grapplers and Rath. He was also durable, fast, and experienced.

At any other time, X would have found the experience novel, finally having an opponent he could truly test his new android body against. But as of now, Bronto was an obstacle to be removed.

X modified his fighting stance in a single instant, mimicking the fighting skills of the most skilled boxers in the world to dodge the next few punches by mere inches. "Bronto, correct? I'm afraid I have no time to waste here."

"Neither do I," Bronto said in return. The pair had come close to a building during their battle. A missed blow from him shattered a stone pillar. "A prisoner escaped, and is rampaging in my city. I must kill you and recapture him."

X would have smiled if he had lips. "So… he escaped."

"You know him?" Bronto sounded almost conversational as he brought his fist down for a hammer blow, X sliding around it to let his scaled fist smash the floor. "The Devil?"

X thought about the myriad of different forms Dial could take. "I might. But that only means I need to finish this," X's blue eyes narrowed. "I apologize. But it seems I somehow adopted the organic trait of furious determination."

Bronto punched at X's head. But it was too late. X ran the analysis, predicting Bronto's movements, calculating the tensile strength of the area around them, and finally testing it in simulations dozens of times. By the time Bronto's fist had moved a single centimeter, X had a plan.

Robotic fingers wrapped around a scaled fist. They squeezed down, applying enough pressure to gain a tight hold. X spun around, bringing Bronto with him, then grabbed his arm as well. With a heave, he lifted Bronto into the air, spinning in a complete circle before tossing the Saur-Lord into the building, stone and rough glass flying about. X felt a moment of satisfaction when he noted that his opponent had fallen exactly as he had planned, with a small margin for error allowed.

X ran in after him. Bronto rolled for a moment and rose to his feet, the building falling about him. The Saur-Lord looked up and saw a cloud of dust directly in front of him. A pair of blue lights glowing in the dust were all the warning he got before the dust blew apart. Bronto's eyes widened at the sight of X coming at him with blazing eyes. He tried to block, but the fist landed in his solar plexus with quaking force, shattering his ribs and sending shockwaves all around.

In pain, Bronto tried to swipe at him. X employed an elbow block, kicked out at his kneecap, shattering it. Bronto tried to scream, but X chopped with his left hand into the man's throat cutting off his breath. The large dinosaur stumbled forward blindly, trying to wrap around X, possibly to try and crush him.

X's other fist came upwards with just as much power up into the taller beings jaw in a vicious uppercut. Bronto bit his own tongue, his teeth shattering, before he was lifted up and through the roof, blacking out at last.

X spun around and ran toward the Arena again. Kraven, the hunter finished with his own opponents, joined him, more bruised and yet also just as cheery.

They entered the arena to see a pair of Ankylos and a smaller Bronto looking up at them in surprise, the hallway they stood in dripping in portions with green goo. X and Kraven stared at the three Saur-Lord guards.

"Gentlemen," Kraven said with some relish in his voice. "This has not been your day."

* * *

 _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_

"Wow, you are just loving this place, huh?" I asked Kraven, tossing a green plasma whip around another person.

"Indeed," Kraven sighed happily, dodging sword slices from a big raptor dude. "The prey, the smells, the very _feel_ of this place calls back to a time forgotten. It is as if I have been walking home all these years, and only now arrived," he mused, ducking under a desperate chop before uppercutting his opponent. "It is truly exhilarating!"

"Home is calming under most circumstances," X pointed out. He had a stegosaurus-lord in his arm, and was choking him out. "Exhilarating would not be used for such a situation."

"You are not fun," Kraven pouted. No, really, _pouted_.

"This is not a fun situation," X tossed aside the now unconscious Saur-Lord.

"Not if you keep ruining it!"

"Are they always like this?" the German gu-Dietrich, asked me.

"They didn't even know each other last I knew," I looked around. "Okay, we're almost to the kitchens. Everyone okay!"

Demi popped her head around a corner. "We're releasing the last of the slaves we found! Gresh is still stabbing someone!"

"Tell him to stop. And grab one of the gladiators that tried to leave. X, how long until BRIDGE gets here with evac?"

"Six minutes," my android buddy said, reloading that Hellboy style hand cannon he was carrying before firing it down the hall, killing one of the Saur-Lord guards.

"Then that's our time table," I declared. "We get everyone into the top of the stands, and make sure we have control of the main arena by that time."

"You're setting a trap," I looked over at Kraven. He was doing that creepy as fuck smile again. Seriously, I'd interacted with Chernobog, the literal GOD of evil in some cultures, and I still found Kraven creepy.

"In some ways, yeah," I would have smiled if Ball Weevil had lips. "But we need to send a message first.

 _Stend/Slaving Asshole_

Stend and Pter stood outside of the arena, looking down at the form in front of them in shock.

Bronto lay in a shattered pile of rubble, being attended to by several medical personnel. Bronto. The Lord of Physical Might, the man who had never known harm or wounds, was knocked out, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.

"What… did that _Demon_ do this!?" Pter asked, looking at one of the medics, who shook their head.

When the human medic spoke, his voice sounded awed. "No. It was some sort of man made of metal!"

"Man of metal…" Pter whispered. "What has come down on our city?"

Stend stood silent. He was beginning to think he'd made some sort of mis- His fist clenched tightly before the thought could finish, hate in his heart.

"Pter, Stend," the pair turned around, bowing the instant they saw the speaker. Styro stood behind them alone. He no longer wore his robes, trading them for a black piece of chest armor and a pair of gauntlets, an armored waist piece protecting his legs. He had a firm look on his face. "Hauzer has escaped, hm?"

Stend stayed bowing. "Yes sir. Along with the Outsi-"

"Dial."

"S-Sir?"

"That was what he said his name was. Dial. And Hauzer," Styro looked up at the arena. "Many of our guards are dying or injured. The arena, the shining beacon of our civilization, has been taken from us. And from what I have been told, two strange men were seen invading the city, killing their way to join those inside the arena."

Styro looked at Stend. "This is not a prison escape. This is war. So we need to respect our opponents. You underestimated him. So now he is trying to pull everything down around him. Foolish."

Stend wanted to snarl in rage at that, but was stopped when a figure fell from the sky to land in front of them. He faltered, staring at the man who now stood among them. "L-Lord Sauron!"

The tall and powerful Lord of Skies ignored him, instead speaking to Styro. "Action report!"

"A small force has taken the arena," the yellow dinosaur said. "We are unsure of numbers or capabilities."

Sauron's eyes looked positively murderous. "Who is responsible for this?"

"Unknown, though we suspect the Outsider," Styro looked back at the arena. "Someone is coming out."

Stend turned to look at the arena. A man he recognized, one of the Carnosaur-lords who had chosen to be a gladiator, was coming towards them. The man had clearly been beaten up by something powerful. His armor had been torn to pieces, one of his horns were ripped out, and he was limping heavily. The man came towards them as fast as he could, wincing.

"Lord-" the man coughed, trying to breath. "Lord Sauron. I bring word."

"My child," Lord Sauron stepped forward, concern in his eyes as he helped the young gladiator sit. "What happened?"

"The Outsider," the gladiator looked haunted and befuddled. "He has somehow… changed. Into an insect."

"Changed?" Styro asked, before Sauron waved him to be quiet, gesturing to the Carnosaur to continue.

"He told me that he wanted to send a message," the Carnosaur said softly. Sauron nodded for him to speak. The Carnosaur took a deep breath. "They will keep the arena. And he offers you the rest of the city."

They all stilled. Sauron smiled. "Oh?"

"Free all slaves in the city, and give up the trade entirely. Give them," the Carnosaur winced, looking around. "Give them Lord Styro and Lord Stend. These terms are non-negotiable."

"They can't think we'll accept those," Pter narrowed his eyes. "It's some sort of attempt to-"

"Pter," Sauron looked up at his fellow pterosaur. "Don't you understand? This reckless attack is nothing more than an invasion!" Sauron smiled. "An invasion from another nation… Something every empire in history must face at least once. This is the moment that tests the mettle of men like us!" Sauron gave everyone a proud smile. "We will avenge the deaths of our comrades, defeat the invaders, and protect our home. Understood!"

"Yes, sir!" everyone except Stend and the Carnosaur said in unison. Instead, the Carnosaur-lord spoke.

"S-Sir. The Outsider. He had something else he wanted to say," he said hesitantly.

"Oh?" Sauron turned to look at it. "Out with it, my child."

"He said," the Carnosaur looked confused. "Well, he said, 'Tell Karl and Stend I'm waiting for them.' But who is Karl?"

Sauron lost his smile, staring at the Carnosaur. "...How _marvelous_ ," the smile returned. "To know that name and it's connection…" Stend stepped back when Sauron turned to look at him. "Stend. I'm afraid that you are not going to be fighting Dial. I want to ask him something."

Stend faltered at that. "B-But-"

"I know, young one," Sauron looked from Stend to the arena. "There will be time for your own goals! But today, I, Sauron, will need to revisit my past and face my future," Sauron clenched his fist, staring at the arena with determination, a proud smile on his face. "I will say this once more! This is the time that tests the mettle of men! Stand proud, all of you!"

He made sure to meet all of their eyes, his red pupils glittering. Sauron began to walk forward, Styro, Pter, and Stend following in lockstep. Stend wasn't sure when or how they'd made a plan to follow him, but the instant Sauron's eyes had locked on to theirs, it was as if they were under his command.

"Let us see what our opponents are made of!" Sauron said with a smirk.

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ It was my birthday on the 2nd of November. Which is weird, because that happens every year on the same day. That being said, my old ass is now 29. Well, shoot.

Anyways, next chapter, Sauron show's what he's made of, as does Ball Weevil. That chapter is mostly done so far, and it's been fun coming with creative ways for the two to beat each other up. Hopefully, I can do it justice :D


	97. Chapter 97

_**Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

I stood in the doorway to the kitchen, watching the carnage before me. The roof had been torn off, leaving room for the behemoth to continue his feast. His long flashing teeth sliced through meat, red liquid dripping to the ground. He growled as he filled his stomach with flesh.

Good thing it was already dead.

"Yo," I said to the big dragon/dino that was currently devouring a side of some herbivore dinosaur about the size and weight of an elephant, looked up to glare at me. "It's almost time man."

He swallowed a big chunk of meat, looking down at my insectoid form. He growled something. While the Omnitrix was hopefully back to normal, Hauzer still wasn't speaking any sort of language I could understand. I didn't know if that was because he was less sentient then I thought he was, because he was just magic enough to muddle the Omnitrix up, similar in some way to Wildmutt's species, or just because he was refusing to speak at all, but that was the situation.

"Are you full?" I asked while scuttling forward on my six legs, dodging around the many things that had fallen on the ground. "Because we have a fight soon."

He growled. "Yeah… You get Styro. But we have the rest to deal with."

If he could have, I think he would have rolled his eyes. I let it go. "Come on. We're going into the arena. One last fight. Then we turn this whole place to rubble."

I turned around and left. Soon, I heard the footsteps of a giant follow me.

I got to the arena, where my fellow former slaves, X, and Kraven had been setting up. They'd tossed aside the crap armor and weapons they had been wearing to replace it with quality gear. As I entered, everyone looked at me. Then up. And up, until they were looking Hauzer in the eyes.

 _"_ _ **Grrrrrr,"**_ Hauzer said, looking around at them all.

The gladiators and freed slaves stepped back, even Demi. X cocked his head to the side, looking up at him. Kraven…

"Oh," Kraven stared up at Hauzer, a look of stunned awe on his face. "Magnificent. Absolutely magnificent," Kraven looked down at me. "Ha! You've been hiding something quite special from me Dial!"

"Don't try it," I said, walking past him. "Hauzer might end up killing you."

"You can't simply entice a man like that," Kraven walked up to look at Hauzer. The Earth Dragon leaned down to glare at him. Kraven smirked. "When all of this is over, I think you and I will have to have a discussion. Hauzer."

The Earth Dragon cocked his head to the side, a flicker of flame coming from his lips. Kraven, on seeing that, looked like he'd never seen something more amazing. Seriously, at this point, I was pretty sure anyone who tried to pull him out of the Savage Land would be fighting a losing battle.

I came up to X. "How long until the Quinjet arrives?"

"Four minutes," X said.

"Perfect… Hey X. Thanks for coming for me man," I said quietly. "The past few days were damn hard."

X stared down at me. "I was worried. We had no plans in place for things such as Anti-Metal, despite knowing of its existence. Or any secondary plans for if the Omnitrix could be damaged in some way."

"The Omnitrix usually _was_ the plan," I grumbled, looking down at the symbol around my neck. "I put a lot of faith in Azmuth, but I should remember he isn't omniscient. Just smart enough that it seems like it."

"Who is Azmuth?" Gresh asked nearby. I ignored him. Probably shouldn't have, considering what he made of that later.

"Regardless of that," X said. "Your current plan isn't the kind I would have expected from you, especially if your hatred for this Stend person is as you said it was."

"It is," I would have smirked if I had lips. "Stend… I think if I have him pegged? Nothing will piss him off more than my plan."

X shook his head, his blue eyes spinning briefly. "And Sauron?"

"He's the threat. The main threat. Firebreathing, super-strength, speed, flight, the ability to absorb the life force of others, the ability to control minds… Sauron is the one I'm most worried about. We have no idea how much of his power is the way I remember it, but I do know the guy is powerful. If I had my way, we'd have a small team taking him on. As of now, that isn't the priority."

I looked at the group of people we had helped. Around fifty, in total. I went over to them. Gresh, Demi, and Winggirl… Okay, I just realized something. I had no idea what her name was.

"Hey," I said, walking to look up at her. "What's your name?"  
She looked down at me, leaning down to look me in the eyes, blue skin glittering in the light of the Omnitrix around my neck. "I'm Gena."

"Nice to finally meet you," I said a little awkwardly. "I'm sorry it took me so long to ask. We had a lot to get done."

Gena blinked down at me. She looked better. Her torn off wing, or at least, the section it been attached to her back, was beginning to heal. But I could still see that undercurrent in her emotions, that deep sadness that filled her.

I left that thought aside, instead focusing on the moment. "Demi. Take the civilia-" I cut myself off. Right. I was so used to thinking of people who needed help as civilians. But in this setting, that word didn't really have as much meaning to former slaves. "Take anyone who can't fight up top. Transport that can fly will come by soon. I need you to help defend them with the escort team, so you're in charge. Understood?"

Demi nodded, speaking in that oddly feminine voice of hers. "I have no problem with that."

"Why is she in charge?" the Raptor guy grumbled.

"Because Sauron can breathe **fucking** fire," I told the guy impatiently. "How about this, if you wanna block that, you can be the leader."

"...I was just asking," Raptor guy said at last, looking pretty disgruntled.

"You're a warrior," I narrowed my eyes at him, then at the rest. "I'm taking a chance, trusting a lot of you. So stop questioning my orders. We don't have time to swing dicks around just so that you can feel better about yourself. We all get out of this place, free to eat, drink, and whatever, and I guarantee you that I can get you out. Before you guys ask how I can guarantee that, remember that I have a robot and a dragon helping me, so your arguments are invalid."

X blinked by shuttering his eyes closed, while Hauzer prowled forward, Kraven still eyeing him like a steak dinner.

"So stick to the plan," I looked around at everyone. "The arena team boxes it out. The escort team protects civilians. Besides that, we all have our personal opponents. Ready?"

No one spoke. I took that as a yes.

"All right. Head to your places… And Gresh. What the hell is the Avengers symbol doing painted on your chest?"

I finally noticed it. The reptile man now had a half-assed 'A' symbol in a red circle emblazoned on his chest and stomach, dripping wet even as we spoke.

"Ah, you like it?" Gresh thrust his chest out proudly. "The metal man told me this was the symbol of your nation."

"...Gresh, I'm starting to wonder if you're more dangerous than I thought."

"Thank you!" he said proudly.

"Not in the way you think, man…" I said starting to realize Gresh might be more off than I thought.

"By the way, sir," X said, distracting me. I looked up at him. "Shouldn't you change back? You may come close to passing your time limit."

That was a good point. If I changed back now, I'd be less likely to drop transformation mid-fight. With that in mind, I reached for the Omnitrix with one of my legs, tapping it to turn back into a human. The Omnitrix beeped.

"...Wait, what?" I said, still in Ball Weevil form. I tapped the Omnitrix symbol again and again. It beeped each time but left me in my tiny yellow form. "What, first you break because of some chump metal, and _now_ you decide to stay in alien form?" I tapped at the symbol again and again, getting nothing for my efforts.

"What is happening?" X asked.

"I'm stuck," I grunted, irritated. "... Fine. Whatever AI, or Azmuth, or Eunice being funny, I'll just deal with it," I said without much heat. Stuck in Ball Weevil form. Not that bad, really. I was just curious as to what was going on. Did this mean the Omnitrix was still repairing in the background?

Whatever the case, it was time to get ready for a fight again.

"Places everyone," I said as badass as I could while looking like the latest adorable product of the Pokemon company. "We've got bad guys to fight."

* * *

We stood side-by-side when they entered. I was in the center, with X on my left, then Kraven. On my right were Gresh and the Ankylosaur gladiator. Behind us, towering tall on the large stone platform, was Hauzer, his flames dripping from his mouth like magma to scorch the rock under him.

Sauron strode onto the sands of the arena with his hands behind his back, a proud smile on his face. He wasn't what I expected. More… well, he kinda reminded me of Steve, to be honest. It was in his stance. The proud way he held himself, straight-backed and powerful. Like he wasn't above the rest of the world, but he also damn sure wasn't going to bow to anyone. He looked almost heroic. Which I wasn't sure I liked much.

Styro was wearing armor as he stood on Sauron's left side. He looked almost unearthly calm. As soon as he came through the doors, his eyes snapped onto Hauzer. And I felt the heat behind me rise. Oh yeah. Hauzer and Styro had some words they wanted to trade.  
Pter was on Sauron's right side, clutching tightly at a pair of knives as he strode in. He smirked at us, looking far too cheery for my tastes. A pair of eyes took him without him noticing. Just as planned.

Stend was just behind Pter. He looked at us, passing his eyes over me. Then they snapped back, his jaw-dropping at the sight of me. I would have smiled if I could have.

"My, my!" Sauron said, stopping about twenty feet away from us. "I must say, Dial, you have quite the skill with theatrics."

"I'm an anime nerd," I stepped forward. "Learned from the best."

"Hah!" he chuckled. "I can see that. I must admit, however, I've always been more a fan of fantasy literature. Obviously, I suppose."

"Can't hate a guy for taking inspiration from Lord of the Rings," I shrugged. "So… We all know why we're here."

"Indeed," Sauron looked around. Our allies were almost silent. Kraven was chuckling under his breath. Pter's clawed feet scratched at the sand. Hauzer's flames continued to drip. "I suppose you've already made plans for how this battle will go. Are you planning to fight me, Dial?"

No fear, no hesitation. Just curiosity.

"Yeah, I am. Everyone else has their dance partners."

"No," Stend growled.

Sauron blinked, surprised. He looked at Stend. "My child."

"NO!" Stend pushed Pter aside. "I don't care! **YOU ARE MINE.** This arena is mine!" Stend walked forward, surprising everyone who wasn't me.

"Bullshit," I snarked.

Stend scowled, his fists clenched and strode across towards me. "That impudence. I'm going to-"

"Stend," Sauron growled, his eyes flashing. Stend stilled in an instant. "Don't move."

Stend's eyes widened. His muscles twitched as he stood there. I could see him struggle to move.

Mind control. Sauron must have hypnotized him already. From what I knew of the comics, that usually took eye contact. Stend vibrated in place, his breath coming fast and panicky.

"Dial is mine," Sauron said casually. "It is okay. You clearly are too close to this. Step aside. Fight-"

Stend's eyes widened again. He stepped forward.

Sauron's own gaze shook. "Stend-"

"He is mine," Stend stared at me, his eyes almost insane. "I will have your life. _**DIAL!**_ "

He shook like a dog, and Sauron gasped as though in pain, stepping back in surprise. Stend rushed forward, claws outward. _"_ _ **DIIIIAAAL!"**_

"Told you," I said to my left.

"Yes," as Stend tried to claw at me, X stepped in the way and easily caught his claws. "You did."

Stend screamed, trying to rip into X. Only to stagger when X easily lifted him off the ground. "W-What!?"

"You wanted to learn about the modern world?" I asked smugly. "About all the little wonders we've created? Well here's your chance. X! Teach him about the magic of engineering."

"Target engaged," X said in response. His eyes flashed blue. Then he leaped forward, smashing into the walls of the arena. Before he and Stend disappeared inside, Stend got one last look at me. He looked at me in desperate rage. I turned and ignored him. When he let out a loud scream of affronted anger at that, I once again I had lips, just so that I could grin at the satisfaction that gave.

"So," I said to Sauron.

He looked from where Stend and X had gone, the sound of things being destroyed coming from that hole. He looked shocked. Then he slowly chuckled, before straight out laughing.

"Today! Today has been the most interesting day I've had in years!" he was almost crying with laughter now. "Thank you, Dial! You have made things _fun_ ," his wings spread out. "Saur-Lords! Take them!"

"Yes!" Pter swung out a knife. "Time for a hunt to-"

"Hunt?" Kraven slammed his own knife into Pter's, getting up in his face while pushing him back. He grinned in the Saur-Lord's face. "I know a thing or two about that. Let's trade notes."

Styro ran past them, heading for Hauzer. Hauzer roared, blasting out flame at Styro before the two were behind me and I lost sight of the fight.

A group of guards entered behind Sauron. Gresh and the Ankylosaur gladiator gave Sauron an awkward look. He smiled.

"No, go ahead," Sauron eyed me. "I believe I have my own fight to handle."

The two ran past him, heading toward the group of guards, some of whom ran towards the upper levels of the arena, where a big group of former slaves was. The two Aerians who could fly lifted up, Demi clenched her fists, and soon everyone was brawling around us.

Sauron and I faced each other for a moment as the arena exploded into violence.

"So… Shall we?" I asked, spitting out a ball of green plasma.

"OF COURSE!" he said proudly.

So _that's_ who he sounded like. I knew his voice seemed familiar.

Then he breathed fire at me. I jumped aside, launched a ball of plasma that exploded at his feet, which he dived out of the way of, still breathing a gout of flame hot enough to scorch the sands. I spun in the air and launched another plasma ball. He lifted into the air, cutting off his fire breath to dodge. The ball rolled across the sand, quickly growing until it hit a gate, exploding with immense force and tearing that section of the arena. I ran towards the doorway, Sauron following as everyone else let loose.

* * *

I ran deeper into the halls of the coliseum before skidding to a halt, my insect legs scratching at the concrete. Sauron landed at the same time, looking down at me with a smirk.

"Attempting to limit my mobility by forcing me to follow here?" he asked, looking around.

"Nah," I spat out another ball of plasma, hopping onto it. "I just like privacy when I invite a guy to dance with me."

"How charming of you!" Sauron crowed. Then he was in front of me, claws slashing down. I rolled aside to let his claws slash through the stones, leaving five long lines in the gray floor. I tossed the ball I'd made into his face, blowing it up and sending us both back from the explosion. He skidded on his heels, clawing up the floor with his talons, while I bounced and rolled to come to my feet again. Without missing a beat, Sauron let loose with the flames again. I tossed another ball, only to be surprised when the plasma absorbed the flames, growing in size.

"Hooooo?" Sauron hummed, slipping around the plasma to let it detonate on the wall behind him. "It can absorb my flames? And even leaves a mint scent when it explodes?" he noted the hole left by my explosive orb before looking at me. "The outside world has truly changed if beings like you are coming from there."

"Bruh, you have no idea. There's a whole world of weirdness out there," I spat a line of green plasma, and lashed out with it like a whip. He ducked underneath it, spinning aside when I brought the whip back around to snap at his leg. He brought his arms behind him and began dancing between each whip strike.

I somehow controlled the ten-foot-long whip of plasma-like Wonder Woman bringing the heat, spinning, snapping, and slicing the air, as Sauron continued to dodge with the casual cool of a martial arts master fighting against a novice.

"A whole world," Sauron mused to himself, hopping over a spinning plasma whip. "I dismissed the outside world when I came here. But I suppose I was a bit hasty. Perhaps I should-"

He was cut off when the whiplashed around his ankle. He had enough time to blink before I pulled him off his feet with surprising strength, following with letting go of the whip. The plasma pulled in around him melding into a ball that surrounded him from neck to ankle.

"Explode!" I shouted. The ball blew outwards, sending Sauron ricocheting off a wall. I didn't let up, tossing another pair at him, but he didn't let something like getting literally blown up stop him from spinning to his feet and rushing me. I tossed a plasma at him, but he leaped up, gliding forward and wrapping his talons around my body. Screeching like a falcon, he lifted me up in mid-flight and bashed me into a wall, my tough exoskeleton breaking the stones to free us from the arena and enter the streets. With a mighty beat of his wings that sent the dust from our exit flying, he burst up into the night sky, still carrying me in his claws.

"You fight well!" he crowed. I twisted to look down at the ground below, getting further and further away. "But I think I'd like a taste of that power of yours!"

I felt it then. His talons wrapped tight around me, began to absorb my energy. It felt horrible. Like something clawing at my insides, pulling pieces of me out. I screamed, a grating insect sound, and instinctively lashed out a plasma whip, lashing it around his jaw and pulling hard. He let out a muffled shout as his mouth was forced closed, spinning in the air and letting me go in shock. I let go as well, letting the whip wrap around his long jaw entirely before blowing up in a green ball of smoke with incredible force as I fell towards the ground, spinning around and around.

"EXHILARATING!" Sauron shouted above me. "This is what I've longed for! What is the point of having the power of gods if you can't unleash it, test it's limits, to create storms!"

He had a point. Our fight was getting a little insane. The cracks of explosions were erupting everywhere, the sky alight in green, silver, and red as he and I traded blasts blow for blow.

I spat out another ball of plasma, catching it before it could fly out of my reach, then spat out as many as I could up toward Sauron. He ducked and dodged in the air, the sky getting lit up by green explosions as each ball blew up around him.

"Hellzone Grenade!" I shouted, stealing my favorite Namekian's move as I unleashed a final barrage of plasma.

"Not enough!" Sauron crowed. His hands glowed a bright silver that flickered with all the colors of the rainbow before he brought both up over his back then swung them down. Pulsing beams of energy flew from his hands, aiming for me. As planned, I raised the single plasma ball I'd prepared.

I was surprised when, rather than coming for me, the twin beams of energy shot around me. "What the-"

"You were planning to absorb the energy," Sauron said with a smirk. "But how do you deal with this!"

The twin energy beams met just behind me, blowing up in an explosion of silver that sent me flying upwards. I shouted in surprise as I twisted in the air, narrowing my eyes to hold back the pain.

At the same time, Sauron found himself surrounded by a field of plasma balls. He watched them all with amusement, looking down at me as we both fell. "Heh. I think if you had lips you'd be smiling, wouldn't you child?"

"...Fuck yeah," I said.

Then dozens of plasma balls exploded with a thunderous sound that cracked the night sky above the city.

I fell down fast and hard, propelled by the explosion. Below me, a building made of stone came up to meet me. I spun as best as I could to face my back downwards, making it just before I hit the roof.

The roof cratered under me, then crumbled. I fell through it to land on the floor below in a shower of dust. I bounced upwards, then got hit by a falling piece of rock, before I finally lay on my back, looking up at the night sky full of green explosions.

"...ow."

I took in the pain with a weird sort of happiness, if I'm being honest. I'm not a masochist or anything. It's just… I'd been worried I'd never get to fight an alien form again. This. Fighting against a superhuman opponent on equal ground, coming up with creative ways to use some crazy new powers. I loved it. It was good to have the Omnitrix back, for all that I felt fulfilled knowing that I could take on challenges at my weakest.

I lay there watching as the explosions faded through the five-foot wide hole made in the roof by my impact. A shadow swept down from them, streaming smoke. He finally landed at the edge of the hole, looking down at me. "That was-" he cut himself off, coughing. "Ah. That was a big explosion. Are you going to lay there all night, child?"

"I was just taking in the view," I replied casually. "You know, for someone who literally enslaved people and forced them to fight in death battles, you're a real friendly guy."

Sauron smiled down at me, not moving as I rolled over to my stomach, spitting out a ball to hop onto. "I am finding myself in a bit of a good mood. Still, I do think manners are important."

"You should teach Stend that, then. Because he's an asshole… You know. I think he was planning to dethrone you."

I'd figured that out a while ago. Stend's obsession with obtaining knowledge, the fact he was equipping his own men with Damascus steel while no other guards had it, the dissatisfaction he showed with how much Sauron hadn't shared about the outside world. Stend hated Sauron. He wanted him out of the way, wanted to replace him and steal more knowledge, to rise up.

"He does, doesn't he?" Sauron sighed. "But that is simply the way with the truly ambitious. You try to feed their greed, but it's never enough. I was hoping he'd try his revolt later in the year. It would be a good test for my Saur-Lord's, fighting a civil war! After all, it is a testament to a father when his children show the will to surpass him!" he said in that hammy as hell voice of his.

I stared up at him. "You'd just… let a civil war happen?"

"Yes and no. I would try to stop it beforehand, first through peace, then through violence. But if it happens, it would be a learning opportunity. I want my city to grow, to become a civilization of its own, fighting the battles both literal and philosophical that all other societies must," Sauron looked around the city. "But that has nothing to do with our battle. Now, Dial. Shall we continue?"

"...Yeah."

I fired immediately upwards, the roof exploding under him. He somersaulted back, dodging my next blasts, then firing silver beams of energy at the roof, trying to force the whole thing to fall on top of me. I spun in a circle on the ball I was standing on, spitting out plasma as I pivoted in place, the plasma orbs rolling outward and picking up debris as it fell to the ground. I exploded the orb under me, letting it propel me out of the hole. The orbs I'd unleashed blew apart as well, turning the top floor of the building we'd been fighting on to nothingness. That's the nice thing about Ball Weevil orbs. They don't leave rubble but instead clean it up.

I landed on another rooftop and kicked more orbs at Sauron, who dodged the three I launched before he was on top of me. He blasted me with a single energy beam before I could block it with a plasma orb. I took the painful hit to my stomach, launching an orb out that hit him in the chest as well.

We both went flying back, landing on opposite buildings and facing each other. I was breathing hard, trying to keep my eyes on him. We were both covered in scorch marks and bruises. While I didn't have bones in my form, I was pretty sure every muscle inside me was a little tense.

"...You're hard to kill," Sauron mused, chuckling just a bit. "This form you have taken is quite the tough one!"

I thought of Diamondhead, Four Arms, Rath, all of my tougher aliens. "You have no idea."

"I suppose I don't," Sauron cocked his head to the side. "I must ask, child. Are you like me? A human forced by circumstance in a powerful form? Or are you… No, if you were a muta&*#$!-"

The rest of what he said was a blinding screech of noise as my head exploded. I screamed in pain, shocked at the suddenness. What the fuck!? Is this what his brainwashing felt like? I'd made sure not to really look him in the eyes, why was this happening!?

I shook my head, struggling to keep my eyes open. But when I looked back at Sauron, he seemed as surprised as I was.

Then his face cleared with realization. "Ah, my old friend… even now, you…"

"W-What did you do to me?" I struggled to say.

Sauron shook his head. "I did nothing. It isn't my secret to tell. But tell me, how do you know my human name?"

"...I read it on the internet," I forced out as the headache suddenly disappeared. For a moment, I felt guilty horror in my mind, but that faded as well, which surprised the hell out of me.

"Hm," Sauron cocked his head to the side. "The internet? I suppose it became pretty big while I was here. I'll have to visit the mainland when I'm finished here."

"You won't be able to do that without being in a cell," I growled, annoyed at the pain in my head.

"Oh?" Sauron chuckled. "I suppose we're both being overconfident, aren't we!"

"Overconfidence is just confidence after you win," I returned. As I spoke, a purple light in the sky behind Sauron flashed. "Besides. I know two things you don't."

Sauron, still chuckling, kept trying to meet my eyes, which I kept dodging. "I suppose that statement is the beginning of a very surprising development in this fight of ours? Very well!" he tapped his chest with his fist. "Show me those two things!"

"I think I'll let them speak for themselves," I spat.

From out of the sky, a silver streak fell. Sauron, reacting faster than I could believe, desperately leaped to his right. A fist of vibranium hit the roof where he'd been standing, shattering the roof with ease. Without stopping, the silver figure spun around to punch at him again, Sauron flipped back before the roof fell under him from the first blow. Then his eyes widened when a purple beam of energy came down, the Pterosaur-man countering it with his own silver beams of energy to explode just in front of him. He flew up and hovered in the air to dodge the plasma balls I launched at him, the green orbs finishing off the section of roof he'd been standing on.

I landed at the same time as my friends did.

Creel, standing in his full vibranium form, ripped his shirt off, glaring at Sauron. "Huh. I know X said this guy would look like a dinosaur-man, but he really does look weird," he clenched his fist with a metal on metal squeal accompanying it.

Fantasma floated down to my right, landing on her high heels with elegance and grace. "Not necessarily strange, Mr. Creel. We have seen many wondrous things. This man is simply yet one more."

"That's the nice thing about being an Avenger," I snarled as much as my adorable bug from could. "You see a lot of cool shit."

If this were an anime, there would be three panels showing Creel, myself, and Fantasma in a close-up of our faces.

Sauron quirked an eyebrow. "Well! It seems things have gotten dangerous for me!"

"Fuck yeah," Creel sped forward, followed by myself on a green plasma orb and Fantasma, who twirled up into the sky.

"Good to have you guys back!" I said before we all unleashed hell once more, Sauron letting loose as well.

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ Next chapter, a brief stop in with the other characters. Then, Sauron's POV, and his brief history.

I'm not sure if you guys could tell, but while I had taken inspiration from a lot of different sources for this arc, everything kinda ending going in more of a modern anime direction. The main hero fights the big boss while everyone else splits up to take on his various proteges and minions, classic stuff. That might be because I've been watching a lot of My Hero Academia while writing this arc. Which is a fantastic show, by the by.


	98. Chapter 98

_Just before Creel and Fantasma joined Dial_

 _ **X**_

Pushing with just enough force, X tossed Stend through another wall, then let him go. X noted the room they'd found themselves in, some sort of public bathhouse built inside the arena, possibly for those guests who were rich or important and wanted to relax in between bouts. It was rather primitive in design, with brown stones pressed together with mortar, and water flowing into the baths, most likely piped from somewhere else where it would be boiled first. The water was cold now, dripping everywhere.

X took in the sight for a moment before looking back at Stend. The slaver spun to his feet, glaring at X. "Who are you!?"

"X, an AI created by Dial. I have been told to guide you in a lesson on making mistakes," X lowered into a martial arts stance, facing Stend with blue eyes glowing.

Stend stared at him, uncomprehending, before growling. "Fine. I'll kill you first, then I'll find the Outsider and-"

The Stegosaur-man ducked when a metal fist tried to take his head off, only to receive X's boot to his chest, sending him back into a pillar, his back spikes embedding into the stone.

"You misunderstand," X swung his fist again, Stend blocking with crossed arms only for the force of the blow to send him through the pillar, leaving the man sliding back on the wet floor as chunks of stone flew about. "This is a lesson. Be silent and take it in."

"You-" then Stend was forced to dive aside as X kicked out at him. Stend swung his tail out, the four spikes flashing out to stab toward X. X grabbed the tail out of the air and pulled while spinning, letting go to send him skipping across the water of one of the baths like a stone before he hit the side of the pool with a large splash.

"Silent. Now. The first thing you must learn is simply not to enslave individuals anymore. I will allow that you were raised in a culture that prided itself on such things," X walked around to where Stend was sputtering in the water. "But it's an uncivilized and cruel practice. However, that brings me to my second subject."

Stend struggled out of the water and got on his hands and knees, dripping wet, only for X to punch him in the face with enough force to send teeth flying. X kicked him in the ribs, sending him sliding back.

"Pick your battles wisely," X strode towards Stend as the stegosaurus-man got staggered to his feet. "You kidnapped a man with a sword and armor far in advance of anything you'd ever seen, wearing a watch you were unable to remove, who made it clear the only reason he was willing to enter any negotiations was the fact he was injured. And now, you have the eyes of the most powerful organization on Earth on you, with men and women capable of destroying cities, assassinating political figures, and dueling gods ready to attack you."

Stend reached out to try and grab X. X caught the other man's wrist, pulled his arm close, then broke it with a jab to the elbow. Stend's eyes widened in horror and shock before he began to scream.

"You couldn't have known," X said, ignoring the pained screams to punch Stend in the face once more. "That you were poking a sleeping giant. But you should have suspected that Dial was more than just a human. That someone with armor and weapons that had clearly gotten lost in the jungle might have friends that worried for him. Friends who would hear what you had done. Who would become enraged."

"I-I-" Stend said, staggering back.

"I won't kill you," X said. "In fact, if you surrender now, I'll simply place you under arrest for the numerous crimes you've committed."

Stend's eyes flashed. "No! I-"

X's fist took the breath from him as it slammed into his stomach. "Then I suppose I must continue. As a being with enhanced durability, you will be able to sustain spectacular amounts of damage," Stend's tail flashed forward. X let the spikes hit him this time, the sharpened bones bouncing off his metal body. "I would like to apologize in advance. If you continue to refuse to surrender peacefully while continuing to fight back, you will be significantly hurt. But I will admit. After hearing how you treat those under your care, that is more of a bonus for me than anything."

Stend responded by grabbing at X. Claws scratched against a metal body, and he tried to lift X off the ground. The android responded by headbutting Stend. As he did so, he continued to communicate with the incoming Quinjet.

Four minutes until reinforcements arrived.

* * *

 _ **Kraven**_

Kraven and his latest opponent had found themselves in a garden just outside the arena. The garden was large, lit by torches, and made up of flowers, bushes, and trees right out of the jungle. Pter, the Saur-Lord with orange skin, had a long slash across his chest, bruises around his neck, and an excited look on his face as he walked along the trails. Kraven watched him from the trees, calmly watching Pter.

Neither man spoke. They had no wish to banter. No words had to be traded. They were trying to kill each other after all, and speech was but wasted movement.

Instead, Kraven swept down for the trees the instant Pter was in range. His daggers nearly sliced into Pter's neck, before the Saur-Lord parried them in a loud clash of blades. Kraven landed on the ground and pressed the attack. Pter spun his daggers around and fought back. Lit by the fires of the torches around them, shadows dancing across Kraven's tan skin and Pter's orange scales, the two men tried to kill each other. Their blades clashed in a spray of sparks from the speed and strength of their blows.

Kraven's abdomen obtained a thin scratch. Pter's right shoulder was briefly stabbed. They both kept silent, continuing to clash.

Kraven forced Pter to back into a tree, only for the orange-skinned Saur-Lord to backflip into the air and land among the branches. Kraven followed, his boots scarring the bark as he twisted to face Pter. The two jumped from branch to branch in their quest to murder the other, the trees shaking loose leaves from the violence of their attacks. Kraven ducked under a stab, landing on a lower branch, and bouncing back up with an uppercut slice. Pter twisted desperately out of the way but was too late. The blade sliced deep into Pter's jaw, then moved upwards, cutting out Pter's left eye. Pter screamed but still managed to stab outwards. His knife stabbed deep into Kraven's shoulder, then cut down at an angle, stopping at Kraven's vest. Kraven kicked Pter in the stomach, pushing him back. The two stopped fighting for a moment, panting as they stood in the trees. Pter's eye spilled blood and intraocular fluid. Kraven's shoulder and part of his chest had been split open, revealing muscle beneath to the open air.

They took stock of their injuries. Then they moved forward in a flash, leaping from branch to branch before meeting in mid-air. Kraven reached his blade out. Pter stabbed down with two daggers.

In a single move, it was over. And both fighters ended the night with no regrets.

* * *

 _ **(Sound of Stone Shattering in Harmonic Fashion)/Demi**_

Demi punched a Saur-Lord in the chest, caving in his ribs, then was forced to block an ax on her right arm. She'd been fighting among the stands of the arena for several minutes, desperately keeping back the guards.

The last few days had been a nightmare. First, she had been kidnapped in the middle of the night, forced to fight in gladiator combat, taking on warriors she had no business fighting. She was a chef, not a warrior. And yet, since she'd been enslaved, she'd been forced to battle to the death, getting beaten with an ax for her trouble.

Her people were peaceful. She'd never seen violence the likes of the past few days.

And then… A man stepped forth. From all the rest of those enslaved. He'd been kind. He'd also been a killer. She hadn't known the two traits could be in a single person in such excess. The man had trusted her with a single task. Protect the civilians, as he'd called them. Those who were unable to fight.

She wasn't sure why she didn't count among them. But Dial had praised her. Said she was a natural. She'd try to live up to that.

So she fought on, getting exhausted. The Saur-Lord guards were pouring in, trying to get to the people higher in the stands. She punched someone's sword, a T-Rex-lord's teeth snapped against her skin, a Bronto punched her back before the Raptor gladiator stabbed him in the stomach. Demi took deep breaths, trying to keep on her feet. A small army was coming at them. Above, the two-winged Aerian's were throwing spears as they dived and rose above the crowd, fighting desperately to help while dodging arrows, the male already having a single one embedded in his thigh. Below, she could see Gresh slicing and leaping about, fighting frantically, the Ankylosaur-lord dueling with two others of his kind. Somewhere in the distance, green explosions could be seen in the city, with plumes of fire to the East. Dial and Hauzer.

Ten minutes. That's how long X (so _shiny_ ) had said they had to survive. Had it been that long already? Demi felt like she'd been fighting for hours, and yet somehow like no time at all had passed at the same time. Help had to be coming soon. Soon.

But right now, they were in trouble. Demi raised her fists, wincing internally as she waited for the next blow.

A noise came from the sky above. Demi looked up at it, only to jump in surprise and awe. It sounded like something spinning really fast in the air. The two Aerians above shouted in surprise as they dived down from where they had been harassing the enemy. The beat of their wings sent air flying. Then, dust was blown away by far stronger winds.

The object that came down towards them was enormous, as big as a triceratops or bigger, yet impossibly hovering in the air. A man was sitting inside it, behind a pane of some sort of clear crystal. Something under the object began to make loud booming noises.

Just like that, the enemy began to die. Massive gaping holes appeared in their backs, with smaller ones in their fronts. Surprised and horrified, they staggered.

Something spilled out of the back of the object that Demi was just realizing was a vehicle of some sort. A human in some sort of black armor. Three more came out, all holding long rectangular shaped objects. The objects released noises, and more Saur-Lords fell.

"Get into the quinjet," the vehicle said, surprising them all. It sounded like X. "This is our escape vehicle. Enter it as fast as you can."

"Holy-" the Raptor gladiator was about to say before he was cut off by more loud noises.

" _Get in!"_ one of the humans said in a language Demi didn't understand. She could understand the frantic way he pointed, however, and quickly rushed to follow his instructions.

The humans who had come to help split up, some going down to the arena to aid Gresh and the Anklyo-saur-lord who had been helping him.

Gena, the Aerian with one wing, panted as she pulled her spear from the chest of a Saur-Lord. "These are the Avengers!?" she shouted, her face set in amazement as people ran into the back of the vehicle, standing awkwardly inside.

Someone chuckled, apparently understanding the word 'Avenger'. " _Nah, lady. That's them."_

He pointed up at the sky. Demi and Gena looked up in unison just before entering the Quinjet.

A woman dressed in purple, holding a man made of metal, shot over the arena, headed in the direction of the explosions. Gena's face lit in purple light as she watched a woman fly with no wings to support her, her mouth open in awe.

* * *

 _ **Hauzer/The Earth Dragon**_

Styro burst out of a third story headfirst, falling to the street below. A plume of fire burst forth from the hole he created, lighting the street in a burst of red. The flames faded before the building began to shake. Moments later, it crumbled apart as Hauzer exploded out of the stone structure, magma dripping from his lips as he roared.

" _ **SKREEEEE-EEEEEONGK!"**_ the ground shook under Hauzer's footsteps as he ran towards Styro, his top horn extended forward. He stabbed down at Styro, who side-stepped the attack and punched Hauzer in the face. Hauzer rolled with the blow and spun around, his tail snapping out to smash into Styro's chest, sending the yellow-scaled man back-flipping through the air until he hit a wall with enough force to form a crater.

Styro pulled himself from the wall as fast as possible, barely dodging the fire blast Hauzer unleashed his direction by diving and rolling. He stopped near a carriage, grabbing the side. His muscles twisted and bunched as he lifted the large wooden vehicle and turned to toss it at Hauzer like a child's toy. The carriage shattered apart on contact with Hauzer's head, sending the dinosaur staggering back with the fire still pouring from his lips. Hauzer landed on the building behind him, still breathing flame as the stone shattered beneath his bulk, before cutting off the stream to stare at Styro.

Hauzer did not speak any sort of language. While he was sentient, his thoughts were in the form of emotions and feelings, on images, sounds, and scents, not words.

So when he glared at Styro, his thoughts on the man were simple. Hate. Deep hatred, formed from days in captivity. Styro, on the other hand, only stared back at Hauzer with a neutral look on his face.

Deep within Hauzer, the flames that had been blended into his body raged forth. He held them back. Thus far, Styro had been dodging all his flames. Hauzer was a trained fighter. He knew better than to stick to a strategy that wasn't working. Instead, he spun in a circle, lashing out with his tail again. Styro ducked under it, then had to back off when Hauzer followed with a kick, his talons sending Styro back in a roll.

Using that momentum, Hauzer snapped his teeth out at Styro, who caught the dragon's jaws in his hands, holding them open. Styro grunted, struggling with the massive being attempting to devour him.

"You've… ugn… gotten stronger…"

Hauzer understood the words, if not as language, then at least the feelings behind them. They only enraged him further.

He had not gotten stronger.

As Hauzer lifted Styro and tossed him aside, the Earth Dragon knew the truth. He had simply regained his true power. He was finally unleashed, ready to unleash hell.

Styro landed on a nearby building and started running, just before the building he'd been standing on began to crumble. The roof exploded in a burst of fire. Hauzer stood in the flames, his eyes glowing with power. Styro landed in front of him and stood tall, gazing upon Hauzer.

The pair eyed each other, one glaring, the other smiling just a bit. Then they rushed towards each other, slamming together with explosive force.

Yeah. The fight was gonna take a while.

* * *

 _ **Karl Lykos/Sauron**_

My name is Karl Lykos. When I was a child, my father, a famed paleontologist, took me to the Antarctic circle, a place called Tierra del Fuego on an expedition. With us came a man named Dr. Anderssen, who brought his medical skills… and his daughter.

Tanya. As a young man, Tanya was everything to me. As a child, I felt so alone. I went on expeditions with my father so often that I had no chance to speak with anyone else. All I had were my books and my father. So Tanya… she changed my life. She was smart as a whip. She was brave. And she was funny! Or at least, I thought so at the time.

In truth, my memories of Tanya become rather rose-colored as the years pass. But I can't help but remember those days fondly. Tanya and I in our tent, her white hair cut short, her blue-eyes flashing as we talked about Lord of the Rings, dinosaurs, and shared jokes a child finds hilarious.

We spent months in the Antarctic circle, playing together, reading, making plans for the future… one day, she kissed me. Because she wanted to. I only wish I could have been as brave as she was.

Because, in the end, Tanya was everything. And the beginning.

One day, she went missing. Our fathers went looking for her, telling me to stay behind. But I went anyway. And found her, impossibly, fighting a group of Pterosaurs in front of a cave. I wasn't as brave as her. But that day, for the first time, I did something courageous, charging in with a walking stick held high, to save the girl I loved, just like the heroes of my books.

It ended with me bitten, scratched, and hospitalized, deliriously screaming about prehistoric dinosaurs somehow alive and attacking us. That, in combination with Tanya hysterically trying to say the same thing, led to no one believing us. By the time I recovered… well, no one is easier to convince than a child. Tanya and I were left believing what we had seen was impossible. We must have been attacked by some other wild animals. Had made up the story.

We went back home. I continued my studies, sending mail to Tanya, though I have never seen her again. Then, one day, I began to feel sick. I was tired, sore, and dizzy. My dog, Jasper, tried to comfort me.

He was the first being I ever absorbed energy from. I managed to stop before he died, but he never saw me the same. Never approached me as eagerly.

I found my own feelings on that mixed. On the one hand, I was horrified that I had nearly killed my puppy. On the other… power. Pure, absolute power, filling a gaping hole in my chest I hadn't realized was there. It was as if I had been thirsty for years, and only now drank my first sips of water.

Sips. Not enough. Not nearly enough. My timid nature held me back. But my true self awoke under the scared child.

I began to experiment. First, with small animals, trying my best to control the intake. Many fish simply died in moments from my touch. But I soon got better. I moved up the ladder. I began to workout. Not to gain strength, but to have an excuse to be in the vicinity of men and women with incredible vitality as they became tired. I would brush up against them, take a portion of their energy, and not a single soul was hurt. This hunger inside me grew, even as I felt my own body, once so weak and small, grow in power as well.

Then… Tanya. She told me about her troubles with her father in a letter. That she was supposed to marry a man with the financial means to support her. She railed against the idea of marriage without love, without freedom. And I began to put my efforts towards medical school, focusing on a field that would make me a great amount of money.

I became a skilled hypnotherapist. I used that profession to become close to my patients, obtaining money even as I absorbed their vitality, even using medical technologies I created to make the process easier. I began to approach Tanya about the prospect of love. I met a man who opened my eyes to a greater world. I helped his students. I helped myself to their energy.

And it went off even better than I had hoped. One of his students awoke my true self! I still remember the pleasure of my human weakness burning away to reveal the man I had always been! I took a name befitting my power!

No more was I Karl Lykos! I was SAURON! Named for the symbol of power I respected most!

I took to my new gifts with ease, battling my enemies with brilliance, despite some minor defeats! Mere gravel on the path to my greatness!

But… my wishes began to change. My true destiny called me back to the place of my birth. To the distant lands that had made me.

I left America. I flew back to Tierra del Fuego and found my way further south. And soon, I found myself in the cave Tanya and I had been fighting in front of. I entered the cave. I followed the tunnels and soon reached my new home.

I used my knowledge of biology to make my children. I made a kingdom. I guided them in the lessons all other civilizations must learn. I watched, proudly, as my children rose to dominate their lands.

And then, he arrived.

Dial, the Outsider. A man with the ability to change into a seemingly harmless insect. An insect that has turned blocks of my home to rubble in moments. He is a beast with powers the likes of which I have never seen. His allies are much the same.

The ultimate test of my greatness!

I can feel my blood boiling as I follow him into an alley, breathing flames. He ran on top of one of those green orbs of his, spitting out more to explode behind him. I stopped when he turned a corner, landing on the ground to join him. The buildings around us began to fall. I raised my arms, the power I had absorbed from Dial flooding through my veins until it left in a flurry of silver light.

Instead of hitting the small insect, I found my beams splashing against a strange energy field made of purple energy. I was reminded of shields in the Star Trek show.

How fascinating! Wondrous even! I watched as the barrier fell apart to reveal the young woman who had come to Dial's aid. She was dressed rather scandalously. But then, it was none of my business what she chooses to wear.

What truly mattered was her powers.

I stood before her as she floated down to land on her high heels, her hands glowing with violet energy, her hair fluttering about.

"You will not touch him!" the young woman declared proudly. "Not without going through me!"

"Oh!?" I had to smile. She was serious. As she and Dial stood side-by-side, she looked positively enraged. "Is she your savior, Dial?"

"Some days," Dial responded while glaring at me with those alien eyes. "We switch it up."

"Then I suppose I can't be so rude as to ignore a lady's request!"

I beat my wings while jumping forth. I grabbed her by the neck and lifted off into the air in moments, absorbing the purple-clad woman's energy as I took off into the air.

Something… strange happened. While she struggled in my arms, and I flew higher up, I felt the energy I was absorbing fill me with power.

But it was not human. It wasn't even like my old friend's children. It was something dark. Something intoxicating. It entered and bolstered me like few things I'd ever seen. I hadn't felt so strong since I first turned to my true self.

And the girl. She wasn't getting tired. She raised a hand with a snarl of something that sounded Russian and blasted me back with a shockwave of pure energy.

I let her go and tumbled back. Someone was laughing. I was so intoxicated with power that it took a moment to realize it was me.

"My god! The strength within you, girl!" I stopped tumbling to spin around flying towards her hovering form.

"HOW DARE YOU!?" the girl raised her hands and spoke in a strange language. And for a moment, the world chilled. My children below could be seen shivering in the sudden chill that rose in the air, despite the fact the girl and I were hundreds of feet above them. I felt my limbs weaken. The girl said a final caustic word, her eyes glittering violet. Then she thrust her hands towards me. " _ **Burn."**_

A floating skull came from nothing. It seemed to rise from the air, like a hole had been opened in empty space. The skull was the size of a man, made of violet fire.

That was when I felt it.

Fear.

I was going to die. And there was nothing I could do.

The feeling sat in my heart, certain and focused. I felt my wings stop beating as I fell through the sky. A horrific heat began to burn me. My mind began to fad-

"WHAT!?" I shouted, realization filling me as my eyes snapped open.

 **DIE?** Before I had realized my dreams! Before I had seen my children rise to greatness! NEVER! I would turn death himself aside if it meant rising to the challenge!

" _ **RAAGH!"**_ the shadows fled my vision. I felt my skin beginning to burn under a purple flame that surrounded me. I ignored it with brilliance!

The skull! That was the source!

I released a proud call, silver light bursting from my skin, and blasted the skull. For a moment, we struggled. I felt it attacking my mind.

What folly! Mine is the mind of a genius, a warrior, someone who has known love, triumph, and failure that would kill lesser men! What was this sorcerous monster that my own life had not already set before me!?

I glared into the empty sockets of the specter. "Come specter! Let us see if you can stand against SAURON, LORD OF THE SKIES!" With that final defiant cry and a full force of my peerless strength, I unleashed the full blast of power! The skull stood for a moment, before shattering apart.

The girl reeled back, shouting in pain. I flew towards her, ready to finish the job, only for her to stop and blast at me with a purple beam I was forced to dodge.

"Most impressive!" I shouted at her, feeling as proud as if she was one of my children. She had spent herself, panting as she floated in the skies, sweat dripping off her, staggering. But still, she fought. "What is your name!?"

"Fantasma!" she hissed.

"Fantasma… I will remember you," I promised. Then I began to speed around her, flying even faster than I ever had before in my life, shooting beams of energy from my palms. She blocked the first two on purple shields of energy the shape of mandalas. Then I added my fires, forcing her to tax her energy stores further. I could see her gritting her teeth. Elated, I stopped flying to hover in front of her, fire and energy pouring onto her shields as she struggled. She began to slowly get pushed back. The mandalas were sputtering. Just a moment longer-

The familiar sound of green explosions distracted me. I looked away from Fantasma in time to dodge the silver being who attempted to punch me in the face. It was only as he passed me that I realized he had been aiming for Fantasma, catching her out of the air when she finally faltered. Then I saw a green ball fall in the man's wake.

I realized in a moment what had happened. Dial had used his explosive power to propel this metal man into the air and gave him a smaller one to hold. As he passed, the metal man had tossed the explosive my way.

I had enough time to raise my arms before the explosion sent shooting out of the sky, landing in front of a guard tower. Dial landed in front of me, followed by the silver man and Fantasma. The three-eyed me as I stood up. I was laughing.

"The fuck you laughing about?" the silver man said rudely.

I scoffed at his language, clasping my arms behind me. "I am amused, of course. And happy."

"About getting beat up?" Dial asked, cocking his head to the side.

"OF COURSE!" I laughed, ignoring Dial's small 'there he goes again' comment. "Don't you know? The most important part of this isn't me… it is the city. It's people. All fighting to defend it… from the monsters attacking it."

"What are you talking about?" Fantasma panted. "You enslave people, force them to fight in deadly battles."

"You've been gaslighting a city for decades," Dial growled. "Never telling them-"

"The truth…" I looked at the guard tower. "How serendipitous that we should land here…"

The three before me looked at the tower. Through the windows, we could see my people watching. Saur-Lords, humans, saurians, all staring at us. At them in fear. At me, with hope. They were too far to hear us speaking. But I knew what they thought we were saying.

I chuckled. "They have known no life but this. And now you come here. Invaders to our nation, killing and beating our guards. Trying to assassinate their leader with monstrous powers and abilities. You are villains, come to kill, rampage, and force your ideals upon us."

"Because you never showed them a better way!" Dial shouted.

"And your way is best?" I raised an eyebrow, my amusement fading. "You could have left… This nation may have treated you incorrectly, I will admit that. But you have no need to continue fighting. Go," I nodded towards a nearby gate.

"I-" Dial began to say. He stopped, staring at me.

"Ah… I see. Stend," I nodded slowly. "You wish to kill him."

Fantasma and the silver man looked down at Dial. He didn't speak.

"So… you are attacking me, terrorizing my people, destroying my city, for revenge. These people have nothing to do with your anger. They are innocent, their only crime being raised in a primitive society. And now? What will the outside world think? When they hear that you brought a city of indigenous people to their knees out of a grudge?"

Dial's eyes widened as I spoke. He stared at me. I could read his pain. I could only guess at what he was realizing.

This would not end well. He may well get his revenge. But this city would stand. It would rail against those who had attacked it, against whatever organization he worked for. The outside world, as well, did not look well on armies attacking tribal nations with superior force.

"I must say… for your vengeance, Dial? You have managed to destroy the homes, lives, and families of many others," I shook my head. "I have my sins. But they do not negate yours."

Dial was staring at the tower, at the civilians and guards watching. I looked as well.

That was when I saw it… The girl. The young raptor who had been with her mother earlier. She was leaning out of a window, screaming something while tears fell from her eyes. She was calling out her support to me, distraught. It made sense. I was covered in burns and bruises. She was worried about me-

The child leaned out too far. I stared, horrified, as she began to tumble from the window. My arms spread out, and I leaped for her. Too far, I needed to be faster! I had to save her! I reached out, beating my wings desperately-

A blue blur came from my left. I had enough time to watch the girl disappear from my vision. Then the wind blasted past me. I tumbled, still reaching out, then slid to a stop.

A figure knelt near the guard tower. He was covered in blue fur, his body shaped like a human man. He was clutching the small raptor-girl to his chest. She was shaking, crying as she held him for comfort.

"...thank you," the man said. His eyes opened. They were bright piercing green. "I forgot. At some point, in all the… mess, what my life is. I forgot what I am. A hero," he looked down at the child in his arms. "I protect the people who need it. At some point, I got so focused on revenge. On Stend. On you for creating this place. I wanted to hurt someone. But I could have done it a better way. Without hurting you," the last sentence was said to the raptor child, who he gently placed on the floor, making sure she could stand on her own. As she stopped clutching to him, I finally saw the symbol on his chest.

Dial. This man was Dial.

The catman he had become smiled at the girl. "You have any parents?"

The raptor girl sniffed tearily. "Mommy," she said, looking at the tower. We could hear someone inside calling desperately to her as a scuffle went on.

Dial nodded. "Okay," he patted her head. "Go to your mother."

"N-No!" she sniffed. "Stop hurting Lord Sauron!"

He shook his head. "Heh…" He gave me a look. "I will. But we need to finish talking first… And I'm sorry kid. But I'm not giving you a choice. After all. The job of a hero is to protect people."

Another blue blur. I released a beam his way, but he was already gone. Before I could do anything else, he hit me in the face with incredible speed! I heard the doors to the guard tower open and blearily noted the raptor girl in the arms of her mother again.

Dial was next to his friends again.

"Done with your little crisis?" the silver man asked him.

"No," Dial responded. "I screwed up. Guys. Mind helping me make-up for it?"

Fantasma smiled. "I do not. I get the feeling it will be a regular occurrence."

I rose to my full height. "So. You have more power than I thought!"

He chuckled. "Oh yeah," he looked down at the green symbol on his chest.

"And what now? Dial, the Outsider?" I asked.

* * *

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

I had screwed up. I'd been so obsessed with getting Stend. With destroying the center of power of the place I'd gotten stabbed and tortured in, that I had decided a whole city was worth my anger.

Then… that girl. She'd been crying, reaching out for Sauron. Her mom was behind her doing the same. Then she'd slipped. And everything crystallized for me. I tried to speed towards her. Fantasma reached out. Creel got ready to jump. Sauron spread his wings.

And in me, something shifted. Maybe literal. Maybe just mental.

I'd proven I could fight on my own. But at heart, I needed a reminder of who I was. A hero. Someone who saved, no matter what. She was falling from the window. And I could see the fear in her eyes. Her scales glittered with tears as she reached desperately for her mother, who screamed.

In that heartbeat, I didn't care about Stend, Sauron, or me. She was afraid, in danger. And I wanted to save her.

The Omnitrix glowed. And fur erupted across my body. I was Fasttrack in-between steps, transforming and running forward in the same breath. And when I saved her, I felt all the disquiet in my heart, all the rage and shame, disappear.

Now I was standing with my friends, across from Sauron. I looked at the Omnitrix. It was glowing on my blue-furred chest.

"And what now? Dial, the Outsider?" Sauron asked me.

"...Karl. You have no idea what you've been fighting," I said, looking at Creel and Fantasma. "You called yourself Sauron. Fine. This is my fellowship," I waved at them. "And I'm the hobbit," I tapped the Omnitrix as I spoke. "Guess what the ring is?"

Sauron, to his credit, was already flying upwards. But I had already become the wolf.

As Blitzwolfer, I howled at him. _**"▅▅▅▂▅▂▄▅▃▃▄!"**_ The unholy blast of sound hit him with physical force, sending him back as he screamed in pain, clutching his ears. Creel and I jumped for him, but he dived out of the way, spinning off to fly away. Fantasma followed, blasting at him, while Creel and ran on the ground. He fired beams of energy at us, which I dodged, running on all fours and returning with soundwave blasts. Creel just tanked the blasts, running through them to finally leap upwards and grab Sauron by the ankle.

"Off, damn you!" Sauron shouted, lifting upwards as Creel clung to him.

"Not a chance!" Creel shouted back, shifting to a denser metal as Sauron struggled.

Fantasma and I came in, her floating down and me jumping up to blast Sauron. He fired his silver beams and fire at us but was still sent spinning back, jarring Creel off of him at the same time.

"Out of the city!" I shouted at Fantasma. She nodded while breathing hard.

Then I changed back into Fasttrack form and ran forward. I grabbed Sauron as he was falling and blasted forth while carrying. Realizing what was happening as we approached the city limits and the jungle, he breathed flame again, blasting beams of energy from his palms. I shouted as my fur burned, but kept going.

We hit the city limits before I let him go, letting him bounce ahead of me while I ungracefully skidded to a stop. With a thought, I changed into one final form. For nostalgia's sake, I shouted out the name of the transformation. The one that had been my very first.

" _ **Swampfire!"**_

I clenched plant fists and sighed happily. "Man… I missed this guy."

"You…" Sauron struggled to his feet. He had a grin on his face. "What has happened to the world beyond… to require warriors of your caliber?"

"Honestly. HYDRA came back."

"...Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"That is disgusting," he said sourly. "I hope they are swiftly destroyed."

Huh. I guess evil really does have standards.

Then he took a deep breath and breathed fire. Couldn't blame him. I was made of plants after all, and you didn't have to be a Pokemon fan to know what that meant.

So the look in his eyes when I raised my hands and released my own flames must have surprised him. Our two streams of fire met in the middle, then poured out from each other. The temperature rose around us. I felt my body produce more and more of the gases I was igniting. I guided the flames, forcing them to get hotter. Hotter. My plant body adjusted to the insane heat, even as my flames started to become more precise, more focused. Soon, Sauron was struggling to push my fires back.

He didn't seem ready to give up though. He raised his hands, both sprouting that silver energy he was able to project, and sent twin beams of power at me.

I wasn't too worried about it though since I'd seen my friends coming to join me. Creel dropped down next to me and caught one of the beams against his chest, while Fantasma flew down and blocked the other on one of her defensive mandalas.

Sauron didn't stop using his beams, forcing Creel and Fantasma to keep defending. He held us there for a moment. I was forced to partially grow my feet into the ground for more support. Creel's silver form reflected all of us. Me in Swampfire gritting non-existent teeth as I blew fire from my palms, the vines in my arms moving as they constantly regenerated under the heat. Fantasma holding off fire and energy beams with a look of determination on her face, her mandala's sparking under the power assaulting them. Sauron breathing flame and blasting energy our way, his eyes slowly glowing.

"Don't look in his eyes!" I shouted as an afterthought.

"We know!" Creel shouted before he grunted as he was sent back a step. "Holy shit, is he getting stronger!?"

"YEEEESS!" Sauron roared, though I guessed he wasn't shouting it as a reply. He stopped breathing fire, instead bringing his hands forth and blasting a single beam of pure silver energy. The beam sliced through the fire I was blasting to smash into Creel and Fantasma's beams. "This is wonderful!"

"I have never hated a compliment more!" Fantasma shouted.

"Split up!" I shouted. "I'm almost ready!"

"Hope you know what you're doing!" Creel said, spinning past the giant beam of destruction. "Come on asshole, give me all you've got!"

"You are extremely rude," Sauron scoffed, blasting Creel once more. When the beam only bounced off of his vibranium form, Sauron instead shot the ground under Creel, sending him stumbling. "You are quite fast. So that metal of yours must be rather light right about now…" Sauron mused while speeding forward to grab Creel by the shoulders and tossing him high into the air with a display of superhuman strength.

"Fuck!" Creel shouted as he flew back, landing in the wall surrounding the city.

I stood at the edge of the jungle and began to toss seedpods into it while releasing bursts of gas from my palms, spreading them into the trees, bushes, and vines. I felt the jungle's metaphorical heartbeat slowly fill me as Fantasma flew down to confront Sauron behind me.

"I must confess, young lady," Sauron said while dodging an energy blast. "You've recovered rather well from being absorbed by me. How is that possible? I took enough from you to power a city. And yet, here you are, still fighting."

"Magic," Fantasma scoffed, raising her left hand to create one of her purple swords.

Sauron ducked under a sword slice and raised his right hand to counter Fantasma's energy beam with one of his own. "Truly? Or are you simply being facetious?"

"Both," Fantasma grit out, blocking one of his beams with her mandala. Creel ran in then, tossing a boulder at Sauron. Sauron blasted the boulder out of the air, only to widen his eyes when he was forced to dodge Creel's follow up haymaker. Fantasma looked at me. "Dial, hurry up!"

"I'm ready!" I shouted back.

"As am I," Sauron snarled, spinning back. "ENOUGH! I will not be brought down without a fight! THE LORD OF THE SKIES WILL BE VICTORIOUS!"

"Who gives a fuck!?" Creel shouted in response.

Sauron stared at him for a long moment. "..."

That was when the Pterosaur-man began to glow. "Uh oh," I said softly.

He let out another roar. Then he exploded. That was the only comparison I had. Waves of silver energy sliced out from his body in a cacophony of the air being split, the rocks and dirt under us shattering and burning away. Creel was sent flying back, spinning through the air before grabbing the ground, screaming as he was bashed at all sides by pure energy. Fantasma raised her mandalas into a pair of shields in front of her, only for both to shatter after a moment, sending her back into a wall. For fifty feet around him, Sauron created a field of energy that sent us flying back.

Except for me. When the waves of energy hit me, I only had time to widen my eyes. Then I was being ripped apart. My whole body became nothing more than ash as the wave of silver energy passed over me.

He kept that up for a moment longer. Then, slowly, the wave of energy petered out. When he was done, Sauron stood in a crater, panting with his arms spread out. He looked around. "Incredible," he said between gulping breaths. "Incredible."

"...Are you… complimenting yourself?" Creel asked.

Sauron's eyes widened as Creel slowly rose out of the earth. His body was still silver. He looked tired, but none the worse for wear. "How?"

"...Vibranium," Creel said softly. "It's immune to everything."

Sauron tried to say something else. I raised a single sprout of my body behind him, then grew into my full Swampfire form in mere moments. He somehow sensed me in time to spin around and slice out with his claws. I let his hand pierce my chest, then hardened the plants there, momentarily trapping him in place as I glared down at him.

"Like you said before you pulled some Dragon Ball shit. Enough!"

From the jungle beyond, they shot under the ground before popping up around him. Sauron stared around in surprise as trees grew up into the sky, the work of centuries happening in seconds. Then vines snapped out to grab him, wrapping around each limb. "No! Unhand me!"

"Not today," I narrowed my eyes. "Happy Arbor Day."

Then the forest I'd created came down around him. Sauron, in a roar of defiance, began to fight back. He sliced with his claws, breathed out fire, blasted out beams of energy. But I kept pushing the plants to grow and grow, to move in as he tore them apart. Then I moved in.

He sliced my right arm off, so I punched him with my left while growing back the other. He tried to fly up and out, only to find a canopy made of branches as thick as cars blocking his path. A tree the size of a building grew next to him before creating more of a net above.

Creel was on that tree. The second he was close enough, he leaped off it and grabbed Sauron by both ankles, pulling him back down until they landed on a branch. Sauron blasted a wave of energy at Creel, tossing him back a bit and sending wooden splinters and leaves flying. Fantasma dropped in and hit him with a wave of purple energy. Sauron tried to hit her back, but I grew a branch that blocked him off before more vines snapped out to grab him. When Sauron turned to block them, I landed beside Fantasma and Creel. The forest grew so thick that the only illumination came from Fantasma and Sauron's powers. I was on my last legs by now. I think Creel and Fantasma felt the same.

Sauron stared at us as we approached, vines wrapping tighter and thicker around him. When he blasted out more fire, it was weaker now, easily blocked by Creel. He tried for another energy beam, but the vines tightened further. He smiled.

"Well… I suppose this isn't so bad," he sighed.

"...You sure you don't have some more second winds in you?" Creel asked, panting.

"Yeah, you've been like the Energizer Bunny all fight," I added in Swampfire's nasally voice.

"Don't encourage him," Fantasma grumbled.

Sauron chuckled tiredly. "No… After many years, I believe I am, for once, exhausted to my bones. And satisfied. This fight… my people will remember it for decades… So. Will you kill me, Dial?"

I felt my hold over the vines wrapped around him. They were growing very strong now. And everybody, no matter how strong, can get their neck snapped with enough force. Still, I shook my head after an internal struggle. "Not if you're beaten."

"I am," he said without a hint of shame. He seemed as proud and regal as ever somehow, even wrapped head to toes in vines. "That is too bad, however. If you'd killed me, I could have become a martyr. But this is more satisfying. I'll be able to see the effects of this adventure in person."

"No," Fantasma snarled. "You will be in a cell, as a US citizen who enslaved dozens if not hundreds, and who was complicit in the kidnapping of an Avenger. You will _never_ see the light of day again, otherwise."

Creel and I looked at her. I think we were both surprised at how… vicious, she sounded. After some time around her, I'd started to forget the short witch I'd befriended was also a Russian soldier. Less Hermione, more Dresden. Both were good guys, but one had killed a heck of a lot more badasses.

"Never?" Sauron chuckled. "I'm sure that seems like a horrific threat, young one. But I think I'll keep some secrets to myself for now."

I glared at him. Finally, I stepped forward and raised a fist. "I'm going to knock you out now."

I landed a right punch that shook the leaves from the branches around us. Sauron's head snapped to the side. He coughed some blood, then turned to smile at me. "Close. You may need to-"

I hit him again. He laughed. "Damnit, go to sleep!"

My final punch sent him, still laughing into his slumber. I sighed in relief.

Finally. Sauron had been the toughest fight I'd ever had. It felt like I was taking on an anime protagonist. Full of speeches, grandeur, and fucking second winds. I finally felt some sympathy for Vegeta. It's annoying when the guy who is kicking your ass also keeps getting stronger as he does it.

"This guy is crazy," Creel mumbled.

I turned to look at Fantasma and Creel, about to speak, when I suddenly had to catch Fantasma as she wrapped me in a hug. "Eh! Fantasma! What-"

"We thought you died," she said against my chest.

I stilled. When I looked up at Creel, he was slowly turning back into his flesh form. He walked up to join us. We looked at each other awkwardly for a moment as Fantasma continued to hug me before I wrapped my arms around her.

"Sorry…"

"...You stink," she sniffled.

I laughed, honestly surprised, and looked back at Creel. He smiled, shrugging. "She's right. Swampfire ain't the best smelling alien."

"Yeah, well," I looked around at the forest. In mere seconds, I'd created life that would take thousands of years to grow, making the very landscape attack Sauron. "He makes up for it."

Fantasma let me go, stepping back to look up at me. "You were gone for so long. I'm glad you're okay," she said with a small smile.

I smiled back sadly. "Sorry I worried you guys. I-I'm really damn glad to see you again. It's been a tough couple of days."

Creel patted my shoulder in a manly fashion. "Same here. Stop getting tossed into rivers, okay?"

"Not like I planned on it," I grumbled.

"Don't let him fool you," Fantasma smirked. "He spent a lot of time in the jungle yelling your name. It was so cute!"

"Fantasma!" Creel shouted.

I grinned at Creel, who looked like he was desperately holding onto his too-cool-for-school attitude. "Awwww. I love you too, big guy!"

"Shut up! I wish you'd died in the jungle!"

"Creel!" Fantasma said, sounding scandalized.

I grinned at the pair, then looked at the city. My smile faded when I noted the fires in the distance. "We aren't done yet."

Fantasma and Creel looked in the same direction, their own faces soon reflecting my seriousness.

"What's the plan?" Creel asked.

"We make sure our people get out, then we get out," I said.

"Just like that?" Creel looked at me. "Don't you have someone you want to kill?"

Fantasma looked at me as well. The pair didn't speak as I turned to where Sauron was tied up and mentally forced the vines to cocoon around him until he had become a bundle that I then brought to my shoulder.

"Maybe… Would you guys stop me if I decided that was what I wanted?" I asked them, finally looking in their eyes.

Fantasma shook her head. "I understand. I am Russian, Mahmoud. We know the importance of revenge."

I looked at Creel. He hesitated. "...If you do it, make sure no one is around but us. We'll keep it quiet."

I didn't know how to respond to that. Instead, I just mentally told a set of vines to grow into a platform for us. We got onto the platform and began lowering down to the ground as I thought of my next plans.

"... What is 'Arbor Day?'" Fantasma asked all of a sudden, looking at me.

"It's a holiday where people grow trees," I said.

Creel cocked his head to the side. "... You should have said-"

"Got wood, right?" I rolled my eyes, trying not to start laughing my green ass off. "Thanks for the advice, Seth MacFarlane."

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ Seriously, Happy Arbor Day is a great one line when using trees as weapons. More seriously, this whole story arc is about to end. And in some ways, the first stage of Dial as a story. Things have been rather crazy this whole arc. That said, I've had a shit-ton of fun writing it man.


	99. Chapter 99

_Hauzer/The Earth Dragon_

Hauzer and Styro had been at it for a long time. Now, Hauzer's left leg was twisted slightly out of alignment, while his right arm hung dislocated. Blood dripped slowly from a series of cuts across his chest, and several of his teeth had been knocked loose, allowing magma to drip freely from the gaping holes left behind. The molten liquid scorched the earth under him, making him look less like a dragon or dinosaur, and more like a demon that had sprouted out of hell.

Styro stood across from him, standing in the rubble of a building. The yellow ceratopsid's scales had been scorched off in massive patches. One of his horns had been ripped out at some point, leaving the wound to leak blood down to drip off his horn. His clothes were gone now, armor stripped.

Hauzer glared at Styro. Styro, on the other hand, simply took deep breaths.

"...North."

Hauzer stopped glaring to blink in confusion.

"After this. Go north," Styro said simply. He stepped forward, almost stumbling, but somehow getting back to his feet.

Hauzer thought about that. For less than a breath. Then he roared, breathing a plume of fire. Styro watched the burst of red heat approach.

Then he ran forward, eyes narrowed against the intense heat. He dived into the intense heat with no regard for his safety. His scales, more durable than Kevlar, burned and peeled away. His muscles were charred. His wounds were sealed by the heat. And he ran forward before leaping up into the air, punching Hauzer in the face. As Hauzer stumbled back, Styro grabbed onto his opponent's shoulder and began to punch him in the chest. Hauzer, in response, twisted around to grab Styro's leg, teeth crunching into charred flesh, then pulled him around toss him into a building.

The Saur-Lord was no longer entirely yellow. Massive portions of his skin had been charred black. He looked like hell. And yet, his eyes still burned with fury.

Stryo, his burned skin ripping open, leaped forward head first, bashing his forehead into Hauzer's. Hauzer bulldozed forward as stars filled his eyes from the painful blow, ignoring the headache to run through a building with Styro on his held on tight as he was forced through several walls. He raised a powerful fist and punched Hauzer, the cooked flesh on his knuckles scraping off to leave a dark charcoal and blood mark across Hauzer's face.

Hauzer didn't stop running until they had based entirely through the building, leaving Styro to be thrown off of his nose. As Styro fell, Hauzer roared.

 _"SKREEEONGK!"_

Styro landed on his back, bounced upward. Hauzer took his left arm in his mouth and raised him high before slamming him into the earth once more, cratering it. Styro punched him with his right arm with intense force, but Hauzer refused to let go. As Styro grabbed and pulled at him with desperate strength, Hauzer raised him up and smashed him into the earth again and again, sending shockwaves through the earth.

Styro didn't laugh. But as he fought, a sickening grin grew on his face, accompanied by the crackle of burnt flesh.

Hauzer's rage erupted at the sight of him smiling. With another horrendous roar, he let go of Styro and moved back, before leaping onto a nearby building, leaping two stories. Styro continued to smile as he watched Hauzer moving to finish him.

Hauzer leaped off the building, coming down towards Stryo like a several ton meteor. He breathed a plume of fire as he dropped, the immense flames surrounding him until he glowed red hot. Then he landed, talons first, on top of Styro. The flaming dragon's exploded on impact with Styro. The last thing Hauzer saw of Styro as he landed was his hated enemy's smile fading away. Then he slowly faded to ash before the immense heat. A taloned foot smashed into his corpse, sending the ashes flying about.

The flames continued to rage around him in the crater Hauzer had created. He stared down at where his enemy had once laid.

Hauzer was intelligent. He understood revenge quite clearly. And now he had it. Weeks of imprisonment, torture, starvation, forced to fight to the death. All with Styro watching calmly, taking pleasure in what he had done.

If anyone ever told Hauzer that revenge was unsatisfying, he would have laughed as only a proud dragon could. Revenge was wonderful. It filled him with a fierce and enveloping glee. It had been hard won, leaving him with bruises, shattered bones, massive wounds, his energy waning. But he had won. He had won!

Hauzer raised his head to the sky, staring at the moon above. He roared, the flames around him blown away by the volume of his cry, his throat vibrating with muscle as he let the world know of his dominance.

And everyone in the guard towers and shelters of the city cowered in fear.

* * *

 _Mahmoud Schahed/Dial_

"What the fuck was that!?" Creel said as we walked along carrying Sauron.

The sound of Godzilla mixed with a supernova split the air for a long moment. The ground shook moments before that, with a small sun showing up in the distance before it faded, and now it sounded like Blitzwolfer, Echo-Echo, and Black Canary were having a shout-off mere feet from us.

I looked at Creel and Fantasma, wincing. "Oh yeah. I forgot about that… So. I made a friend. Well, ally. Of convenience, ya know?"

We continued walking for a while. Fantasma kept looking at me like I should explain further, but I decided to leave that alone. I had another issue on my mind.

I kept it to myself for now, simply circling the thought through my mind.

We soon had left the city entirely. The three (four with Sauron, who was peacefully lying in my vines), walked through the jungle for several minutes.

I felt tired. That was odd. I'd never felt tired in alien form, at least not to this point. But now, as Swampfire, I was a little weary. Physically I could probably continue to fight, but whatever my plant powers ran on, they had been strained. I'd regenerated myself from absolute destruction three times during Sauron's outburst, which hadn't been that much of a strain. But making an entire forest, trading blows with Sauron, blasting fire strong enough to match him, it all took a toll over time. The closest human equivalent was a long jog. Which, yeah, wasn't too bad, but still weird to feel that without just turning back into human form.

We finally entered into a clearing. I placed Sauron on the ground, then looked around. "Nobody else is here, huh?"

"The Quinjet is waiting to support us just in case," Creel explained. He moved over to a stump and sat down heavily. "But all of those guys you wanted us to save got out. Last I know, the charges were set."

"...blow them," I said at last.

"You sure?" Creel asked me.

"We cleared the arena, right?"

Creel turned away to press a finger to his ear, listening to the voice on the other side. Finally he looked up at me. "All the civilians either joined us or left. And the guards left the second the Quinjet cloaked. Apparently they're trying to hunt us down in the city."

He sounded amused. I couldn't blame him, since the image was kind of funny.

I hesitated for a brief moment. Creel and Fantasma watched as I turned to look in the direction of the city. Then, I nodded. "Blow them. Now. Take it out."

Creel pressed a finger to his ear again. "You heard the man. Light the fireworks."

In the distance, the charges set by me as Ball Weevil lay peacefully around the arena, hidden away. Then, the C4 I'd told the BRIDGE soldiers to lay as they fought began to explode. Those blew up the Ball Weevil plasma.

And so, in the distance, the sound of a series of explosions, almost puny compared to all the other noise of the night, was followed by the sound of a building crumbling.

"Not as massive as I thought it would be," Fantasma said softly.

"Demolition is precise destruction," I explained. "The arena had dozens of tunnels under it, so most of them have now collapsed, tearing apart the structure they had been supporting. The wood has ignited throughout the arena thanks to extreme heat. And the main arena is pretty much a crater. As of now, that big place is gone, in all the ways that matter… didn't even get to see it go," I mused to myself.

I turned to look at the two. My friends had complicated looks on their faces. I smirked. "I feel… well, pretty good, to be honest. I could use a fucking burger when we get home though."

Creel grinned, while Fantasma sighed in annoyance.

The trees parted nearby. And Hauzer stepped forth.

The instant his head popped from the trees, Creel had turned into vibranium, spinning up to face the dragon in a fighting stance, while Fantasma raised two magic shields.

"Holy shit!" Creel shouted, watching Hauzer slowly prowl forward.

I walked up to Hauzer. "Hey. How'd it go?"

Hauzer grumbled, huffing, before smirking down at me. The Omnitrix didn't translate his speech as words but as meanings. In this case, it was easy. He'd won, got his revenge, and was incredibly satisfied.

"He's very expressive," Fantasma noted, staring up at him in awe. Seeing that he wasn't attacking, she began to lower her arms. I subtly waved for her to keep her guard up, and she raised the mandala's again.

Hauzer noticed. He scoffed at the pair, then looked down at me. He wanted to know what happened now. Would I fight him as well? Try to enslave him, go back on our deal. Because it wouldn't end well if I did.

I shook my head. "I'm just respecting you as a possible enemy. But I don't want you as one. If you want, I can try to take you somewhere. But you can do what you want, Hauzer," he stared at me questioningly. "Hey, I got you your revenge, didn't I?"

That seemed to be enough. With a bark and a small roar, he turned to walk away. Before he did, he looked over his shoulder to growl something at me.

"...Don't know yet," was all I could say to that question.

He rolled his massive eyes, roared again, and lopped off into the jungle.

"What the fuck was that about?" Creel asked, sounding spooked.

"He said that revenge is sweet," I said softly, thinking about what the meaning of that statement was.

Hauzer headed north, leaving the three of us to awkwardly watch him go off.

Soon enough, the Quinjet dropped down to join us, landing in the clearing. The back opened, and I could see the inside was packed full of people.

"How the hell did you fit everyone in there?" I asked the BRIDGE soldier who came out to greet us. He came to a stop before me and smiled up at me.

"Well, it wasn't easy, sir," he said respectfully. "We had to use two Quinjets. And your rock friend taxed our engines a bit. Gotta say, sir, it's damn good to see you again."

I nodded at him in my Swampfire form, looking at the Quinjet, where Demi, Gresh, Gena, and a few others walked out to join us. I ignored them to look back at the forest, though I did hear it when Demi, on seeing Creel in his vibranium form, let out a small gasp.

Kraven came from the direction of the city next. He was dragging something behind him. It took me a second to recognize the corpse of Pter. Kraven was covered in cuts, bruises, grinning ear to ear through teeth soaked in blood.

Pter had a hole in his chest over his heart though, so Kraven looked pretty good in comparison.

"You have fun?" Fantasma asked her fellow Russian blandly.

Kraven chuckled. "Yes. And even in the end, so did he," Kraven tossed the body forward, letting Pter's corpse flop onto the ground. "The hunt is only worth the opponent. And this has been a _beautiful_ hunt."

I ignored him as well. Instead, I watched X step out of the forest next. Everyone stilled as the android came towards us dragging a body as well. This one was breathing though.

Stend. His arms shattered, his tail bent oddly, blood pouring from his lips, his chest weakly rising and falling. He looked almost as dead as Pter was. Almost.

Not enough.

"Dial," X said, finally stopping in front of me. He dropped Stend, who didn't respond.

I looked him over. Still in very good shape. X had a few small marks, but nothing that couldn't be buffed out. "How'd it go?"

"He was not receptive, pardner," X said, his southern American accent a touch stronger than normal.

"Hn."

I moved to look at Stend. He met eyes with me.

And slowly, carefully, he tried to reach out. He gasped weakly, pain filling his eyes. But that pain was outstripped by the hatred. "-ill… ill. K-" he coughed. I got the gist.

"How pathetic is that?" I sighed. "You can't even… I cannot believe what a waste of time you ended up being, Stend," his hatred burned deeper in his eyes. His broken arms made clicking noises as he kept trying to reach for my throat, but could barely lift his arms.

I lowered down to his level. As I did, I transformed. From Swampfire, to human. I didn't pay attention to the reactions of those around me, just focused on him. I did note that my arms had healed, though they were still sore.

Stend and I kept our eyes locked on each other, him hateful, me disgusted.

"I can't even hate something as worthless as you anymore. Sauron, the guy you wanted to replace, begged me to save you, the weakest of his children he said," a lie. But a dig in with a knife. "And honestly, if I gave a damn…"

I raised a hand toward the BRIDGE soldier. "Knife, please."

He hesitated, looking worried. Then he took the blade from his belt and put it in my hand. I brought the blade to Stend's throat in a smooth motion, the blade cutting just a bit into his scales. Stend froze. Fear entered his gaze. A harsh and bitter part of me relished in that fear.

"I almost forgot who I was," I mused. I dug the blade in more. Blood spurted from the tip. "All the people you hurt. The way you stabbed me, choked me. Not knowing, in truth, that the petty amount of power you had was shit. Your way of living was shit. You, in fact, are shit."

I took the blade and tossed it back to the soldier, who seemed relieved. The Savage Landers, BRIDGE soldiers, and my fellow Avengers watched as I stood. "I'm leaving you here. Die, don't, I give less than a shit. But the next time you hurt someone, you don't get a day to regret it. I'll kill you. And it won't be personal, it won't be in a life or death battle. I'll come down from the sky, snap your neck, and move on with my life."

Stend hissed something at me. I gave less than a shit.

"Come on," I headed towards the Quinjet, ignoring Stend.

"Mahmoud," Fantasma whispered as I passed. I looked at her. She was staring oddly at me, worried. "You… you have scars."

I blinked at her, not understanding. Then, my Omnitrix let out a series of beeps. I looked down at the half-melted device to see the entire watch, not just the dial, but even the parts that had been melted, glowing green, with black striations through it like a circuit board. I stared at it in wonder as the watch began to shift and move, the Omnitrix growing across my wrist to change its shape.

I'd seen this in the cartoons. In Alien Force, when Ben put on the watch again, the Omnitrix had changed into a more streamlined version. Except, instead of becoming smaller, the Omnitrix was growing, coming up along my arm until it covered the back of my left arm like a bracer. Soon, I was standing in a loincloth, barefoot, staring down at an omnitrix that now extended across my arm, the portion with the actual dial that was my name sake covering the center. It finished to reveal a smooth texture, like armor out of a sci-fi movie.

Creel stepped forward, tapping the Omnitrix on the metal part. His arm changed to match the color, and he blinked in surprise. "It's… different. I mean, still made of the same stuff, but it's like the alloy has been modified somehow."

"Is that supposed to happen?" Fantasma asked me curiously.

The correct answer was, 'how the fuck should I know?' I wasn't even sure why it had done that in Alien Force for crying out loud, let alone why it had transformed for me. My best guess was that it was reacting to the initial damage it had taken from the Anti-Metal, and it did that by not just repairing itself, but turning into a form that was able to resist the effects.

But I could feel the eyes of the Savage Landers on me. They all looked awed at yet another miraculous event happening, before Gresh began to look up at me. I had to remember that these guys respected me. So I couldn't just admit that I had no clue what was happening. Better to pretend the Omnitrix changing forms was part of some big plan.

I only smirked and walked toward the Quinjet. "Yeah. Felt like a change."

Fantasma and Creel hurried to follow me. She was giving me a very bland look as she whispered. "You have no idea why it did that, do you?"

"Nope," I admitted freely.

I stepped fully into the Quinjet and looked back at everyone. "We made it out. But now you have a choice," I looked at Demi, Gresh, and the German Guy, stopping on Gena, whose single wing fluttered behind her, then at the group of around ten Savage Landers behind them. "You can go to your homes. Or you can come with us, and we'll make sure to help you. In fact… if you want, you can even join us."

God, I was bullshitting so much right then. I had no idea if Director Hill would be down to have the Savage Landers join BRIDGE's team in the Savage Land. But I was pretty sure having natives help with understanding the place and acting as guides could only help.

"How about it guys?" I asked the group, smiling widely while raising the Omnitrix and clenching my fist. "Come with us, and I'll introduce you to the wonder of guns, reality television, and badass superheroes."

"Can…" Gresh stepped forward, looking hesitant. He looked down at the 'A' symbol he'd painted on his chest. "Can we become Avengers?"

Huh. I'm getting pretty good at making speeches.

* * *

Later, after a shower, change of clothes, and some damn good food, I stood in front of a hologram emitter in the BRIDGE base, wearing a BRIDGE shirt, military pants, and steel-toed boots, the Omnitrix glittering in its new form on my arm. Director Maria Hill was being projected in almost picture-perfect quality, with only a few glitches. I explained, in detail, as much as I could about the situation I'd gotten into, trying to stick to the facts the way Cap and Nat had taught me to deliver reports, but I think she noticed whenever I felt ready to punch something and had to calm down.

Still, I got through the whole tale soon enough. When I finished, Director Hill just eyed me for a long moment. Finally she spoke.

"First, Mahmoud. It's good to have you back," she smiled. "We were all worried. I had to have guards set on Ruby so that she wouldn't try to escape and find you, especially after she found X had done it."

That honestly surprised me. While Ruby had seemed to be more comfortable around me, she never struck me as particularly caring. I was more of a guy to grab books from at best. Then again, that might have just been a teenager being a teenager.

"Regardless, I'm glad I don't have to worry about any other Avengers or BRIDGE personnel chasing after you," Director Hill looked closer at me. "Are you really okay? I've never seen you with a scar before."

I touched my face. I'd forgotten that, during my battles, I'd ended up with several cuts. Now, the one I'd gained from when the Pterosaur-gladiator had sliced open my right cheek had 'healed' into an ugly mark. Another one went up next to my eye on the left side of my face, though it had healed as a much cleaner line. That would take getting used to.

Along with that, I had some claw marks across my abs, a stab mark in my shoulder, some in my chest. I'd had to stop before my shower to stare in shock at the mirror when I realized what I looked like. Since arriving in this universe and finally meeting the Avengers, I'd trained, fought, and eventually ended up here. Now, I was covered in new muscles I hadn't found before. I looked like… well, like a superhero. And my new scars made me look like Conan the Barbarian's bearded brother.

"I think that my scars were healing already. And when I changed into Swampfire, I just, well, finished the job," I explained to her, my fingers running over the portion of smoother than normal skin that had been left.

She quirked an eyebrow. "Hm. So you won't get anymore, as far as we know. Which means I can have it seem like you're more vulnerable than you really are."

"I'm pretty damn vulnerable," I said with a small snort.

"Not according to the rest of the world," Director Hill crossed her arms. "Dial. Mahmoud. I need to be frank with you-"

"I thought you were Maria?" I joked. She wisely ignored that.

"I was worried about your disappearance from the perspective of a friend. But I'm also the director of BRIDGE. So I had to think on what your sudden disappearance could mean on a larger scale. And I'll be honest. It wasn't good."

"Larger scale?"

"...I'm trying to figure out how to tell you this without giving you an ego big enough to rival Tony's."

That was enough to make any amusement I felt fade. She looked like she'd been dealing with a hell of a lot lately. I tried my best to joke anyways.

"Just hit me. I'm pretty sure one of the people I love will pop my ego soon enough. _Especially_ Tony."

Maria nodded seriously. "The fact is, you've had an effect on the world. When the Avengers were formed, the world was changed. They suddenly realized that the universe was so much bigger than we thought. But we had heroes to protect us. Tony, Steve, Nat, they're not just heroes. They symbolize so much more now."

She shook her head. "And now, there's you… You and your aliens. Able to shift into one of dozens of beings. Mahmoud, you may not be as famous as the first Avengers team, but you're the most well known superhero out of the ones who followed. You came out of nowhere, and suddenly you have joined nearly every superhuman mission we've got. There's a Facebook group full of people who claim you saved them before you even showed up at the Triskelion battle."

The Director narrowed her eyes. "But that means our enemies know they have to worry about you. The Omnitrix gives you a level of unpredictability they can't account for. The only Avenger who really matches you in that respect is-"

"Iron Man," I finished.

She nodded.

I knew what she meant immediately. In terms of power, Tony and I shared a couple of things. Mostly because we both could just _be_ as powerful as we needed to be. If we weren't strong enough, Tony could build a stronger suit, and I could become a stronger alien. If we weren't fast enough, we could become faster. Except, that Tony had yet to reach a level of tech that could match how fast the Omnitrix could let me adapt. We both were wild cards, but my deck was stacked.

"People have been trying to make counters… to me," I wasn't dumb enough that I hadn't considered the possibility, so Director Hill's nod didn't surprise me. Ben had faced the same problem. All heroes did. The second you became a hero, people wanted to find a way to match you. Either to beat you with something that could match your powers, or to _be_ you. Hell, to list off the ones in this universe, we had Iron Monger, Abomination, Whiplash, Winter Soldier.

You could argue that was just comic book conventions. But the fact was, the second you realized your enemy had obtained power, the first thing you did was try to match them. If they used steel, you used steel. If they made guns, planes, and bombs, you did the same.

"How has that been going for them?"

"So far, about as well as most attempts to make arc reactors," Maria said dryly. "You were right. The Omnitrix is so beyond human science it might as well be magic. That doesn't mean people won't try to find other ways. The Avengers are the natural enemies of a lot of people. And a lot of them know that you can show up at the speed of sound."

"If you died, we'd have a lot of people ready and willing to help save everyone. I think we would be able to survive as long as someone doesn't literally make their own Omnitrix. But I have to admit, it'll be a lot easier to survive as long as you're around."

She didn't give me time to think about that. Instead, she waved a hand, and a rough photo appeared. "Now, Hauzer. The dragon, you said. He came from the Rio incident?"

"That's my best guess. He comes from a universe that is way different from this one. More than usual, I mean."

"Rio. That place is still a pain in my ass no matter how much we do to mitigate it…" she looked pissed. "Where is he now?"

"In the jungle, last I checked."

"Think he's smart enough to consider us allies?"

I chuckled. "I don't think he has allies. Just 'not enemies'."

"I know the type."

Thinking about the jungle reminded me of something. "By the way, where is Ka-Zar? I thought that guy would have shown up at some point."

"He was caught up in something else, apparently. While you were having your battles, Ka-Zar and Zabu ended up taking on the Saur-Lords when they tried to kidnap a small village. He took on someone named Anklyo and ended up chasing them off."

Well. Guess Ka-Zar could be forgiven.

"Going back to what you said before. About people getting ready to fight me. I think, after all this, I'm gonna take some time off to train. Not with martial arts or anything, but to get better with my powers. To master them on another level."

I'd been planning on that for a while, to be honest. To not just unlock new aliens in the Omnitrix, but to take the aliens I currently had and figure out new ways to use them. I'd done pretty well with that so far. But I never really made that my focus. Because why would I need to train in alien form? Each form was powerful in their own rights, the time limit made any training too slow to really work, I already had Ben's example to follow, some aliens just didn't have any real way to train with their powers.

But for some weird reason, almost dying ended up making me pretty eager to make the most of all the time I had.

"I can understand that. I'll make sure to give you some extra time off," Maria smiled. "On the plus side, now I don't have to worry about Jen beating me with my own arms because I lost you."

She cut out before I could reply. I smirked for a second. Then I scowled.

So. People were trying to figure out a way to take me down. To kill me. Granted, they had been from the start, obviously, but now I had guys making their own gear to try and counter the Omnitrix.

I had to plan for that. Not just for things that were possible, but the things that were impossible as well.

Training. Lots of training. And weapons creation. I'd need to prepare for everything and anything.

Stend, the Savage Land, and all I'd faced showed me I could be a hero, Omnitrix or not. I was willing to prove that to every other asshole who showed up next.

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ Seriously Dial, more training? Goddamn it.

So yeah. Stend isn't dead. But that's mostly because a hero killing a man who has been beaten to a pulp is kinda... well, it isn't something a person should do. A hero has to be an exemplar of morals and justice. Which Dial kinda fucked up in when he told X to beat the literal shit out of Stend. Killing him would have been worse, but Dial still crossed a line, and he'll need to learn to do better.

He's only human though. I think after getting tortured, choked, enslaved, the fact he managed to STOP is still noteworthy. He ain't perfect.

I will say one thing though. If Stend returns to hurt anyone, he dies. No constant battles through the centuries, no getting sent to the phantom zone or returns through a Lazurus Pit. Just death, and the hell that follows. To be super nerdy about it. No second chances. I'm that sort of a man.

That aside, there is also the prospect of Dial training.

He has had his alien forms for some time, but his focus up to now when working out has been mastering his human form, to cover up his weaknesses. But he's good now. He isn't exactly strong enough to take on the various assassins, super-soldiers, and such that exist, but he can take on most military-trained humans and martial artists now, and will only get better.

Now I want to focus his training on two things. His aliens, and a new sword.

And I just want to make sure Dial realizes he has room to grow. As a fighter, he's come into his own. But now he needs to stand as a hero as well, to personify the ideals that make that word worthy. Not just a hero in the sense of being famous, but a hero in the more modern sense.


	100. Chapter 100

"I'll only be gone for a short amount of time," I said to Gresh, who was staring at me uncomprehending. "But while I'm gone, if you want to stay with BRIDGE, you'll need to listen to the rules. This means you have to listen when they tell you only authorized personnel can use an assault rifle. So please, for the love of everything I hold sacred, stop telling everyone who will listen that I'm the only king you'll follow."

I tried not to sound as pained as I felt. I don't think it worked because Gresh looked amazingly disappointed in himself.

"I am sorry."

"Don't be sorry, be better," I quoted my father without thinking. Gresh winced.

The two of us were sitting with Demi in one of the huts that had been quickly set up for the new group. They had been added after both Quinjets had returned with a small army of former slaves and their allies.

I looked between Gresh and Demi. "The city of Saur-Lords is officially an enemy of BRIDGE. And since I'm doubting that you guys are willing to beat the shit out of them too, our soldiers here are on your side, Gresh. They won't be ordering you around, but you need to stop trying to take a rifle for yourself."

Gresh snarled reflexively. I glared at him. "Guns aren't swords and skill in one doesn't translate to skill in the other. If you ask _nicely_ , we'll train you on how to use them. But for now, consider yourself in training. If it helps, I was the same way only a few months ago. So if you're diligent, you won't have to wait. Fair?"

He stared at me, his reptilian nostrils twitching, before nodding. Poor guy. He was like a teenage nerd being told he couldn't play with a real laser weapon. Still, I decided to let that go to focus on Demi.

"As for you, I'd recommend asking X yourself. I will warn you that you two are completely different species," on _so_ many levels. "So he might say no," Demi's face fell slightly. I winced. "But he's a good man. He'll either let you down easy, or he'll say yes. Just… talk to him. Straight on, tell him what you think."

Demi frowned. "That is not the way of my people. Our mating practices require an intermediary."

I rubbed the back of my neck. "Ah. All right. If that's your tradition I gues-" then I noticed Gresh rolling his eyes. I took a closer look at Demi. She stared back at me as blankly as she could. As a woman made of stone, she couldn't sweat, and her facial expressions were harder to read. Unless you were a part-time alien. I noticed the nervousness in the way she shifted, the slight twitch to her eyes.

She was lying. She just didn't want to talk to X herself.

"You are freaking adorable," I said at last. After some thought, I nodded. "All right, sure. I'll be your intermediary. Meantime, let's talk about something less fun."

The doors to the cafeteria opened. One by one, people filed into the room. Creel, Fantasma, Gena/Winggirl, the Anklyo-Saur-Lord who had decided to join us, and Dietrich/German Guy, filed in, followed by the sergeant in charge of the BRIDGE soldiers in the Savage Land, a Hispanic with a shaved head and a tattoo of an eagle on his neck by the name of Jamie Silan, and the scientist in charge, Dr. Bernard Kloss.

They moved to sit around the table as I rose up and faced them. As they sat, one more person entered. We looked over at him.

He was tall, built, and tan, wearing only a vest and a loincloth. His hair was a dirty blonde, held up in a rough ponytail. He carried a single knife on his waist and moved with eerie grace.

And following after him was a Sabertooth tiger. Goddamn. Nothing in the universe can prepare you for how fucking _big_ a sabertooth is. Even after all the time I'd spent with dinosaurs, something about a tiger in a shiny cafeteria leant the experience its own level of weird that made Zabu more intimidating.

"Ka-Zar," I said politely. "Zabu. It's nice to finally meet you both."

Ka-Zar nodded politely, while Zabu sat on his haunches and glared at me. "Same. I apologize for not coming to your aid sooner, and I am glad you escaped."

"Same," I snarked a bit. "As for now, I think we all should sit and talk about what's next. Namely, how we prepare," I placed my hands on the table and faced the group. "Bronto and Anklyo. They might want revenge. They might want to parley. They might try to sabotage us. We also can't forget the other threats that might be possible. Corporations, scientists, or just straight evil people trying to take advantage of this place from the outside, or threats from within the Savage Land that could be hiding in the shadows. I'll visit as often as I can, as will a lot of Avengers, but we need a team ready and willing to defend the freedoms of this land's populace when we can't."

I looked around. "A lot of you want the same thing. A good life. The simplest thing in the world for people to want. So it's up to us to start building the framework to defend it. Now, I can't offer you guys positions in BRIDGE, since it's part of another organization I can't get into, and that organization might question your recruitment for way too long for us to go that route."

After HYDRA, the UN Officials would be iffy on any recruits who weren't at least citizens of a UN nation, as screwy as I thought that was.

"However, as Gresh suggested, there is another organization that can work with BRIDGE, and thus give you the ability to work with them as well. So, in the words of one badass motherfucker…" I grinned. "I'm here to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative."

And all the while, the Omnitrix glowed yellow.

* * *

Later, X and I went with Gena to a nearby laboratory. The one-winged girl was a lot calmer than she had been in weeks, but I could still notice how the blue-skinned young girl was affected by the loss of her limb. It was in two things. First, and most notable, was in the way she walked. She was always off-balance just a bit, always over or under compensating for a weight that was gone.

The second, and saddest, was in how X and I found her. Standing at the edge of the cliff I'd once fallen from, looking up at the sky. Again. She did it all the time. Staring at the blue above, her eyes shaking.

So, before I left, I was going to give her something.

"What do you want?" Gena asked me curiously as I led her into the laboratory. The BRIDGE logo was painted on one of the walls. Some lab equipment was placed everywhere, and the corpses of some velociraptors rested on several tables. It took me a second to realize they were the raptors I'd killed.

"I made a promise to myself. Well, a bunch. It's been a rough week," I said with a shrug. X stared at me blankly while Gena looked even more confused.

"Okay… so why are we in a kitchen?" she asked, poking idly at one of the dead dinosaurs.

Huh. Yeah, I guess a bunch of dead bodies in a room with knives everywhere could be confused for a kitchen, in an older world. Personally, the smell was enough to make me want to avoid breathing through my nose. I ignored that to go deeper into the lab, heading towards the section set up for delicate repairs.

"Actually, this place is for the scientists to work on their projects," I opened another door, Gena stepping in after me hesitantly. "And, since the BRIDGE elites have armor and weapons that gets beat up a lot, this is where they get fixed," we soon stood inside a place that looked like a garage. Mostly because, well, it was a garage.

There were some BMX's, ATV's, and a couple of Jeeps resting inside, along with a few sets of armor left standing. They were the heavier mech suits, made to aid the wearer in clearing paths, lifting heavy objects where vehicles couldn't fit, and punching big things VERY hard.

One of the suits was resting on a table, torn apart and bent. It had malfunctioned on arrival. Which made it perfect.

"Gena," I turned to face her, my lips quirking upward. "Today I'm going to try and help you out. X is here because he can do the more delicate work. But I want to explain, first and foremost, what I'm going to do, okay?"

"...Okay?"

"First, I'll be taking this suit apart in one of my alien forms. While I do that, X will be taking measurements and preparing you for surgery, while also taking advanced scans of your body, nervous system, and other things. While he does that, I'll be in here making the wing."

She stared at me uncomprehending until the word 'wing' left my lips. Shocked, she looked into my eyes, her blue skin turning paler. Then she looked outside, where a Quinjet could be seen just past the windows.

"No," I said immediately, guessing what she was thinking. "This won't be a quinjet wing. It'll be something to provide lift and force according to the way your muscles move in your back. A hover unit. We've been testing prosthetics for a while, and we're getting better. For this, I might have to cheat. But Jury Rigg is good at that."

"I have also been studying the movements of your fellow Aerians," X said, drawing Gena's attention. "Basing my calculation on them and the currently known facts about other winged beings, I agree. With a few hours of work, we can have it done."

"With your permission though," I said hastily. "X has a few medical degrees, and we have a bunch of experts, but this is going to require hooking up a hover unit to your back. With a system made to-" I cut myself off as I realized I was getting into things she might not understand. "Look, just… it'll be a small object that will act like your other wing. Not a real one, but enough to let you-"

"Yes!" Gena stepped forward and grabbed my arm, her grip almost painful as she stared at me with desperate hope. "I-I don't care what it'll look like! Just… as long as I can fly again…"

The last was said in almost a whisper. I gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "You will. I promise."

The small smile she gave me was fragile. But it was so bright that I felt myself smiling back.

"Come," X pulled at Gena, leading her away. "Dial will need space to work."

I waved them off. Then, as they closed the door, my smile faded. I felt determination in my heart as I raised my new Omnitrix and watched the dial rise without my prompting. "Wha-" I stared as the dial spun to life and showed Jury Rigg immediately. Curious, I put my hand forward and spun through the menu. Big Chill, Swampfire, Sandrass, Rath. Then, an Aerian form. An Anklyo-Saur-Lord. A Saurian like Gresh. A rock person like Demi. A Saur-Lord raptor, pterosaur, and t-rex.

Man. All these forms, and yet, none of them was more useful than the ones I currently had. Granted, I'd figured this would happen. A lot of Marvel forms would have been cool, but I always knew I would end up with some that were basically just a slightly stronger being, rather than something as badass as an Asgardian or Troll form. Then again, the Brontosaurus form looked useful to just have a big alien.

Still, I liked this. I'd finally be able to do the one thing the Omnitrix was made for. Walking a mile in another person's shoes, to facilitate peace as an ambassador.

I spun the dial again and found myself hunting through a menu full of creatures. "Damn it," I said, frustrated at how long it was taking. "Just give me Jury Rigg!"

A flash of green spread across my body while I was still going through the menu. In that instantaneous change I'd gotten used to, I lost several feet in height, gained red skin, and a mind to match the craziest engineers in all fiction.

"Wow!" I shouted in surprise. I looked down at myself, wearing a Black Sabbath t-shirt once again. "I changed… through voice command?"

That was new. In some ways, that was better and worse than using my dial. Touching the dial would be faster than naming an alien in some circumstances, but naming an alien also meant that I could change in human form without any Omnitrix interaction.

What else was new? For a moment, my now genius-level intellect raced through the various implications before I focused myself with a shake of my head.

"Not right now! I have work to do!" I ran towards the table in the center of the garage and grabbed onto the edge, climbing up to stand on it. I stared at the armor in front of me, mentally putting the pieces together. "Fix! Fix, fix, fix!"

With the loud clatter of steel being ripped apart by red alien claws, I got to work.

It took an hour before I realized what else had changed.

Namely, that I was still in alien form. After an hour of using my Jury Rigg form more intensely than normal, focusing everything into making the best damn machine I could.

I kept at it. I took apart the armor, pulling the pieces back together, welding them, placing the circuitry. The blueprints weren't exactly in my head. Jury Rigg didn't plan things out so clearly. Instead, when I took his form, I would work by intuition and instinct.

Soon, after a couple of hours of work, I stopped, staring at the device I'd made.

It was shaped roughly like a large water bottle, with a large portion of it glowing dark blue. It's one and only purpose was to emit force based on the various signals it received when it was inserted into a person's back.

I looked up at the clock. Two hours or so. And the Omnitrix hadn't even thought about blinking red. "Uh… Feedback?"

In a flash of green, I'd become a Conductoid once more. I stared down at my hands, each finger ending in the large golden plug that allowed me to absorb and attack with energy. Then I picked up the hover unit I'd created and started walking, noting the time as I did.

I did my best to ignore the pale white scars marking my body now. The same ones had shown up on Jury Rigg.

Whatever the reason for my scars, they apparently were such a part of me that they were now showing on my alien forms. Just one more part of the Omnitrix I didn't understand.

* * *

Gena was in an operating room with X and some of the doctors and nurses we had pulled into the project. I left the hover unit with them and went on to the jail cells.

Ka-Zar and Zabu found me on the way. The big cat and jungle man had been walking the same direction across the grounds, only to stop and stare when I walked up to join them in my Feedback form.

"That is… strange," Ka-Zar said in his British accent as I joined him. "I was informed of this ability of yours, but I had no idea the change was so extensive."

Yeesh. For a guy raised in the jungle, he talked like he'd went to Oxford or Cambridge.

"Even your scent is different," he looked a little spooked. I grinned at him while looking down at Zabu, who walked up to stare at me curiously.

"That's the nature of the Omnitrix. So. You look like you were headed to the cells too."

"I am," Ka-Zar shook off his surprise rather quick. Guess he'd seen weirder things than me, unsurprisingly. "I wish to speak to Sauron."

"Really? Me too. Well, less speak, so much as make it less likely he'll hurt people."

We walked side by side, Zabu leading in front. "I'm also kinda testing something out," I looked down at my hands. "There are a few questions I'd like answered. And Sauron lets me kill two birds with one stone."

We entered the building that held the cells. Sixteen in all, lined up on either side of a hallway. Only one was occupied.

At the end of the hall, four BRIDGE guards stood with weapons in hand. The cell was made of a titanium alloy Tony Stark had made specifically for this. Ka-Zar and I walked up to the guards, one of whom stepped forward.

"Sir," she said, sounding almost relieved to see me.

"Lin," I looked at the cell door behind her. "How's he been?"

"Peaceful," the young Asian woman sounded almost surprised by that. "He just asked for a copy of Lord of the Rings. He's been in there just… reading."

"Lord of the Rings?" Ka-Zar looked between us. "What is that?"

"Where he got his name," I nodded to the guard. "Open the door, Lin."

She stiffened. As did the others. "Sir, I don't know if that's-"

"Lin. It's okay," I walked up to the door. "I didn't show up in alien form because I underestimated how powerful he is. We'll be alright."

Lin bit her lip. Then she nodded, stepping aside and pressing some buttons on the keypad. As soon as the cell door opened, I stepped inside. Ka-Zar followed while Zabu stayed out with the guards. The door closed behind me moments later.

Ka-Zar and I stood side by side as Sauron turned to face us. The pterosaur-man gave us a serene look. "Ah… Dial. This form is new for you. And… Ka-Zar," Sauron's serenity faded. "You, young man, have been quite a thorn in my side."

"And you have been a monster," Ka-Zar said, sounding like he was moments from leaping forward and ripping Sauron in half.

"I have indeed," Sauron said without a hint of shame. "But then, aren't all of us? Dial. I've heard that you left Stend alive," when I only stared at him, he gave me a leer. "Interesting… So. Why are you both here?"

Ka-Zar looked at me. I waved for him to speak first. The future King of the Savage Land faced the former one. "Anklyo. He attacked a small village that I was forced to defend. But that village had no use to you. It was far out of the way from your normal raiding routes, had no slaves whose races you have not already taken. In all ways, it was a useless bounty. But he fought like the devil to save something he had no reason to steal. Why? What was important about that village?"

"...Guard that village well," Sauron looked between us. "The Savage Land has had many rulers. I suspect, many of a fantastic nature. Even stories of beings similar to the fictional world of Atlantis exist in the tales of this lands ancestors."

I stiffened slightly at that, but neither man noticed.

"That village is said to rest on the weapon of one of those rulers. I found evidence that could not be ignored and sent Anklyo to begin an outpost there, to guard the place," Sauron looked into my single eye, which I avoided to keep from being mind-controlled, and my head tendrils waved back and forth while he continued to speak. "Whatever is there, it must never be uncovered. Understood?"

Ka-Zar scoffed. "Why should we believe you? Why shouldn't we simply take this weapon for ourselves?"

"We're good on weapons," I said. "I'll warn BRIDGE. And I'll work with them to find out what is going on. You've got my word."

Sauron looked satisfied. "Good… You know, my hopes for the Saur-Lords will live on. I had dreams that they would one day grow enough to enter space. It could have been possible for them to even join the outside world. Barring some great cataclysm, I'd planned to do it in 2020. I suppose I can be happy with what I have."

I decided to ruin that for him.

"No," I raised a single hand. "I think we've had enough of Sauron. Time for Karl to come back to play."

Sauron stared, uncomprehending. Then I pulled at the source of energy that had been emanating from him all the while. Silver-white streams of power flowed from him to get sucked into my body. And he panicked.

"Stop!" the pterosaur leaped across the room and grabbed onto my arm.

"Let him-!" Ka-Zar reached for his knife, ready to help me.

"It's fine!" I held my other hand out, stopping Ka-Zar. I could feel Sauron pulling energy through my skin, his eyes desperate.

"Don't do this!" he kept pulling at my energy. "I need to stay like this! I can't go back to-"

"Humanity?" I shook my head. "We all have to someday, Sauron."

"Not if I keep absorbing the power you're taking from me!"

"...Sauron. You don't get it. In this form, I can pull in the energy of the Big Bang," his eyes widened. "The universe. Compared to that," I doubled up my absorption, and Sauron's eyes shook in horror. "You're fighting a giant."

He opened his mouth, probably to breath flame, while his body began to glow more intensely. But he was too weak. If this had been before my fight with him, he might have been able to run. As it was, he fell to his knees instead. I lowered myself down to him, continuing to fill myself with his power.

"...I don't want to die," he whispered.

"You won't."

"Won't I?" he looked up at me, fear in his gaze. "I've been Sauron for over two decades… Every other time I changed back, I lost all memories of my time in this form," he looked down at his own hands. "If I lose my memories again. That will be the end of me. Of this Sauron."

"...This Sauron. He's an asshole. But he's also strong," I admitted. The pterosaur-man looked up at me. His red eyes were changing into a more human brown. "He was a conqueror and slaver. A warrior. And to those who didn't know any better, a hero. An asshole. But a strong one.

"I think, that Sauron. The guy who gave me more of a fight than anyone I'd ever met up to now. That guy wouldn't forget himself so easily."

I didn't know why I said that. Why I tried to comfort him. But he seemed to breathe a little easier.

"...Dial. If I return. I will remember you," he smirked. "Let us fight again. For more honorable reasons, I hope."

Then his face shrunk inwards. His green scales smoothed out to brown skin. Hair sprouted across his head, while the crest on his head sunk in. His muscular form changed until he was almost skeletally thin. With a last sigh, Sauron faded away.

And a human man kneeled in his place. He stared down at his hands, before looking up at me, shock in his features.

"Huh… You really do look like him," I mused to myself.

The face of the great Raul Julia, one of the greatest men to ever grace a screen in my world, turned pale. Then he fainted dead away.

* * *

After we got Karl Lykos squared away, Ka-Zar and I walked out of the cells to stand at the edge of the cliff I'd fallen off of originally. I stared down at the waters below for a long moment with Feedback's single eyes. Huh. Surprised I had survived that, actually.

"What do you think?" Ka-Zar asked Zabu. The sabertooth growled for a moment.

"Yeah, I think you're right," I said in response to Zabu.

The pair gave me startled looks. "You understand him?" Ka-Zar asked.

"The Omnitrix," I tapped the symbol on my chest. "He may not speak actual words, but I understand what he's trying to convey. Sauron wasn't lying. Not about whatever is under that village, anyways… The Avengers are going to be needed here," I turned to face him. For a moment, I took in his features. The tall powerful blonde man looked back at me. "So. What do you think? Wanna take the invitation?"

Ka-Zar crossed his arms. "I… suppose, that having an army to aid me would be good. As long as you keep your promise," his eyes narrowed. "I do not want to see the Savage Land hurt. If BRIDGE starts taking advantage of the Savage Land-"

"Then the Avengers will stop them," I cut him off. "Ka-Zar, I don't think you get it. The Avengers aren't an army of BRIDGE or even the world. We work with them, sure. And BRIDGE has been great. But the Avengers are here to protect _everyone_. Joining us doesn't mean you are forced to follow BRIDGE's every rule. It means that you will help them when they are doing the right thing. And you'll have a group of superhumans to help you whenever the bad guys need a smackdown."

I could feel the sun on my back as I held out my hand to Ka-Zar and Zabu. "So how about it? Become an Avenger. And help us save people. Protect the ones who can't protect themselves."

Ka-Zar stared at me. He looked… well, like he wasn't sure what to say. Finally, he nodded, taking my hand in his. I grinned before looking at Zabu. "How about you, man?"

Zabu growled regally. Then he held his paw up. I shook the dinner-plate-sized paw and smiled. "All right then. I guess I need to warn you guys about something too," I pointed out at the Savage Land. "There's a dragon out there. Last I saw, he headed North. When I get back, I'll try and find him. But until then, Hauzer is a possible threat we all need to be ready for. Or, an ally if we find the right person he'd love to fight."

I faced Ka-Zar. "Let me give you the lowdown on the Earth Dragon."

* * *

 _ **Hauzer/The Earth Dragon**_

Hauzer wasn't a being prone to deep reflection. He did what pleased him. It was the simple logic of both the dragon he had become and the dinosaur he once was. Live life in pleasure, take what was yours, and destroy those who would stop you. A simple and primitive thought process.

Still… Styro's words had haunted him, on some level. Hauzer was still satisfied with having killed the massive being. But why, at the point of death, had Styro told him to go North?

Perhaps it was a trap? If so, it would fail. Hauzer almost found himself growling at the thought of ripping through a trap of Styro's making after his death. A final insult at the dead man.

Hauzer prowled through the jungle for several hours, only stopping to hunt down a Brontosaurus and devour it.

He stomped through the Savage Land. And soon, found himself reaching somewhere that felt… right. It felt like he had been called to it, that it had pulled at him. Not with the tug of an enemy, but the way that good food pulled. A scent of benevolence.

The trees parted. And he stood in a grassy field before a wide lake of lava at the foot of a massive mountain. Hauzer stared out at the field and lake, eyes taking it all in. The lake of lava was broiling, leaving a 'shore' of black stone at its edges. Beyond that, the grass was thick and healthy, rising to ankle height for Hauzer. He took a sniff of the air and looked up at the mountain. A plume of smoke was rising out of the peak, and he could see lightning flashing within the black smoke.

On a boulder jutting out of the landscape, stood a woman. Hauzer, for lack of anything better to do, prowled up to her. As he did, dinosaurs began to come out of the forest around the lake. Predator and prey alike, roaming forward, from the fierce T-Rex to the gentle Hadrosaurus. All of them came forth, ignoring one another. But they stopped well away from Hauzer.

Soon, Hauzer stood before her. The woman was short. She was shaped like a human but had black fur covering her from her neck to her ankles, a green loincloth made of scaled skin around her waist. She was holding a long staff in her hand, leaning against it as Hauzer prowled towards her, long white hair blowing in the wind. Her aged face showed no fear towards the dragon, pale white eyes somehow gazing upon him despite the lack of pupils. Hauzer growled at her, questioning.

The old woman nodded. "Indeed. I am the one who asked Styro to send you here," her voice, despite her age, came out with a certain vitality, power quaking through the air while she spoke.

Hauzer snapped his teeth. She shook her head.

"No… the foolish child taking you in was not my doing. I simply asked him to tell you to come," the old woman stood straighter. "I, Hauzer the Earth Dragon, am known as the Hag of the Pits. I have seen many things over the centuries. But months ago, an event unlike any I had ever seen shook even the great powers of the Pits," she shook her head. "Even the Nexus of Realities has been disturbed, forcing the need for a guardian there. And your arrival was but a side effect of this."

Hauzer let out a barking laugh. What did he care for any of this? He was here now. He was free, to eat, to fight, to do anything he wished!

The woman, who called herself Hag, scoffed. "Spoken like a dragon… I wish to grant you a boon, Hauzer. This land," she waved her hands around her. "And these subjects," the dinosaurs around them released various sounds. The Hag pointed at Hauzer. "This place, at the foot of the most powerful mountain of the Savage Land. I protected it these many months. All for you."

Hauzer stared at her. Then at the lands around it. When he looked back at her, she was meeting his eyes. For a moment, he felt the urge to burn her. She wanted something from him. He could tell.

"Permission," she said suddenly, surprising him. The Hag smiled. "I want permission… I have been making something. One day, the Great One Who Sleeps will come to this world. They will destroy the Savage Land. More than that. The entire world. The event has opened the gates to something horrid. The outside world has created it's chosen heroes in retaliation, whether they know it or not. And the Great One's champion will arise, the One who Consumes, while the Fallen Titan prepares his last conquest. And thus, the Savage Land must have its own champions."

"Hauzer, one of the King's of the Savage Land. Look upon my weapon," she held out her right hand. A red crystal was held in it. So small. Almost innocuous.

But to Hauzer, it was like she had pulled a small sun from her pocket. He recoiled, shocked at the power within.

"It is connected to all the lives of this world. Of the world that once was," the Hag looked up at Hauzer. "But now, another power has been added. You feel it, don't you?"

He did. His own energy was there. Mixed in with the thousands more he could feel. Hauzer stared at her.

"If you wish, I can remove it," the Hag said softly, continuing to hold out the gem. Around Hauzer and the Hag, the dinosaurs were joined by more animals. Insects of all kinds, mammals, birds. In the closest river to them, marine life gathered. "I would not allow your power to be borrowed by another," she said solemnly. "But our champion will be worthy of you. Of all of us. So I implore you, Hauzer. If you wish, you can test him. But this must be done. The world depends on it."

The Hag's words were not empty. Because as she spoke, Hauzer's mind was enveloped by a power beyond the world. He felt it resonate with his magic. And for just a moment, he understood what it was the Hag feared.

And fear filled him in turn.

He stared at her. Then, finally, he nodded.

"Thank you," she said solemnly. Then she placed the gem away. "I will prepare our allies. The Devil and his boy. The Savage ones who have just begun to form themselves. The war is coming. And if there is anything we 'primitives' know well, it is the heartbeat of combat."

Hauzer's smile of grim rage and eagerness was matched by the Hag.

* * *

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

After Ka-Zar, Demi, and Gresh all left to tell their various friends that BRIDGE and the Savage Avengers were reaching out for allies, I shifted into Blitzwolfer form and got into a Quinjet with Fantasma and Creel. Then we left.

Yeah, I know. No sudden cheering, no incredible exit. Just getting into a ship and heading home.

Real-life is like that sometimes. Just boring. Thank god. I could use a bit of boring.

I piloted the Quinjet personally, using Bliztwolfer's claws with more dexterity than I expected. I'd never gotten the chance to really spend time as aliens outside of combat or doing something specific to them, like making tech as Jury Rigg or lifting debris as Four Arms and Rath, so piloting the ship that way was new.

Fantasma and Creel sat in the cockpit with me in silence. After a while, Creel finally spoke just after we finally passed the barrier between the Savage Land and Antarctica. "X isn't coming?"

"He asked me to head out without him," I said. "He has to complete the surgery on Gena, which is going to take a while. I'll probably fly back once he sends me a message about it. But right now, Gena's surgery takes priority."

"That's good," Fantasma said thoughtfully.

"How about Kraven?" Creel asked the Russian witch.

"He's in a land of creatures that man has dreamed of hunting for centuries," Fantasma sounded annoyed. "Where do you think?"

Creel and I shared a look.

"...Should I be jealous that he doesn't want to hunt me anymore?" I asked blandly.

"Oh, he still wants to," she said as though that was somehow normal. Which, it kind of was. "But he'd rather fight something that won't get him in trouble for now."

I turned to look at her. She only gave me the long-suffering look of a person trying to show how annoying they found their sibling.

"Huh. Rude," I said at last. Then I shrugged it off, though I made a note to prepare some counters for Kraven just in case. "Still, I'm gonna be damn happy to go back home," I said, looking out the window as snow fell about us, the Quinjet flying over the ocean.

"Same," Creel sighed. "Skipped on a lot of sleep while I was looking for your ass."

"Sorry," I winced.

"Don't be," Fantasma smacked Creel on the head, to which he grumbled slightly. "You didn't ask for all of… that, to happen to you. It wasn't your fault."

"Still… anyways, I'm actually hoping to only spend a day or so relaxing," I admitted. "After that, I'm going to train my ass off."

"Really?" Creel leaned forward to look at my face. He didn't seem perturbed about looking at the face of a wolf that could talk. "You do that all the time."

"Not in my alien forms," I said in response. "At least, not that often. Now I want to start developing my skills in these forms of mine," I raised my right hand, looking down at my clawed fingers.

"And keep stuff like that from happening?" Creel pointed at my cheeks, where two lines of pale white fur marked my new scars.

"I think they make me look rather dashing," I gave him a grin, trying to hide my distaste for the new markings. "Seriously though. I want to get stronger. More skilled. I need to start thinking outside of the box."

Creel eyed me. When I looked over at him, my bald friend looked away very quickly. I looked over at Fantasma, but she was staring at her hands.

"Uh...Awkward?" I said questioningly. "You guys okay? I feel like I didn't say anything real crazy."

"You didn't," Fantasma agreed. I watched as she looked up at me with a strange light in her eyes, her mouth turned upside-down. "It's just… All my life, my spells were things I had to scrape together. I found half-written texts, knowledge from people across the world with rumors and tales. Most of what I learned was garbage I had to throw out," she clenched her small hands into angry fists. "But I thought I'd learned enough. I thought I'd become a good enough sorcerous on my own. Then you were lost. And I had no idea how to find you," she gave me a frustrated look.

"The Savage Land has some sort o-of energy, that interfered with every scanning spell I had. So I kept trying to find a way around what was blocking me from finding you."

I looked over at Creel, but he was staring resolutely out of the windows. I turned back to look at Fantasma and speak, but she beat me to it.

"It was more than that," Fantasma opened her palms, and a pair of mandala's spun to violet light over each hand. "I found a way to scan someone. It requires ancient knowledge. Knowledge I don't have, from the age before," she intoned with a voice older than her years. The mandalas began to spin. "Even if I wanted to use it, I wouldn't know how. And when we fought Sauron, it was one of the first times I found myself in a fight where someone just powered through my most powerful spells. No. That _was_ the first time. And I couldn't think of anything to fight back with except more force," she looked up at us. "Mahmoud. I think I understand how you feel. I cannot be lax in my efforts," she clenched her fists, the mandala's shattering. "I want to get stronger as well. No. To obtain more knowledge and ability. I want to be better at magic."

Creel grumbled. Fantasma and I looked over at him. He sighed. "Yeah, well, I don't feel like sharing my whole thing after you guys already did. Especially since Fantasma did a whole speech and stole my thunder…" he grumbled again.

I grinned. "Then we'll all do it. We'll help each other get stronger. Deal?"

"You are such a freaking dork," Creel sighed. Then he punched me good-naturedly on my shoulder. "Yeah. I'm down."

"Magnificent!" Fantasma cheered.

...Man, I am really not avoiding the comparison between me and Ben at this point.

Ah well. I had my Gwen and Kevin again. I had my Omnitrix. And it had been four hours since I'd turned back into a human. Time to go home.

When we landed at the tower, I was in human form again. After six hours of being in alien form, I'd decided it was official. I had no time limit on my alien forms anymore.

I didn't have Master Control though. A look at my Omnitrix menu revealed that while I'd obtained a variety of Savage Land races (like, a shit-ton), I had no access to anything beyond that. No Grey Matter, Way Big, or Alien 'Win Condition' X.

So for some reason, after repairing itself, the Omnitrix had chosen to give me voice command and unlimited transformation time. Looked like things would be getting damn interesting for me then.

Still, that thought process left my mind when I saw the people waiting for us.

"Mahmoud!" Thor rushed forward, holding his arms out.

"T-Thor, wait, don't-URK!" Too late. Asgardian arms wrapped around my chest and lifted me into the air, crushing me to Thor's chest as he hugged me to him while laughing boisterously.

"My friend! I knew you would make it out of the peril you found yourself in!" He laughed, spinning in place, my legs spinning weakly in the air.

"I appreciate-urk, but please let me breathe," I coughed, patting him on the shoulders.

Behind Thor, I could see a small group gathered. Tony, Steve, Sam, Bucky, Izzy, Nat, Ruby, Jarvis, Maria, and Bruce, all watching Thor hugging me with varying expressions on their faces. Isabelle walked past Thor and me to hug Creel, who kneeled down to wrap his arms around her.

"We take our eyes off you for one second and you get kidnapped? Can't leave you alone for a second, can we?" Tony said, coming up to grin at me as Thor finally put me down. He chuckled, patting me on the shoulder. But his eyes weren't as amused as he was pretending to be, and his smile faded. "You good? Cause, ya know. I've been there if you… I mean, if you want to-"

"What he means is," Nat said helpfully. "Is that we're glad you're okay. And we're here if you want to talk," she said kindly. I smiled at my teacher. She gave me a warm look, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah, what she said," Tony mumbled awkwardly, smiling quickly. "I mean, I tried to fly over to help, but-"

"But we got a message you'd already escaped," Steve said.

"Seriously, is everyone going to interrupt me today?" Tony asked, irritated. "But yeah, you already-"

"What happened?" Bucky asked, ignoring the sound of Tony cursing in irritation.

"A shit-ton," I admitted. "It was an Avengers mission. I don't think they're supposed to go according to plan."

"Ours went okay," Sam said, giving everyone else an odd look.

I blinked. Then I looked at Maria. She shrugged. "If we're talking Avengers missions, you and Jen are the only ones whose missions took unusual turns. Even then, she didn't end up causing a possible international incident."

"That's… vaguely depressing," I decided. Then I realized what she said, and a shot of worry filled me. "Is Jen-"

"She's okay," Bruce said, watching me sigh in relief. He smiled at that.

Nat seemed to notice something then. She took a good look at my face. "Those are new."

I raised a hand to my face and touched one of my scars. Man. I finally get scars, and rather than looking cool, they were ugly long lines. Why was reality so disappointing sometimes?

Nat noticed the distaste on my face. Surprisingly, so did Tony. He smirked and tapped his chest, where a blue light could be seen shining forth. "Welcome to the club."

There was a warmth to that joking tone. His smirk became more of a welcoming smile. Bucky looked down at his robotic arm. Nat rubbed her belly, where I had seen a pale scar resting over her stomach, then looked at Bucky. He gave her an apologetic look, to which she shrugged.

Tony chuckled. "Hey, at least your scars look cool. Very barbarian warrior."

"Yours can power a city," I pointed out.

"Well, I came into life a winner, what can ya do?"

"Mahmoud," Steve said, drawing my attention. "Creel, Fantasma. You guys all had a hell of a mission. Are you all okay?"

Creel snorted while hugging Izzy close. "Yeah. All I did was wait around-"

"He spent two days digging through the jungle without sleep," Fantasma said, leaving Creel to sputter. "He kept worrying over where Mahmoud was. He needs sleep."

"Awww," Izzy patted Creel's cheek from they were still hugging, smirking at him. "You big softie."

He rolled his eyes.

"Whatever happened to 'Team Metal Men'?" Tony shook his head with a sad sigh. "Between you and Rhodey, I'm the only one holding down the masculinity around here."

"You wear pink shirts," Sam said.

"Real men wear pink," Tony and I said at the same time, sharing grins.

Then Ruby stepped forward. I looked down at the blonde fourteen-year-old. We looked into each other's eyes for a long moment. Her eyes flickered to my scars.

"...Sup, midget?" I said as warmly as I could.

She pouted up at me. Then she looked down at the floor. "Dummy. I-I'm glad you're okay."

I stared at her. Nat was smiling proudly at Ruby while the tiny teen shuffled in place. And suddenly I thought of my sister. My baby sister, who was now married and pregnant. She used to do the same sort of thing. She and Ruby weren't anything alike, truthfully, but then I stepped forward and gave her a hug.

"H-Hey!" she sputtered, pulling at me.

"Thanks," she stopped trying to get me off her. I tried my best to hide my face from the others while I hugged her. For some reason, seeing Ruby of all people had worried about me just brought it all home. And I couldn't stop the tears. Real big man I was, crying silently in a room of superheroes.

Damnit. Why can't I be cool?

"I'm sorry if I scared you."

"...Dummy," Ruby said into my shoulder, patting me on my back.

"...This is awkward," Sam said in the background, Bucky and Steve giving him sharp looks.

"It is good to have you back!" Thor marched forward to pat me on the back, happy as could be. I let Ruby go and grinned at everyone. Fantasma gave me a smile.

"Good to be home," I said. Then I sighed. "Now I'm just gonna head to my room and rest."

"Really?" Tony cocked his head to the side. "Sure you don't want a party? I got burgers. Tradition, ya know?"

"Tradition?" Bruce said, confused before he shook his head. "But yeah, I get it. Jen said she'd be in your room, but I think her phone is off, so she doesn't know you're here yet."

I nodded. Then, with an awkward smile and wave, I walked away, leaving everyone to stare after me. I just wanted… I don't know, to relieve the stress. I appreciated everyone worrying about me, but there was someone I really wanted to see.

When I got to my room and opened it, the smell of food filled my nose. Lasagna. My favorite. I stepped inside and closed the door quietly, entering to see Jen leave my bedroom. We froze on seeing each other.

She was wearing workout clothes, her hair was up in a ponytail, and her feet were bare. She had some water dripping off of her like she had just gotten out of the shower. I crossed the room towards her without realizing it.

"Hey. I'm back."

When I stopped in front of her, she raised her hands and pressed them to my face, touching my scars. "Oh Mahmoud," she said softly, green lips quirking up a bit. "What did you do?"

"Kicked ass and took names," I said unsteadily. "Heard you had a tough adventure."

"So did you," she frowned. "You okay?"

"Yeah," I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her down. She let out a small surprised gasp. I was very proud when our lips met and that gasp melted into a moan. We pressed into each other, warm muscles pulling close. When we pulled away, her eyes were closed. She opened them slowly, giving me a look that made parts of me jump up and beg for attention.

"Missed me, huh?" she chuckled.

"More than anything," I smirked. Then I pulled away from her, grabbing her right hand in my own, and gently pulled her towards my bedroom.

"Oh, hey," she pointed at the kitchen with her thumb. "I ordered food."

"You really want to eat right now?" I asked with a smirk. "Cause I have more scars than just on my face. Wanna help me find them?"

Her jaw dropped. She stared at me, uncomprehending. Then she sped forward, picking me up in her arms as I laughed, and kicked the door behind us while carrying a massive smile on her lips.

We didn't leave my bedroom for a long time after that.

* * *

 _Savage Land_

Deep in the tunnels beneath the Savage Land, along the river where the superhero known as Dial had floated down days ago, Anti-Metal shone. It stuck along the walls of the tunnel, vibrating at random intervals as the passing water flowed next to it.

The air split above the water. For a moment, it looked as though a single line of light hung there. Then it opened into a mathematically perfect circle of green light mixed with white swirls. A small machine flew out of it. The machine, made of some sort of ceramic material, was pale white, shaped like a triangle, and flew on hoverjets that glowed blue. It had a symbol on its back. The same symbol as the Omnitrix.

The machine flew up to the Anti-Metal. Undisturbed by its metal dissolving properties, the machine extended a drill and began to work. In moments, it had a large hunk of Anti-Metal in its claws. With that, the machine flew back into the portal it had created, which snapped close moments later, leaving the river to continue to bubble peacefully.

 _Galvan Prime_

The machine bounced in time and space for mere seconds before coming out the other side into a large lab. There, Azmuth, the First Thinker and creator of the Omnitrix, stood, watching gravely as the machine flew over to him, extending a claw holding glimmering anti-metal out. Azmuth waved the machine away.

"Over there, you infernal contraption," he grumbled. "That much will turn the metals in my body to nothing."

Obediently, the machine brought the metal to a nearby table made of the same ceramic as it. Azmuth watched it, then looked at the portal that had finally closed.

"Hm. Should I… No," he shook his head. "The boy has earned some freedom, I suppose. Besides, if I gave Ben Master Control, I suppose I can let this new one have no time limit."

The machine chirped. Azmuth grumbled. "And what are you doing eavesdropping on an old man? Get to work!"

Unfazed by his anger, the machine started to chip away at the anti-metal. Azmuth carefully backed away, looking at the pair that walked up to join him. A blonde-haired young woman dressed in a black and white dress, and a tall green-skinned woman with tentacles about her head.

"Eunice, Myaxx. Prepare for the test, please."

"Yes, First Thinker," Myaxx said politely.

"Yes, father," Eunice said in bright tones.

Azmuth grumbled under his breath to hide a smile, then looked over at the machine tearing apart the anti-metal. "Now. Let's see what use you can be put to."

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ So, yeah. A whole lot happened this chapter, as it turns out. Where to begin...

Okay. First, the Savage Land crew. They're all getting set up in different ways, but I'm trying to leave things to your imagination there. The Savage Avengers, from Kraven to Ka-Zar, to Gresh, will have their own stories, as will the BRIDGE crew set up there.

As for Sauron, he ain't dead. He's extremely imprisoned though and I've never been a fan of the idea of revolving door prisons in comics.

Meantime, Dial, Fantasma, and Alloy are all thinking about how to get stronger. The three of them have different ways to go about doing it though. And I've set up the seeds for that, obviously.

Dial is going to take the My Hero Academia route, because I'm obsessed with that series, but also because I like how the creator comes up with new and interesting ways to develop the powers of the kids.

Fantasma is going to take a more traditional route, which is also an excellent one to take. I doubt it's spoilers to say that it'll involve Agatha Harkness.

Creel, meanwhile... well, that one is kinda a spoiler. But I guess mentioning his ball and chain isn't a spoiler in this case. Just a clue.

Oh, right. And Dial and Jen had sex. Not going to write it, but be as creative as you want in imagining it. Funny how I joked dozens of chapters ago that they would do the deed in chapter 100, and it ended up being true. As for why they did it now, well, Dial's finally at a point where he feels ready. And Jen, because of the events of her own mission, is in a similar place, mentally speaking. They weren't ready before. But now that they both are, they're more than eager. They're adults, they feel like it, and they went for it.

What else, what else... OH! So, Hauzer and the Hag. That's gonna be fun to talk about later. Basically, there's, I don't know, FOUR references in that little conversation? If anyone guesses past three of them, I'll be amazed. I tried to be vague about as many as I could. Still, it's a portent of things to come. The Hag, in some ways, is just as powerful as Paradox or Harkness. Not quite, of course, but she's got a similar vibe in terms of how she sees the universe and her role in it.

Then there is Azmuth. Yeah, be scared. That guy may not be insane, but he's on a level of brilliance where it seems that way to everyone else. He's doing tests on Anti-Metal people! Run for the fucking hills!

Finally, an Omake for those who haven't gotten to read it yet. Have fun!

Omake: Infinite Universes 1

 _Greenwich Village, Spring of 2018, Earth 199999_

In a street that had been covered in debris, a confrontation was beginning.

Tony Stark, Doctor Strange, Wong, and Bruce Banner strode forward together, watching as a blue beam of light is emitted from a donut-shaped ship above. The beam disappeared, revealing two figures. One, a thin elderly looking being with a massive flat space where a human nose would usually be. The other, a massive and towering being carrying a hammer and covered in armor, smirked at the group of heroes.

The elderly alien, a man who went by the name Ebony Maw, began to speak. As he did, none of those in the street saw a figure far above flying through the air, a green light emitting from it's back as it soared on orange wings.

The heroes and Ebony Maw traded quips for a moment, before the elderly man lost patience at Tony Stark.

Something he shared with many people. Ebony Maw told Cull Obsidian to charge, and with that, the battle began. No one noticed the green figure waiting above on the rooftop.

Tony Stark revealed his nanomachine armor when Bruce Banner was unable to transform, blasting away Cull Obsidian, only to be sent flying in turn. Cull Obsidian, angered by his sudden flight, rises up to his feet and prepares to reenter battle, launching his hammer at Tony.

A familiar green flash flies past Tony, bashing the hammer out of the air before it can hit Tony, before launching forward and punching Cull Obsidian in the face with enough force to shake the ground, sending him flying towards a nearby park.

"Hey, good to see you back, Bruce!" Tony shouted at the green figure. In turn, the figure looked over at him.

And Tony stared for a moment. "You uh… You're not Bruce."

"What tipped you off," the green figure teased. She smirked at him, then rocketed into the air towards the park. Tony, meanwhile, focused on Ebony Maw again, firing twin beams of energy at the alien, who blocked them with pieces of rubble.

Then Doctor Strange dropped from the sky to block a piece of tossed rubble on one of his shields, dropping it to let Iron Man fire another repulsor blast at Ebony Maw, whose face twisted in frustration.

Bruce, meanwhile, was slapping himself in the face as he ran in the middle of a grassy field. "Come on, Hulk! Come out, you're killing me he-"

 _"NOOO!"_ Bruce's face morphed, half of it becoming a sickly green collor, growing in size as a voice that wasn't his own screamed. Then it returned to normal, leaving him to fall back onto the grass. "No!" he screamed to the sky incredulously. "What do you mean no!?"

His internal struggle suddenly took a backseat to an external one when Cull Obsidian crash landed in the park, just a few feet away from him. Bruce staggered back, staring as the massive being rose to his feet. Cull snarled something, then noticed Bruce. A sickly grin spread on the muscular aliens face.

"Uh, hi?" Bruce said nervously.

Cull chuckled, raising his hammer to smash Bruce to paste. Bruce raised his arms uselessly, closing his eyes and wincing when her heard the hammer hit flesh.

It took a second for him to realize that he felt no pain. He opened his eyes, then gaped at the sight before him.

The hammer was being held by a being with skin of a green hue that he had only ever seen in reflections of broken glass. The figure was tall, built with muscle, and curvy. She was wearing workout shorts and a t-shirt, a pair of tough boots on her feet. Her long hair flowed in the wind. She turned her head to smirk at Bruce.

"Hey, cuz. Need a hand?" she said confidently.

"...Jenny?" Bruce stuttered in shock.

Cull, enraged, raised his hammer to strike once more. Jen kicked straight out. Her boots slammed deep into the groin of her opponent. Bruce winced as Cull gasped in shock and horror, before a relatively small fist uppercut him back.

"Don't touch my cousin," Jen growled, emerald fists clenched in fury. She bent her legs and jumped forward, cratering the ground beneath her.

Cull Obsidian, just getting to his feet, swung his hammer out at her, smashing her out of the air as it's chain extended out to keep throwing her..

"JEN _NY!"_ Bruce shouted in two voices.

Jen landed on her back, flipped back to her feet, and grabbed the chain hammer. She pulled, hard. Cull was lifted off his feet and towards her in a vicious tug, sent flying towards her. She spun around and roundhouse kicked him in the face, sending him back, before looking at Bruce. "If you can't help, hide, now!"

With that, Jen jumped back into the fray. Cull and her hit each other with immense force, sending shockwaves out from the impact as Bruce watched in stunned silence.

-

Back with Tony and Dr. Strange, Ebony Maw was still throwing pieces of the street at the pair.

"Will you just give up already?" Tony snarked, blocking a hail of bricks shaped into daggers with a shield made of nanobots. "You're getting your ass kicked."

"I think not. Your powers are fake and mercurial things, easy enough to overcome," Ebony Maw said to the two bearded men.

"Yeah, how's that working for you so far?" Strange said with a smirk, floating nearby to block an array of sharp stones from skewering him.

"You wanna run, let bygones be bygones?" Tony added, getting hit by a car. He rolled with the blow as Detroit steel shattered around his armored form, then flew forward to keep fighting.

"I will leave, when your corpses are cooling on the stones of this filthy rock," Ebony Maw snarled, ripping a sign off a building with his telekinesis and tossing it at the pair, only for a portal to open just in front of him to let the sign harmlessly fall into the Sahara Desert. Then another portal opened behind Ebony Maw, who spun to see Tony standing there to fire a shot at him, which Ebony Maw barely dodged. "Imputent little-"

The sound of an explosion drew their attention. All three fighters looked up to see the alien spaceship begin to list over. Ebony Maw stared upwards in rage as smoke poured out of a hole in the side.

"...You do that?" Tony asked Strange, who was also staring upwards.

"Nope. I think it was that guy."

A figure fell from the ship, landing next to Tony and Strange with a loud booming noise. A green flash of light was followed by a human man standing there, grinning. Like Tony and Strange, he had a beard. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail on the top of his head, and the sides were shaved. He was also wearing black armor with green highlights across it that covered his body, a large dial resting on his wrist.

"Wassup," the man grinned at Ebony Maw. "I am here to kick ass and chew bubblegum."

Ebony Maw snarled and launched a large truck at the trio. Tony raised a hand and blasted the truck out of the air. The man, to his credit, didn't flinch. "And I'm all out of bubblegum."

"Jesus, are you just a giant Fanboy?" Tony asked.

 _That_ made the man flinch and sigh. "Everytime, Tony. Everytime."

Then the man raised the large green dial on his wrist and pressed down on it. In a flash of light, he became a large being made of diamond.

"Diamondhead!"

Ebony Maw tossed another car, only for the crystal being to slice it in half by turning it's right hand into a sword. Then it looked over at Tony and Dr. Strange. _"Am I doing this on my own, or do neither of you old guys want to help save the Earth?"_

"OLD!?" Tony and Strange said in unison, sharing a sour look before raising their hands, magic and technology lighting up their palms.

Ebony Maw took one look at the gathered trio, eyes narrowed, and raised his hands, several objects rising into the air around him.

Then he was forced to toss aside Cull Obsidian when he came falling from the sky. The giant alien crashed into a building and wearily looked around, staggering to his feet.

The green woman from earlier dropped next to the diamond man, raising her fists. Wong showed up next, raising his arms to summon a magical shield. Tony's hands shifted into a pair of powerful cannons. Dr. Strange lifted into the air. And the diamond man clenched a fist of crystal with a sound like stone shattering, his sword hand slicing the air.

 _"Five on two,"_ the crystal man growled.

"Offers still on the table," Tony added. "You can run to daddy if you want, tell him you screwed up."

"But if you come back," the green woman punched her fists together, a thunderclap echoing, and grinned. "It'll be for an ass-whooping."  
"...When I come back," Ebony Maw said sourly. "It'll be to strip the flesh from your-"

"Yada, yada, yada," Tony cut him off.

 _"Go, you fucking moron. Go and start writing your will,"_ Ebony Maw stared at the crystal man with eyes full of hate. Then a blue light came from the damaged ship, pulling the insensate Cull Obsidian and the enraged Ebony Maw into its depths before it lifted up into the air, pouring smoke while it took off.

Diamond guy shone a bright green, turning back into the human from earlier. Then he and the green woman turned to look at Wong, Tony, and Strange.

"So," Tony's helmet pulled back, revealing his face. "Any chance you two could explain what amusement park you came out of?"

"New York," the man said sarcastically, getting a chuckle from the woman. Then he scowled. "Seriously though. I'm Dial. This is She-Hulk. And we're Avengers from another world. And an arrogant badass named Professor Paradox sent us here to help yours."


	101. Chapter 101

EDIT: Due to the Author's temporary insanity, he forgot to mention something. A few weeks ago, I had a contest for which of my fans could create the best Battleworld for SI characters to brawl in, in less than 24 hours! After the time passed, Wolf626 won! His version of Battleworld was awesome, but the others were fun as well.

So shoutout to Wolf626 , this chapter is for you. Can't believe I forgot to add the dedication man, I'm sorry.

 _At the same time as Dial was beginning his battles in the Savage Land, fighting to the death against powerful beings, Phil Coulson's own mission began._

 _Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD_

Rumbling across the Florida countryside in a large eighteen wheeler truck, Agent Phillip Coulson opened a file on a table and looked around. The truck was made as a mobile base for SHIELD agents, and had recently been renovated. The cabin was connected to the trailer by a small doorway, which was currently open to show May driving the truck. The trailer itself had two sections. The section they were sitting in was at the front of the trailer. It was a conference room/information center, with a set of monitors along a wall, a table in the center set up with a hologram projector, and a fridge filled with snacks.

The back section was a laboratory, set up for both technology and biology, as well as a direct line to any number of BRIDGE scientists across the world, filled with Melati and Octavius' work.

It was very, very advanced, tough, and well-made. But it wasn't the Bus.

Coulson pushed thought away to look up at the three people in front of him. Skye was wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with Captain America's Shield. Coulson had noticed lately that the more casual fighters related in someway to the Avengers tended to start wearing the others merchandise (Seeing Pepper wearing Dial's symbol was oddly cute), and Skye had either adopted the practice or was just a natural nerd. He was betting on a combination of both.

Skye gave Coulson a smile. "So, what do we got AC?" she asked him coyly.

Coulson smirked. "Well, it's like we discussed. The area around Citrusville had a SHIELD facility hidden in the swamps. But when HYDRA and SHIELD went to war," he thought of Ward. Skye bit her lip. Coulson kept talking while tensing the muscles in his right hand. "The facility went dark, and we've heard nothing since. Until people started posting videos claiming a swamp monster was roaming around."

"Hmm," Octavius raised a hand to draw attention to himself. "And you believe these reports have a semblance of truth to them? There are reports across the world of monsters that have been proven to be false after all, even in this new age of wonders we live in."

"I'm not sure," Coulson said cagey. While Dial and Maria had discussed what the monster _could_ be, Coulson wasn't sure. And if he wasn't sure, he would leave his mind open for more possibilities. "But the fact is, there _was_ a SHIELD lab there, and we want to find out what happened."

Kusama, her green-scaled face shifting as she thought, spoke up. "What exactly were they working on?"

"What else?" Coulson pointed at Skye's shirt. Specifically at the shield emblazoned upon it. "The Super-Soldier serum. Every organization on Earth has been trying to replicate after all."

"Are people still doing that?" Skye asked, looking worried. "I mean, we have a lot more super-soldiers around nowadays, right?"

That was putting it lightly. Even ignoring Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, many of the Graveyard Survivors, those who had been rescued from HYDRA by the Reserve Avengers, were currently super-soldiers.

"I'd say there are even more people than ever who are trying for it," Coulson said. "With the Graveyard Survivors proving there is at least _some_ possibility for that."

"T-That is absolute foolishness!" Octavius leaned forward in his seat. "The only reason they survived was the Omnitrix, an alien device that is unfathomably advanced! Taking that event as some sort of proof would be-"

"Doctor," Coulson cut him off with a raised hand. "I agree. But that isn't the issue right now. The issue is the lab. And the men and women who are apparently roaming around it," Coulson pointed at the monitors along the wall, where a map could be seen. "So our goal is simple. Find out what happened and find out what's happening now. Past and present. The good doctors and May will head out into the swamp to check on the lab, check on the state of it, what is left over, and any files that could be found on the computers, especially if someone has been trying to steal SHIELD information on the serum. Skye and I will head to the local sheriff's department to ask them about the military guys roaming around, as well as any information they may have on the lab."

"Me and you, AC?" Skye asked with a grin. "Guess we're back in action, huh?"

Coulson smirked at her, then turned to look over at May. "How long until we get there?"

The super-spy shrugged. "According to the GPS, about ten minutes. I miss the Bus."

"So do I, May. So do I."

Once they reached the town, Skye and Coulson got off at the sheriff's and watched their friends go. Skye, carrying a backpack over her shoulders, frowned as she watched the truck leave.

"Hey, Coulson. Does this all feel… weird, to you?"

"That's our specialty," Coulson reminded her with a smirk.

"No, not-" Skye shook her head. "Not the mission. That's actually the most normal thing about this, us working together to track down something weird. Feels like the good old days before HYDRA ruined it. It's just… having two new super-scientists helping us, knowing that Fitz-Simmons aren't here. Feels weird."

Coulson turned and walked towards the door. Skye gave him a look of surprise before following. "I'm sorry, did I say something wrong?"

"Not at all," Coulson gave her a smile. "But change is a part of life, to use an old cliche. After all, there was once a time when I wouldn't have considered you overkill on a mission for anything except your hacking skills."

Skye grinned. "I'm overkill?"

"Considering your training, and that backpack?" Coulson stopped in front of the sheriff's office to open the door for Skye. "Absolutely."

The smile Skye gave him was bright as the sun. "Nice. Always wanted to be the dangerous one."

They entered the office, where a deputy sheriff was waiting. "Mr. Coulson, Ms. Skye?"

"That's us," Coulson said, looking the deputy up and down. Dressed in the light brown uniform typical of deputies across the nation, he was a tall and thin young man. He was Asian, with slicked back hair, dark black eyes, and looked between Skye and Coulson with a smile, giving Skye the appreciative look of a man seeing a beautiful woman. "And you are?"

"Deputy-Sheriff Daniel Nakamura," he said with a calm smile. "The Sheriff is out right now, so he wanted me here to meet you guys and answer any questions you might have."

"Sheriff John Daltry, correct?" Coulson asked. "Will he be back soon?"

"Should be," Deputy Nakamura waved over at a nearby desk. "Meantime, I'm supposed to give you all the help I can."

Coulson raised an eyebrow, then looked around. Nobody but Nakamura was in the office. "Guess you're our only choice."

Nakamura laughed. "Well, yeah. Sorry, it's a sleepy town, ya know? We don't get a lot of trouble out here beside drunk teenagers and a few jerks. So it's just me and the Sheriff. We get some help from the police station in the next town over, but otherwise we're good."

"With just two people, really?" Skye asked curiously.

"It's all we've ever needed."

Coulson hummed to himself. The way Nakamura said that made it something Coulson noticed. And noted.

"So, how can I help SHIELD?" Nakamura said brightly.

"BRIDGE," Skye said immediately. "We're called BRIDGE now. It's just our team is SHIELD team, which I guess means I'm talking semantics now, so..."

That seemed to throw Nakamura for a moment. Coulson noted that. He recovered quickly. "Ah, right. Well, how can I help BRIDGE?"

"Mostly in answering questions about what happened January the 12th," Coulson said.

Nakamura frowned, leaning back in his chair. "During the Triskelion battle? Yeah, I remember that. There were reports of a big gunfight out in the swamp, but it was at the edge of the county, so we didn't find out until it was over. And we couldn't find out what happened."

"Really?" Skye and Coulson shared a look, the hacker looking weirded out. "And you haven't heard anything since?"

Nakamura shrugged. "Nope. It was pretty much just a swamp. And when things were quiet for the next, what's it been, 5 months? We pretty much left it alone. No dead bodies after all."

"..." Coulson simply stared at him before nodding and rising to his feet. "Well, I suppose that's all for now."

Skye and Nakamura looked at him. Nakamura looked mostly neutral, while Skye seemed surprised.

"We are?" Skye asked.

"Well, it just seems we'll have to find out the truth from scratch. Unless you can think of anything else?" Coulson said pointedly.

For a moment, Coulson was worried Skye wouldn't understand. But she very quickly nodded and rose up from her chair as well. "Yeah, guess you have a point. It was nice meeting you, Daniel," she said with a smile to Nakamura. He rose up as well and held a hand out to her, his focus almost entirely on Skye.

"Y-Yeah, same to you Skye," he said happily. Then he hurriedly reached for his desk and picked up a card, passing it to her. "That's my office number, but uh, my cell number and facebook is on the back. In case you have any questions, you know?"

Skye chuckled, taking the business card and nodding. "Sure, will do. Thanks Daniel."

He gave her a very charming smile as Skye and Coulson turned to leave.

Then someone else entered the room. He was a big man, not as muscular as Creel or Dial, but close, the broad chest and strong arms of a man who had done physical labor his entire life. He was wearing a similar outfit to Nakamura, only with an added jacket and hat. He had a handlebar mustache, an aged look on his face. He looked exhausted as he entered, which quickly turned to surprise when he saw Coulson and Skye. He looked like a modern cowboy, the sort of man who would have been fighting in old Westerns if it had been a few decades back.

"Eh? Hello folks," he said with a hint of an accent, raising a hand to remove his hat. "How can I help you?"

Coulson stepped forward. "Agent Phil Coulson of BRIDGE, this is Agent Skye," he said, holding a hand out, which the man shook. "You must be Sheriff John Daltry."

"That's me," the man said, looking very surprised to see them as he shook Coulson's hand, his grip firm as steel. "BRIDGE, the uh, the spy organization?"

"Yeah," Skye said, blinking. "You didn't know we were coming."

It wasn't a question. Daltry frowned, his craggy face full of emotion. "No, I didn't. As long as you ain't damn reporters. Had to deal with morons looking for the 'monster' in the swamps all damn day."

"Monster?" Coulson said placidally.

"Yeah," Daltry shook his head. "No idea what people have been seeing, but I think it has to do with whatever the hell gunfight was about in that lab of yours."

Coulson and Skye didn't look behind them at Nakamura. "It's why we're here. Deputy Nakamura told us you were out, and he didn't have a lot of information for us."

"Really?" Daltry scowled. "Damnit, Danny, I know I told you to keep things under the belt, but not from the damned Feds. Er, no 'fense meant."

"None taken."

"We've heard worse," Skye added.

"Sorry sir," Nakamura sounded like he meant it. Coulson smirked.

"Look, we have a survivor," Daltry grumbled, placing his hat back on his head. "At least, that's my theory. We found her in the swamp. We have no idea where the hell SHIELD's base is in the swamp, it's damn well hidden, but she was wandering the general vicinity. Spent the last few months recuperating. You want answers? My Jane Doe might have them."

"Jane Doe, huh?" Coulson cocked his head to the side. "You haven't even seen our badges yet."

"Ah, right," John chuckled, looking at Daniel. "Yeah, guess I assumed that you checked out the badges, Danny."

"I uh, forgot," Nakamura mumbled quietly.

"No problem," Coulson passed his badge over to John, who looked it over, taking Skye's and looking it over in turn.

"Danny, you really need to get better at this kind of thing, son," John said idly as he examined the badges.

Coulson glanced back at Nakamura. The Asian man had an annoyed look on his face.

"All right, that checks out," John returned the badges and opened the doors to the office. "Well, I'd rather not lollygag and talk when I could be working. You folks got a car?"

"No, we'd appreciate the ride," Skye said with a smile that was a little wider than before, striding past him as he held the door for her.

"Not a problem at all, miss," John said politely, letting Coulson out next. As the trio left the office, Coulson could feel Daniel Nakamura's eyes on them.

Coulson sat up front with the Sheriff as he spoke about the young woman.

"When we found her, she had no ID, nothing but the clothes on her back," John said calmly. "She's a redhead. More importantly, she's been in a psychiatric hospital for the last five months. I try and check on her, but… she got hit hard."

"I'll say," Skye said from the back, typing on a laptop. "Half her face got melted, damn."

"Wait, how do you know about that?" John asked, looking back at her.

"Well, it's on her files," Skye said idly, continuing to type. "Also, the Citrusville Psychiatric Hospital has some damn light security on their files."

"You _hacked_ the hospital!?"

Skye looked up, staring at him. "Uh… only a little bit?"

John gave Coulson a look. The agent gave him a helpless shrug. "She does do it a lot. She's just trying to help. Which, have you found anything interesting, Skye?"

"Just reports that she isn't talking to any of the therapists," Skye said. "I mean, she's lucid, and the doctors say they have seen her talking to patients and you, Daltry. But she clams up the second anyone with a medical degree shows up. Gotta say, I can relate to that."

"But it isn't helpful," the sheriff grumbled. "She'll talk about things like her favorite color, flowers, places she wants to go. But whenever we try to talk about what happened… she cries. Late at night, when the doctors make their rounds."

He sounded as though he was in pain.

"Well, it's still worth a shot," Coulson said as they pulled into the hospital parking lot. "Besides, sometimes during an interrogation, what people don't say can be as important as what they admit to."

"It's not going to be an interrogation," the sheriff growled. "Look, she may not be a snowflake, but she's been through a lot."

"I know she has," Coulson looked over at the sheriff, noting how emotional he was. "We'll be gentle. I promise. But we do need answers on what happened."

"..." the sheriff parked the car and got out.

"Wow, he really worries about her, huh," Coulson said to Skye.

"Yeah. He does," she said softly.

"...This woman, we're going to meet. We'll want to be careful with her."

"You trying to warn me to be nice?" Skye teased. "I think you hang out too much with May."

"I'm not telling you to be nice," Coulson said. Skye's mouth snapped closed as he gave her a hard gaze. "I'm telling you because there were two groups in that lab. SHIELD. And HYDRA."

Skye's eyes light with realization. "You think-"

"I don't think anything yet," Coulson opened his door. "I'm just warning you that this woman might not necessarily be on our side. So bring that."

He nodded towards her backpack. Skye nodded, placing it on as she followed, her chipper attitude fading. "Why does HYDRA manage to ruin everything?"

"Because they hate happiness, Skye. Because they hate happiness."

 _Melinda May/The Caval-Agent of Team SHIELD_

When the truck came to a stop in front of the base, May, Octavius, and Melati got to work. The two doctors came out of the back, wearing their lab coats over their normal clothes.

Melati had chosen a red tank-top and jean shorts, her clawed feet covered in specialized boots. May had noticed that Melati tended to wear clothes that showed a lot of her scaly skin to the world. She walked out of the back of the trailer with a wide smile on her lizard-esque face, her tail waving happily as she shouldered her backpack.

Octavius was dressed in a green wool vest over a black polo shirt, with khakis on that went down to a pair of brown Oxford shoes. So when he came out of the trailer and his feet landed on the ground, his shoes were immediately soaked in swamp muck.

"...Ah," Otto chuckled to himself, shaking his head. "I should have expected that."

"Even a genius has their bad days, huh?" Melati teased.

"None of us are infallible," Otto shrugged, looking around. Then he frowned. "I don't understand, I thought the lab was supposed to be here?"

'Here' was a random bit of swamp. The section they were in was particularly dark, the trees that rose up from the swamps waters shading it from most of the sunlight.

Otto stared at the ground for a moment. "Hmm… it must be underground," he said softly.

May gave him a look. Apparently he'd noticed that the ground was much more solid under the swamp muck than it should of been. It was the only reason the massive truck behind him wasn't currently sinking into the swamp.

"You're right," May went up to a tree that was as large around as a small car. She pressed a random piece of bark on said tree, which depressed inwards. The side of the tree split apart with a hiss of noise, revealing a round metal room inside. An elevator.

"Otherwise, anyone would have been able to find this place."

"Seriously?" Melati asked, her scaled face twitching. "An elevator to an underground base… SHIELD had no concept of funding, did they? How much did this all cost?"

"I wouldn't know…" May said softly. She wasn't really listening. Instead, she was looking at the floor. Otto and Melati stared as well.

It wasn't visible at first, since the darkness around them hid it. But a second look revealed the large spot of blood that soaked the floor of the elevator.

May entered the elevator, stepping around the dried red spot, and looked at Melati and Otto. "There was a battle. This won't be the last sign of it that we'll see."

Otto nodded, his face falling. "Yes… I suppose we'll have to be ready for some rather horrific sights."

"No use just talking about them," Melati walked forward grimly, stepping around the dried blood as well. "Let's get this done, right?"

May hid her approval at the business-like manner of the younger woman. She simply pressed the single button in the elevator once Otto had entered. With that, they began their journey into the lab.

As Coulson's team began their investigation, deep in the swamp, something began to move.

 _Author's Note:_ This chapter is a bit risky. Lately, people have been pushing for more chapters focused on Dial himself. Which is fair, as he is the main character. But I never want to forget that this is also an MCU/Ben 10 story, and I want to highlight those characters and their own adventures.

So, this chapter and the next will focus on Coulson and the team as they interact with one very important aspect of the Marvel universe. VERY. After that will be some of Dial's return as She-Hulk tells him about her own adventure.

Also, if anyone has questions on what the general gist of this story is pointing towards, googling Citrusville and Marvel can give some answers, but I'm willing to answer any questions you guys might have.


	102. Chapter 102

_Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD_

Once they entered the hospital, John Daltry led them to the room they needed to head to, once he'd spoken to the doctors and orderly's in charge. The psychiatric hospital as a whole looked relatively normal to Phil's experience. A big part of his work in SHIELD had dealt with patients who might be enhanced, so he had been in a few hospitals like this. Some had been as close to a horror movie version of an insane asylum as you could get, others the sorts of super-advanced facilities that looked more like spaceships than hospitals.

This hospital was smack dab in the middle in terms of overall quality. Not horrible, and not great.

Coulson stopped his internal judgment of the hospital's decor once they stopped in front of a door. Sheriff Daltry opened the door for them.

The second they entered, the person within turned to face them. Coulson looked her over.

She was taller than Skye or May, almost as tall as Daltry was. Her red hair was cut at her neck, and her eyes were a pale gray. Even in the dowdy grey gown that she was wearing, the facts remained. She was pretty.

Except for the left side of her face. A huge section of her face had been melted like acid had been poured over it, melting the skin from her forehead down to her chin into a mess of horrific-looking damage.

Skye and Coulson tried their best, but some measure of their horror must have shown on their faces. The woman winced, quickly pulling at her hair so that it covered half her face.

"Hey," Daltry said softly, smiling at her. "It's good to see you walking around, darlin."

The woman looked over at him. Her smile was beautiful. "It's good to see you, John. Who are these people?"

"These folks are from BRIDGE," the sheriff looked over at him. Which must have been why he missed the woman switching from a smile to a look of horror that she tried to hide. "They had a few questions for you."

"Yes," Coulson looked over at the sheriff. "Do you mind if we speak to her alone?"

Daltry stiffened, his eyes narrowing to give them a flinty glare. "Of course I do, damnit. She's been through enough, I ain't leaving her alone to get interrogated by you-"

"John," the woman interrupted. "It's okay… Just give us a minute, please," she gave him an odd look, her lip quivering.

"I-" John looked at her, then at Skye and Coulson.

"We aren't going to do anything to her," Skye said softly. "But some of what she knows might be classified, so we have to talk alone. I promise she'll be fine though."

Coulson winced. They might well have to arrest this woman, so making promises like that was impulsive, to say the least.

Still, it seemed to do the trick. Sheriff Daltry clenched his fists, then unclenched them. "Yeah… Yeah, all right," he looked at the woman. "But if anything happens, you call me, okay!?"

"I will," she smiled at him. Could have been fake, but Coulson thought he could see genuine emotion behind it. "Thank you, John."

The Sheriff nodded, giving a final look at Skye, Coulson, and the woman, before leaving. They could hear his heavy footsteps outside, loud enough that they could tell he'd stopped just a few feet from the door.

"...You know, there were only so many people that were listed among the SHIELD personnel on the base," Skye said quietly. "And none was a redheaded woman."

Coulson sighed. "But one of our scientists was dating one. One who had enough clearance to enter the base. Mrs. Barbara Sallis, formerly Bannister. When did you betray your boyfriend?"

The redheaded woman gave them a saddened look. "For six months, before the Triskelion incident… I suppose you want the full story?"

"As a start," Coulson said. "It would go a long way to making amends, ?"

"I-" she hesitated. "Where do I start?"

"With your recruitment, I believe," Coulson gestured to a chair, which she sat in with the finality of a woman on death row. "Tell us. How did it start?"

"...with Ted," Barbara shook her head slowly, tears filling her right eye, the left scarred one still covered by her hair. "It wasn't his fault. But it started with him."

Coulson and Skye shared a look. Skye looked… reluctant. Coulson couldn't blame her. This woman, vulnerable as she looked, could have been HYDRA. Like Garrett. Like Ward. Someone who had betrayed their friends and allies, for the sake of a fascist organization that went against everything they stood for.

After a quiet moment, Skye seemed to gird herself, stepping forward and grabbing a chair for herself. She sat down in front of the woman, placing her backpack on the ground next to her, and leaned forward. "Just tell us what you can. Please."

Barbara looked at Skye. Her hair had fallen back, revealing her face in its entirety, the scars on her left side shiny in the sunlight, a combination of pale white and red masses of damaged skin. Skye looked her in the eyes, not flinching.

Coulson had to guess Skye's ability not to be fazed after an initial look was due to her experience with far stranger looking things. Being friends with Dial, who had aliens ranging from undead Frankenstein monsters, giant bug-men, and mummy or giant eyeless dogs probably helped. But her compassion had to help as well.

Whatever the case, Coulson leaned back and listened as Barbara took a moment to think.

"...When Ted and I got together, he was… sweet. He cared about me. About people. He was kind and thoughtful. He was amazing."

"And then that started to change," Skye said softly.

"...Yeah," Barbara shook her head. "Ted started to become obsessed. He kept staying up late, working on his serum. I didn't worry about it too much, but then he started getting… distant. And I didn't mind that too much, at first. I started hanging out in town. Finding my own ways to relax, to feel useful. And Ted was always there, even if he started ignoring me in favor of his research… My dad was that way, sometimes.

"And then, he just got worse and worse. He kept on staying out at the lab all night, finding reasons to avoid me. He was so focused on his work… You know, his wife, before we started dating. She tried to warn me about that."

"Ellen Brandt?" Coulson asked. When Barbara nodded, he cocked his head to the side. "She was a member of AIM…"

"I remember," Barbara said softly. "...I just wanted him back. Wanted him to stop ignoring me. And then, a man came to me."

"From HYDRA?" Skye asked.

Barbara shook her head.

"AIM?" Coulson asked. After all, according to Dial, Ellen Brandt had betrayed Ted on behalf of AIM, maybe the same was happening here?

"No, no, he was," Barbara sighed. "He was from Hammer Industries."

"...That bootleg Stark wanna-be?" Skye asked, blinking.

Barbara winced. "Y-Yes."

Coulson held in a rough chuckle. Hammer. Thank god he hadn't let his preconceptions take over.

"He promised money," Barbara said softly. "H-He said that if some other company beat SHIELD to the super-soldier serum… Ted wouldn't need to work on it anymore. He could take some time off. Come back to me. I'd have the money to let us be alive. I don't understand why I listened. At some point it was like… Like it was my idea," she said softly, sounding lost and confused.

"The same reason why he went to you," Coulson said softly. He walked forward and crouched next to Barbara. "Men like that, they are trained to prey on people. To use psychological cues to find things that will make you lean into their train of thought. They lead you into their flow, convincing you by making you convince yourself. He saw that you felt neglected. And he caught you before you could reach out to anyone else. Made it so that you weren't able to think of any option except for himself. It's insidious. It's how spies have created spies for centuries," Coulson looked over at Skye. "SHIELD mastered the technique. I've done my best to avoid doing it. But it's worse than mind control, in some ways. Because it makes you feel responsible for it. And you end up blackmailing yourself. 'I did this, so I have no choice but to keep going'."

She didn't say anything. Coulson didn't expect her to. Barbara must have been alone for weeks at a time, thinking and rethinking all of her decisions. Trying to think about how she failed, how she could have done better.

Coulson had done the same thing after the Triskelion Incident. Looking back on his encounters with Ward, with Garrett, with other allies who turned out to be enemies. Thinking about the friends he had failed. The people he should have stopped. Everyone had regrets after all.

Barbara finally spoke. "I was supposed to collect the passwords Ted used. To send as much data as I could on what the lab had on the serum. I did that for weeks, getting paid for what I stole. I should have some money in a Cayman account actually," Barbara shook her head with a sardonic smile. "I might have hundreds of thousands of dollars waiting for me. And I don't care," her lip quivered. "One day, I was visiting Ted. He ignored me, again. I collected some data on the serum, something about Abraham Erskine creating a diet and exercise routine that would lead to similar effects to the serum if done over a lifetime of rigorous routine."

The way she said that, as though she was reading from a dictionary. How often had she gone over the events in her head?

"Then, early in the morning, Captain America came on the screens," Barbara said softly. "And the Hercules app activated. Half the guards and some of the scientists were HYDRA. And then the shooting started."

* * *

 _Melinda May/The Caval-Agent of Team SHIELD_

When the elevators opened, the first thing Melinda noticed was the smell. The horrific scent of decay had already filled the inside of the elevator, but the actual lab was so much worse.

"Oh my god!" Melati reeled back, clutching at her nose. "Ugh! That smell, that taste!" she gagged, quickly reaching for her bag and pulling out a gas mask, pulling it on hurriedly.

"Is it really so strong?" Otto asked, not having nearly the same level of reaction.

"It is to me," Melati said, coughing as she finished putting on the mask. "My senses are stronger than yours."

May, in the meantime, stepped forward into the lab. She stared around at the area. "Not sure what I expected. But this is-" she paused. "Different."

The lab was once a white pristine place. But now it was like stepping into a ruined jungle temple. The glass windows surrounding each separate section of the lab had been shattered. Concrete had been ripped through by vines as thick as May's arms. The mold was growing across the floor, walls, and ceilings. There were bullet holes everywhere, smashed equipment, portions of the place had been blown apart by explosions, and dirt was tracked throughout the facility. It was as though the swamp and lab had melded together, all while a battle had taken place. Flies and other insects buzzed around the area.

The dead lay across the floor. Reduced to skeletons, they dotted the area around them. Many had vines wrapped around them. One had a small tree growing through it, separating the bones so that they hung off the branches like macabre Christmas decorations. The flies buzzed around the bodies, moving to surround May.

Otto stepped forward, waving his hands in a futile attempt to brush away the flies moving towards him as his face dripped sweat. "My god. There must be at least… thirteen bodies here?"

"It looks like-" May was cut off when Otto spun away, followed by the sound of his gagging, then the splash of liquid pouring out of his mouth.

"...That doesn't help the smell," Melati mumbled to herself.

"Hrrrrk!" Otto said in response. He stayed bent over like that, clutching at a wall with one hand. After a moment, he bent back up, still sweating, and pulled a wet wipe packet from his pocket, ripping it open with shaking fingers and wiping his lips. "I-I'm sorry," Otto stuttered, stepping away from the pile of brown-green liquid and solid he'd made. "I've never really seen so much d-death."

May didn't respond. No reason to dig at him for a natural human response.

"It's not that bad," Melati grumbled, stepping forward to place her backpack on a relatively clean section of floor.

"...Yes, it is," Otto took a deep breath, taking out a small baggie and tossing his wet wipe into it. "B-but there is something strange, I think. This amount of plant-life, in a lab that should be sterile. Bodies d-decayed to this extent," he took another deep breath, hand still shaking. "Melati, you're the expert in biology. Should these bodies be in such a condition?"

"Hmm," Melati walked up to one of the bodies, leaning down to look at it. "No. If this lab was sterile, there shouldn't have been enough bacteria to cause this. And the air is much too humid. It's as if something pushed the swamp into the lab…"

She looked around. "I mean, there's no accounting for what might have happened, but no laboratory worth their salt would have such an unclean facility that it would end up like this. Even the most destroyed labs don't end up with levels of vegetation as this, not in mere months."

May looked around at the lab. She tracked her eyes across the bullet holes, frowning. "Dr. Octavius. Can you try and pull up the footage from the labs' cameras?"

"Yes," Otto clenched his fist, the portly man gathering himself, and walked forward just a bit shakily, giving the bodies a bit of berth as he walked. "I'll see what has remained."

Otto walked towards the back, May keeping a close eye on him. As he pulled out a laptop and placed it on one of the more intact tables, Melati touched a hand to one of the plants. Her claws came just short of running across the vines, coming up to a flower. After a moment, she reached into a bag and pulled on a pair of specialized gloves.

"Strange… this plant does grow in swamps, but… not in the Florida Everglades," Melati mumbled. She took out a knife and sliced off a piece of the plant, placing it in a baggie. "And this growth. It's as though something here made the plants grow years faster in only a few months. I've seen some experimental fertilizer that causes growth like this."

"Similar to Swampfire?" May asked, idly tracing her eyes across the marks of battle, noting the positions of the corpses. Something about them…

"Not even close," Melati said with a smile at May before she turned back to study the flowers. "I still want to study that form, but this kind of growth is nowhere near that insane. It's more like, extremely high-quality soil, the sorts of stuff I've only seen in labs, was spread all over the place. Hell, this might even be better than that…" Melati trailed off, taking a portion of the mud and debris spread across the ground in random sections to place in more baggies.

"These computers are destroyed," Otto said, sounding frustrated. "I'll have to take the hard drives to the truck if we want to recover anything."

"You can't just hack them here?" Melati asked.

Otto scoffed. "I am not 'hacking' them. Skye is the hacker. I'm simply attempting to recover the data… also, I already have SHIELD's passwords for this data."

He reached for several tools and worked at the computers for a while, finally pulling out two large blocks. Putting them into a container, he walked towards the elevator at a brisk pace.

"Get that done as soon as possible," May said as Otto passed. He came to a stop and blinked, looking over at her.

"I will… but I sense some urgency in your tone that wasn't there before. What is it?" Otto asked.

May didn't mince words. "I've been marking the positions of the bodies, the direction of the bullet holes. There may have been a third force at play in this fight. Someone that made SHIELD and HYDRA stop fighting each other and start fighting them."

"That is very… ominous," Otto decided.

"It's just a theory, which is why we need the footage now," May said.

"I will recover it immediately then," Otto rushed to the elevator, the doors closing behind him. For the next few moments, things were quiet, then Melati and May's comms went online. "Okay, I am here. The hard drives will take a moment to boot up," Otto said in their ears.

"Good," May said. "Coulson, you read me?"

It was quiet for a moment before Coulson spoke. " _Yeah. Just listening to a survivor,"_ Melati and May shared a look of surprise. _"She's telling her story. What do you have?"_

"Possible footage of the incident," May answered.

 _"Perfect. We can fact check her story,"_ Coulson said.

"You think she might be lying?" May asked.

 _"Let's just say she might not be entirely trustworthy, to be kind about it,"_ Coulson said sarcastically.

"I have something," Otto said, his voice sounding triumphant. After a moment, he began to narrate the footage, Coulson marking where the survivor's story linked up.

* * *

 _January 12, 2014, the day of the Battle of the Triskelion_

 _Barbara Bannister_

Within the lab under the Citrusville Swamp, Barbara stared at Steve Roger's face on the screen as he spoke, her eyes wide in horror. At first, when Captain America had said SHIELD had been infiltrated, she had the crazy thought that he was talking about her. About her deal with Hammer. Then he began to talk about HYDRA.

That old Nazi group? That HYDRA?

It sounded unbelievable. She looked over at Ted, who was staring at the screens in shock. The scientists and guards around the lab stared at each other, suspicion in their eyes.

Barbara spoke as Captain America said something about an app. "Ted, is he-"

Suddenly, Ted's phone vibrated, the sound somehow devastatingly loud. He looked at it.

His phone was shining bright green.

Other phones started to shine as well across the room. For a moment, as green light after green light shone, Barbara felt relief. Until red flashed. A loud sound came from out of nowhere. Barbara had no idea what had happened at first. Then another loud sound happened, red liquid splashing about. Some of it landed on Ted, who screamed in terror.

Barbara fell behind a desk. Her brain finally caught up for her to realize what the sounds that were echoing around them were gunshots.

She screamed, unable to help it when the sounds of glass breaking filled the air as well. Someone fell in front of her. A woman bleeding from her throat where she'd been shot. Jenny, a sweet lady who had always brought cookies in. Her phone was shining red. The HYDRA operative reached out towards Barbara, fear and pain in her eyes as she gaped at her. Her mouth let out a small gasp of noise, blood spilling from her to pour on the ground.

"Oh god," Barbara whispered desperately. "Oh go-"

The table next to her exploded, sending her flying back. Barbara screamed again as she landed on the floor, her ears ringing, vision black. For a moment, she couldn't comprehend anything. When her vision returned, it was cloudy. Someone reached down toward her, a hand grabbing her shoulder. She screamed as the hand pulled her up and dragged her away.

"Barbara, calm down!" the man pulling her yelled in her ear. "It's me!"

Ted. Ted was the one pulling her. Barbara clutched at him. Ted had always been strong for a scientist, but today he lifted her into his arms with incredible ease, running out of the room as fast as he could. More bullets rang out around them until he had pulled her into a back room. She realized that he was bleeding. He was also carrying some sort of silver briefcase under his other arm. They staggered down the hallway, running towards a door in the back.

"W-Where are we going?" Barbara spat out in pain. She felt blood pouring down her legs. She couldn't tell if it was hers or poor Jenny's.

"The back," Ted coughed, smoke in the air as he pulled her along. "We need to escape through the swamp!"

"Wha-"

He stopped at a door in the back of the facility, hurriedly slapping his hand against the panel on the side. For a heart-stopping moment, the doors stayed shut, bullets flying around. Someone screamed behind Barbara. She looked behind her, at the bodies of those she knew dying or killing.

The doors slid open.

* * *

 _May 18, 2014_

 _Melinda May_

The doors slid open. May entered through them, following the path Barbara and Ted had taken. "What is this place, Doctor?" she asked Octavius.

 _"Well according to the files of Project Gladiator, that was, uh, the name of this project, the project lead, Dr. Wilma Calvin, discovered that the Florida Everglades had several conditions ripe for materials that could be used to replicate the serum. That back room is a garden of sorts,"_ Otto said over the comms.

"I'll say," May said, staring with wide eyes at the sight before her.

The room was square, with glass cases all around, computers resting on the walls. In the center of the room was a pool of swamp water, apparently connected to the swamp outside.

Except every inch of the room was covered in plants. Even more thickly than in the other rooms. And almost all the plants were growing outward from the direction of the pool. It looked as though a garden from heaven had been grown in the center of the lab, flowers spread across the plants, some petals falling onto the pool.

Melati gasped as she entered after May. "God… this is just…"

Then she stopped speaking when she saw the bodies. Five spread out across the floor, three more slumped against the wall, all with plants growing over them.

"What happened here?" Melati said, looking around.

 _"I'm getting footage of the inside of that section,"_ Otto said. _"I have the moment when Mrs. Bannister and Dr. Sallis entered."_

* * *

 _January 12, 2014, the day of the Battle of the Triskelion_

Barbara stared at the lab around her until Ted finally pulled her in. "What is this place?"

"The garden," Ted gasped, pulling her forward towards the pool. "The water opens out into the swamp, just a few feet," he pulled her. "Just a few feet, Barbara. We can-"

Blood splashed Barbara's face as a gunshot filled the air. Ted gasped. Suddenly, he wasn't carrying her. Instead, the weight of the man came down on her. She stumbled, fell to her knees.

Ted stared at her. Her Ted, so big and strong, fell. His chest was red. That was strange, his shirt had been white. He looked so confused. Not cute confused, just as though he was… lost.

Then she realized what was happening. Ted landed in the pool, spraying water about as the briefcase in his hands fell open. Barbara heard a scream. Her throat felt raw and ripped when the scream kept getting louder. She reached out and grabbed at Ted, pulling at his lab coat. But he was sinking under the water.

"Ted!" Barbara tried to bring him close. He reached out for her. "Ted, please! Plea-" someone grabbed her from behind. "No!" Someone punched her in the face, sending her flying back. She barely got a glimpse of Ted finally sinking into the water. Pale blue chemicals soaked the water around him, the liquids coming from the briefcase he'd been carrying. Swamp water swirled over his lips as he gasped. The chemicals and swamp water filled his mouth. He looked so scared, as blood poured from his chest. Then he sank under the depths.

"No, no no no," Barbara whimpered. Someone punched her again.

"Goddamn it!" One of the men said. She blearily looked around, the pain in her face nearly blinding her. Three men, all wearing heavy gear, were staring at the water. One turned from it to grab her, pulling her up. "We lost the samples!"

"We just need to take the base," one of the other men growled. "We get the files, Dr. Calvin, we're set."

"What about her?" The man grabbing her smashed her in the back of the head with his fist.

"First, stop being a dick, Karl," another of the men said as Barbara fell to the ground. "Second, we don't need her. Kill her and be done with it."

"Fine, fine," Karl said. Barbara was pulled up, a pistol pressed to her forehead. "Ruin my-"

"Down!"

Five men rushed into the room, pointing guns at the men. "Down damn it!"

"Back off!" Karl manhandled Barbara, keeping the gun close to her. "Back off or she dies!"

"Damn it, Karl, I always knew you were an asshole!" one of the men shouted.

The men kept on shouting at each other. Barbara felt her arm get pulled back until it started to feel like it was breaking. She screamed.

The water from the pool exploded upwards. Everyone spun around, guns were raised.

They froze in fear at what they saw there. Rising from the pool, the being within screamed.

Barbara stared in horror. The creature was thrashing as it screamed, fingers clutching at the air. Liquid poured off of it. Its body looked… decayed. As though someone had taken a man, and poured acid over it. Ribs dripped swamp water into a cavity where the stomach should have been. Muscles, white and thick, ripped apart, melted, with a sick sucking sound. The smell of plants rotting, so familiar, seemed to fill the room with a physical presence. It looked like… like a dead man was rising from the swamp. The stuff of nightmares.

"...Te-" Barbara began to say.

"Open fire!" forgetting their fight, every soldier in the room started shooting. Bullets flew into the creature. They took chunks of it's ribs out, tore into its head and teeth, sending bits of brain, muscle, and bone into the air.

The creature stopped screaming. It stopped thrashing. The mouth it once had faded slowly away, swamp water flowing across it, covering the thing in muck. It's entire body was ripped apart. And still, it stood.

And before all of their eyes, as the bullets finally stopped and everyone began to reload, it started to move. At least, that's what it looked like at first. Like it was standing up or bending. Until Barbara realized vines were moving up from the swamp water. Bones dissolved, replaced with thick green cords of plant matter. Muscle snapped, tore, stripped itself, as mulch and mud moved up to replace them. It grew and grew until the creature stood at it's full height.

Someone screamed in fear. The creatures' eyes snapped open. Scarlet orbs burned in a green face, steaming in the light. It made no noise. Only stared. Then it moved forward with deceptive speed, grabbing one of the men by his face. The man struggled for long enough to fire his gun. Then he began to scream.

Steam rose from around the green fingers. Flesh bubbled and melted apart.

"AHHHHH! AHHH, AHHH!" the man squealed, babbling nonsensically. He grabbed at the creature, pulling and ripping at the plant monster, pieces of mulch and vines shredding apart. His fingers melted on contact with the creature, but he couldn't stop touching it, trying to escape.

It didn't matter. He continued to burn under the creatures' touch.

He died screaming. And as he did, the creature turned to the next person. The woman he grabbed desperately pulled out a knife and tried to slice it apart where it grabbed her arm. It didn't care. This thing, this monster. It just lifted her and boiled her with it's acid.

The soldiers tried to fight it. It didn't matter. It swiped a man's head clean off his shoulders, boiled another's face off and until the day she died, Barbara knew she'd remember the nightmare of a man's screams gurgling as his throat melted to mush. Seven people, dead in moments. Karl pulled back from Barbara. His grip slid off of her. The creature walked toward them. Karl began to shoot him. The creature grabbed Karl and lifted him skyward. Then, it pulled back, before slamming the man against the wall. The wall stood strong. The man, on the other hand, broke with a sound that was a combination of a crunch and a wet squelch that she'd never get out of her head. Karl gasped. The moment his mouth opened, the creature pressed his other hand to it. Karl's eyes widened. Muffled screams began, only to be replaced with the sound of hissing. Karl's throat began to melt from the inside as Barbara realized acid had poured into his mouth. His legs twitched, piss and melted flesh pouring down them. Slowly, he died.

Then the creature turned to her. It let go of Karl, letting him fall, then stalked towards her. Barbara tried to crawl backward, but it was soon upon her. It placed a hand on her face.

The pain that followed… it felt like she was burning and freezing all at once. She cried in horror, trying to pull back. The creature stared into her eyes.

And suddenly she just… she stopped. She would never be able to explain it. But she wasn't afraid anymore. Because one thought filled her then. Once she died. She'd be with Ted.

The creature's eyes glowed scarlet. Green lids slowly fell. Until it's eyes closed. And the pain stopped. Barbara gasped as relief suddenly flooded her mind. The creature leaned towards her, pressing his head to hers. The sensation of pain fading away made her cry. Then, suddenly, she was in water.

Barbara swam through filth for an unknown amount of time. Then, with a suddenness that shocked her, she was in the air again. In the swamp above the lab. She breathed in the swamp air for a long time, staring up at the sky.

* * *

 _May 18, 2014_

 _Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD_

Skye held onto Barbara's hands. The redhead was shaking, her knuckles almost painfully tight on Skye's hands.

"I was in the swamp for… I don't know, a few hours?" Barbara shook her head. "John found me… I've been here since then."

"How did you end up in the swamp in the first place?" Skye asked her. "You say you were in pain, then relief. Then you were just… in the water?"

Barbara nodded quietly. Octavius spoke over the comms. _"The creature placed her in the water."_

"Say that again?" Coulson said, turning away from Barbara and Skye.

 _"The creature, this strange being, similar in make-up to Swampfire, really I hope we can find some genetic samples to compare the two and-"_

"Doctor, please," Coulson said. "Focus. What did the creature do?"

 _"Ah, apologies. The creature, rather than finishing the job and k-killing Mrs. Bannister,"_ Otto sounded horrified, stopping to take a shuddering breath. Coulson held back a bit of frustration at that. Octavius was probably shaken from the footage he'd seen. Seeing men and women boiled alive by a creature made of plants was probably horrifying, after all.

 _"He lifted her and pushed her into the water. With a surprising amount of gentleness. And then he left the room and…"_ Otto swallowed. _"Well. The SHIELD and HYDRA agents went from fighting each other to trying to kill the creature. But it was simply unstoppable. The way the creature regenerated from attacks, killed the men… when it finished. It swam into the water-hole as well."_

"It went into the water?" May asked over the comms.

 _"Yes, after it killed-"_

May interrupted. "The water that Melati and I are standing in front of?"

"Shit!" Melati said.

"Get out of there, now!" Coulson shouted, spinning to Skye. "If that creature knows the way out, it knows the way in."

"We need to go and back them up," Skye said quickly. She let go of Barbara and grabbed her backpack. "I'm sorry, we have to-"

"I understand," Barbara said quickly. "Go."

Skye and Coulson looked at the redhead for a moment. "No time," Coulson said at last. "Mrs. Bannister, we'll be seeing you as soon as possible."

Coulson rushed out the door, Skye following right after. Coulson walked down the hallways as the doors shut on Barbara behind them, the young woman left sitting in her chair. Alone.

Down the hallway, John Daltry was speaking to a doctor. He turned to look at them, only to freeze at the sight of Coulson's face. "What happened?"

"We know what happened," Coulson said firmly. "But my team is in danger."

To his credit, Daltry didn't hesitate. He nodded and turned to leave, only for Coulson to stop him with his words to the doctor.

"I need you to make sure Mrs. Bannister doesn't escape," Sheriff Daltry spun around to stare at Coulson. "She is a security risk, for many reasons. Keep her under lock and key until we can get BRIDGE agents to speak with her."

"Coulson!" Skye said, shocked. "We don't have to do that, she's-"

"She is a spy," Coulson said firmly. "The fact she cooperated will help, especially if she keeps that up, but she was trading government secrets. Protocol is clear."

Sheriff Daltry scowled, his fists tightening. "If you think-"

"We don't have time!" Coulson said. Skye and the doctor jumped, while Daltry glared. "I want to be nice about this, I do. But right now, three of mine might be in the vicinity of a killer. I want to get to them so they have backup. So I'm sorry for being brief, but we need to get this done-"

"Okay," Daltry cut him off. "Fine. I've already got Nakamura headed here to guard her. But I'm coming with you. No one knows these swamps better than me."

Coulson smirked. "You kinda have to. You're our ride."

As they headed out, Octavius began to speak again. " _Agent Coulson. I've recovered the data from after the creature escaped. There are days of nothing happening. Then, weeks later… Agent May noticed that all the soldier's gear and weapons were missing. And now we know why. They were stolen. A group of men dressed in black clothing broke into the facility, stripped the corpses and armory of their equipment, and escaped."_

Coulson and Skye shared a dark glance. Someone had stolen SHIELD weapons and armor. Weapons that, back in January, were the most advanced in the world.

"Sheriff, we may need to be more prepared than I thought," Coulson said darkly.

Skye, in the meantime, opened her backpack.

* * *

 _Otto Octavius_

Octavius watched the footage in front of him with a careful eye. On the screen, dozens of men were roaming about, stealing things from the facility. He wasn't sure what to think about that. May and Melati were just about to come out of the facility as well, but this old footage was far more interesting than he believed. He looked from screen to screen, humming. Strange. Even as there were men inside the facility stealing, it seemed like there were more outside the place roaming towards a trailer of some sor-

Octavius was among the smartest men on Earth. So it only took a second for his brain to comprehend what was happening, that the footage of the men striding towards the trailer was currently happening and streaming from _their_ truck's cameras.

Then he was ripping a microphone off the desk. "May, there are men with guns outs-!"

A loud booming sound came from outside. Octavius yelped, turning to look at the doors. "MAY!"

More booming noises followed. "They're shooting at the doors!"

 _Melinda May_

May heard Octavius' warning just before the elevator doors slid open. Her eyes widened when three men pointed guns at her. In the heartbeat, before they started shooting, she ran over her options.

The elevator was too small to hide in. The area between them and the gunmen was nothing but open ground. The men were still lifting their guns towards her. Melati hadn't noticed yet, she'd been studying her samples. No way to run.

So May attacked.

In a massive lunge, she leaped forward. Someone fired a shotgun, but she'd moved to keep out of their line of fire. Melati hadn't. When the sound of a bullet hitting flesh came from behind her, May forced herself not to flinch. Later. Worry later. Fight now.

She came to a stop in front of the man on the right, who had been the furthest back, then grabbed his gun and pushed it upwards. The butt of the gun slammed into his face. She pulled it back as he staggered away, spinning the gun around and pulling the guy forward as a human shield. One of his allies shot at her and his friend instead. Assault rifle rounds chewed through SHIELD-issued armor, but May was already ducking behind a tree, her stolen gun in hand as the guy she'd used as a shield fell to the swamp floor.

"Damn it!"

"Kill the bitch!"

Bullets hit the tree she hid behind, chewing through the bark flying around her head. Amateurs. May listened closely. Several different guns were firing. So there were more men than the original three she'd seen. Based on how the bark was flying past her…

She popped out of cover, aiming towards three men. With short controlled bursts, she hit all three in the gut, where the armor was slightly lacking. Blood sprayed into the air, intestines spilling forth. Then May ducked back into cover.

"Fuck me!" One of the wounded men shouted.

May pursed her lips. Damn. There were a lot of them. Most were trying to breach the truck, but she'd seen a few coming to join their friends in trying to flush her out. She needed to mov-

"Krk-krkrkrkrkrk!"

A sound came from the elevator. It sounded like… not a roar. Like a beast was growling and screaming all at once. A noise of rage and pain. It chilled May to the bones, that sound like a saw running along bones.

May poked her head out for a moment. Then she saw it. Behind one of the men. Standing tall, her scales glittering in the light, blood pouring from her stomach wound. Melati Kusama's fangs were grinding. Her eyes glowed. The soldier she was standing behind began to turn. Melati slashed out with superhuman speed. Claws tore through armor and skin, and the man screamed.

The other men spun to point their weapons at her, but she was already moving forward and picking another man up, tossing him at the rest with that loud sound like a saw scraping and breaking bones.

"HURT!" Melati roared. Someone shot her in the shoulder. As May watched, the bullet-hole stopped bleeding mere seconds after being created. That only made Melati angrier. "HURT!"

She leaped forward, claws first. May circled the tree to shoot a few more men to back up the superhuman and heard the trailer's back doors break open.

They were going to attack Octavius. And May couldn't stop them.

* * *

 _Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD_

Phil clutched tightly to the door handle as the sheriff's car took the sort of drifting turn one would see in a Japanese anime. "Where'd you learn to drive like this!?"

"That wasn't on purpose!" Daltry shouted, gunning the engine.

"I miss Lola!" Skye screamed from the back.

They were driving way over the speed limit over the back roads of the swamp, bouncing up and down as they went.

"I can slow-" Daltry began to yell.

"No!" Coulson said back. "If they're in a firefight, we need to help. May has two non-combatants to protect, they need help!"

"Oh good," Daltry grinned way too widely. "Cause I always wanted to do this."

Coulson was about to ask what he meant, only to clam up when he realized what was up ahead. A hill up along the road. A hill that was perfect as a ramp in some 80's action-comedy show.

"Oh no," Skye whispered behind them.

They sped up the hill and up into the air. Daltry let out a very familiar whoop of 'Yee-haw!' Coulson's grip on the door handle turned white. Skye let out a sound that was half-shriek, half-shout.

The sheriff's car landed almost supernaturally perfectly on the other side and kept pushing along the roads while sending up clouds of dust.

"Eat your heart out, Duke Boys," Daltry said. They continued for just a moment before the radio blasted forth.

 _"Sheriff!?"_ the loud sound of Nakamura's voice dragged their attention.

Daltry ripped the mouthpiece off and handed it to Coulson. "I'm driving, talk to him."

Coulson didn't hesitate. "This is Phil Coulson, Daltry's focused on driving but he can hear you. What is going on?"

 _"He went quiet for a bit, I wanted to ask him that,"_ Nakamura sounded worried. More so than necessary. _"Is he, is he still helping you, folks?"_

"...Yes," Coulson said simply.

 _"Ah…"_ Nakamura let out a deep sigh. _"Damn. And I guess you folks are going to help your friends in trouble near the lab."_

Daltry froze. The car began to slow. He reached over to grab the mouthpiece. "Danny… How do you know they're in trouble?"

"Sorry, John," Nakamura said. The radio cut out. Daltry spun the wheel around on instinct when a camo painted jeep came roaring out of the swamps down a side road. It barreled up next to them and pulled alongside. A long black tube stretched out of the side window.

"Down!" Daltry roared just before the shotgun roared. The side window shattered as they all ducked. "Fuck!"

The jeep roared, and the shotgun fired again. Coulson reached for his Lawgiver, the massive weapon almost comical in his hands. On grabbing it, he pulled it close to his face. "High Ex!"

The gun let out a loud beep. Coulson popped up from cover and aimed at the engine of the jeep, firing.

BOOM!

The engine blew outwards in a fire. The overall jeep was fine, but the grates of the engine began to blow out flames, the side of the jeep deformed. The vehicle slowed down massively. Coulson aimed again, fired at the tire.

BOOM!

The whole jeep twisted, flipping upwards onto it's back as it's front right tire blew apart in the middle of a high-speed chase. Daltry twisted the steering wheel away and glanced behind him as the jeep skidded on its rooftop. "Jesus Christ!"

He looked over at Coulson, who raised the Lawgiver to his face and pointed straight ahead. "Keep driving!"

Daltry looked forward again with a shake of his head. "Can't believe I'm living in an action movie."

"You get used to it!" Skye said from the back.

"Up ahead!" Coulson pointed ahead again.

Two beat-up old trucks, the sort that every farmer in the south had, were blocking the road. In the center was a Sheriff department jeep. And the three cars had dozens of men with guns hiding behind them.

"Jesus H. Christ," Daltry growled, rolling the car to a stop.

"Looks like Deputy Nakamura wants a conversation," Coulson couldn't help but quip.

In the distance, just barely visible to them, they could see Daniel Nakamura, carrying an assault rifle and wearing armor over his uniform. He was lifting a loudspeaker to his lips.

"John!" he shouted into the loudspeaker. "John! We don't want to hurt you. We just want the agents. If you let us take them, we'll let you go. I'll even cut you in on all this."

John, in answer, ripped the mouthpiece off the radio and yelled into it. "Damn it, Danny, what the hell have you been doing!? You _stole_ government weapons!"

Danny chuckled into the loudspeaker. "Come on, John. We get paid less for our job then guys who bang rocks into other rocks. You gonna blame me for selling a few grenades?"

"We all wanted a better life, John!" one of the other men said. "You can't blame us for that."

John pulled away from the mouthpiece and grumbled to himself. "I can if you start firing a damn _shotgun_ at me."

"Okay, this is dumb," Coulson said, turning to look at Daltry. Nakamura kept speaking as Coulson ignored him. "Sheriff. I'm not sure how much Deputy Nakamura has done. But he's currently threatening our lives. He's trying to kill me and Skye-"

"Damn you," Daltry whispered, his voice raw. He looked at Coulson. His eyes were shaking. For a moment, Coulson was worried he was going to attack him. Then Daltry lifted the mouthpiece to his lips. "Danny… I wish you hadn't done this. If you give up, we can speak to a judge. But if you don't-"

"Don't be stupid, John!" Nakamura crowed into the loudspeaker. "I have twenty guys with me, all armed with SHIELD's best guns. What do you have!?"

"...They aren't called SHIELD anymore," John said sadly. "And those weapons you have are outdated now."

"That's my cue," Skye said with a grim smile, lifting her hands to place something on her head. She kicked her door open and stepped outside. As she stood in the light, it was easy to see what she was wearing.

Skye stood tall in a black chest piece of armor that glowed with green lines. A pair of black gauntlets rested on each arm, covering her from fingertips to elbow. A helmet came around her face to wrap around her head completely. She raised a hand, the center of her palm glowing with a purple light before firing.

A plasma blast split the air, slamming into one of the trucks and sending it sliding back a couple of feet. The blast also melted a hole through the metal, dripping molten steel on the floor.

"HOLY FUCK!" Nakamura yelped, ducking back.

"Come on!" Coulson yelled at John. "She'll need back up!"

"On it!"

Coulson grinned when John, unfazed by the armor-wearing young woman currently firing plasma bolts. Instead, he reached behind him, pulled a shotgun out, and spun out of the car, moving behind the car while Skye kept shooting. Coulson joined him, and together the pair raised their guns. Daltry looked from his shotgun to Coulson's Lawbringer.

"Don't suppose you have another one?" Daltry asked, popping out of cover to fire towards the men and women currently hiding behind their trucks.

"One of a kind, sorry! ICER!" the gun beeped as Coulson spun out of cover and fired the Lawgiver. One of the men was shot in the shoulder and immediately passed out. That was the beauty of ICER's. Hit someone anywhere and they would always go down, as opposed to just fighting through the pain of a bullet hole.

John popped up as well and fired, his shotgun bucking in his hands. Danny shouted.

"DID YOU JUST SHOOT AT ME!?" the deputy shouted over the loudspeaker.

John shot again, getting a loud yelp. He was forced to duck down when some bullets hit the car near him, a line of holes running along the trunk and shattering the back window. Skye stood behind the car door and kept shooting palmfuls of plasma, the powerful blasts eating through steel and rubber.

"If they aren't being stupid, they'll try to flank us," Coulson shouted, spinning to his feet to fire again. He missed but caught sight of the back of Skye's hands opening up to reveal two small tubes. She aimed and fired, catching one of the women in the stomach with an ICER round. As that woman passed out, she fired again and again, only to switch to plasma when a few men began to move to flank. Skye fired the plasma rounds into the ground in front of them, sending dust and swamp water exploding upwards and driving the men back.

"She's good at this," John said to himself.

Even in the heat of battle, Coulson had a moment to agree with the sheriff. Then he rose and kept shooting. "May, we've been delayed! What's going on in your end?"

* * *

 _Otto Octavius_

Otto was terrified. The doors of the trailer were buckling inwards, the entire thing shaking around him. He was desperately running around the lab, trying to figure out a way to escape. The men outside would break in soon enough. He would need to find a way to get out of the trailer.

He looked at the screens displaying what the cameras outside were seeing. The men outside were fighting May and Melati. His fellow scientist kicked one man in the chest, sending him flying back to crash into a tree with bone-crushing force.

Otto knew that Melati had gained a slew of powers due to her transformation. The young scientist could now lift just over half a ton, move as fast as Captain America, heal wounds at impressive speed, and had obtained the natural weaponry of claws and teeth. However, he had never considered her a 'fighter'. For all her fearsome appearance, she was a scientist first and foremost.

Now though, she let out a sound Otto could hear through the trailer's walls. Like a chainsaw running along bone. One of the women attempting to attack them shot her in the chest. Melati roared again and attacked that woman. The black-armored woman shot her again with a pistol, then Melati sliced outwards with animal ferocity. Claws tore across the woman's face. She screamed audibly as four red gashes blossomed on her face. Melati picked up the woman and tossed her back, sending her into the treetops. Another person tried to attack Melati from behind, only for Melati's tail to lash out in a vicious blow to the man's face, sending him tumbling.

More people tried to surround Melati. May made that impossible. The agent was flitting through the trees like a shadow. Even with the aid of the cameras, Otto could barely make her out. Until one man was shot in the right kneecap, tumbling to the ground in agony. A woman was hit in the throat, collapsing in a spray of blood. The rest pulled back into cover when another spray of suppressing fire came from May. The man May had shot in the kneecap tried to crawl away. An enraged Melati punched him as he lay on the ground.

But more men were still trying to break in, even as May and Melati distracted the rest.

The trailer shook. Otto closed his eyes for just a second to run things down in his head. This was a problem. He needed a solution. Just like all things, knowledge and intelligence would carry him through it. One of the finest minds on the Earth ran down the facts at incredible speeds.

There had been twenty-three men and women when all the people on the screens had first appeared. Three men had been initially defeated by May and Melati. Then one woman tossed into the trees, one man knocked out by a tail swipe, one woman shot in the throat, one man knocked out. Three men were trying to break into the trailer. The rest, thirteen, were focused on Melati and May.

So help wasn't coming. In his brief time in the trailer, Otto hadn't managed to learn about any weapons. While he had obtained some basic weapons training as part of his induction into BRIDGE, he didn't carry a pistol as a matter of course. So he would need to improvise.

Strange. His mind had quickly turned from flight to fight. The instinct of the body to turn to attack when all other resources failed, perhaps?

Otto moved even as he mused on that idea. Quickly, he began to search the shelves of the lab. Weapons, weapons, a way to fight back.

"Chemicals," Otto mumbled. He grabbed a small package and read the word along the side. cesium.

The label also had dozens of warnings, and the package had been surrounded by foam, with several other safety features in place to protect the material. No need to be complex about his improvisation. Simplicity is the weapon of the desperate after all.

He placed the package on a counter, took a portion of the soft metal out of the protective packaging and carefully put it into a half-liter glass bottle which had two compartments. The cesium filled one of those compartments about halfway. He took care to grab another chemical, one that would make for a very volatile reaction on top of the cesium. Then he ran to a nearby fridge, pulling out a clear glass bottle filled with chilled water. As he did, he sighted his main project. It sat on a cart, ready to be worked on. For a heart-stopping moment, he froze.

His mind warred with itself. His project was one of hope. One to aid those who had nowhere to turn. Not a weapon of war, but a tool to make the world better. His desperation and logical mindset fought against romanticism.

The trailer shook again. Desperation won.

Otto grabbed his main project's cart and pushed it into the conference room, just behind the door. Then he rushed out to the cesium resting on the counter, grabbing the water as well and pouring the cold water very carefully into the glass bottle with the cesium, very carefully keeping the water and cesium separated, as well as the third chemical.

KABOOM!

The doors imploded inwards. Otto shouted in surprise and pain as he stumbled back, his ears ringing horribly.

"We're in!" one of the men shouted. "Grab that guy, now!"

Grab. Not kill. They wanted to take him hostage. To use him to force Melati and May to concede.

Unacceptable.

Something within Otto clenched at his chest. It was bitter. Angry. For a moment, he felt his heartbeat in his ears, booming. Someone entered the trailer. One of the soldiers. He was a big man, overweight, but muscular under the fat. He had black armor on. Despite how advanced the armor looked, it was also ill-fitting, slabs of fat poking out around the straps. Of course, it was ill-fitting. It was stolen.

As was the shotgun in his hand.

Otto stared at the man. The man glared at him and barked. "Come here you little shit!"

The words. They triggered a memory immediately. _"Come here you little shit!"_

As the man stepped forward, Otto wasn't seeing a soldier in black armor.

He saw his father.

Fear, anger, and old heartache filled him. And the urge to hurt someone flowed in Otto Octavius like blood in the veins. He tossed the cesium/water/undisclosed filled bottle at the man while jumping back with a loud shout. The man shouted in response, raising his arm to block the bottle. The glass shattered on his arm. Three chemicals mixed in the air as the glass shattered. The cesium reacted as it met the water. For a heart-stopping moment, nothing happened. Just a wet and angry man carrying a shotgun. Then the cesium exploded on the man's skin. Flesh and skin shredded apart. The man screamed. The third chemical reacted as the explosion hit it, blowing up as well. The man was sent flying out of the hole he'd created in the truck, falling on the swampy ground outside screaming.

Otto didn't stop to watch. He was running already, even as someone behind him shouted 'FUCK!'

He entered the section of the trailer that contained the conference table, where he'd wheeled in his personal project. Working quickly, he grabbed a glove off the cart the project was on, placing it hurriedly on his right hand. He hesitantly turned on the battery underneath the cart. After a few motions with his right hand, he winced. Not as dexterous as he would have wanted. But then, that was okay. He didn't need precision. Just power. He got as far from the door as he could.

The loud sound of someone running towards him sent a jolt of fear through Otto. He clenched an untrained fist. A woman rushed into the room. Otto swung his fist in a clumsy punch, his back and abdomen screaming in pain, followed by his shoulder.

His project moved. Made of black metal and plastic, shaped roughly like a human arm attached at the shoulder to a pole. The arm had several wires running from the pole to the cart, to it. When Otto punched, it was almost hilariously slow, but the robotic arm on the cart moved the instant he did, commanded by the motion-capture glove he was wearing. Electric signals flowed through the air to force the arm to move. With far more speed and power.

A mechanical fist smashed into the woman's stomach with a horrendous _smack_. She let out a loud gurgle of pain, her finger reflexively pulling the trigger on her gun. Otto screamed in pain when a bullet hit him in the shoulder. The feeling of a hot knife slicing through skin and flesh was unbearable. He reflexively lashed out. The mechanical arm whined as it snapped upwards, smashing into the woman's chin with a sickening crack. Otto fell back, blood streaming down his arm.

"Confound you!" Otto shouted as he landed on his back. "Oh god!"

He stared at his wound. Good lord. He could see into himself. A great gaping hole, with flesh opened to the air. The feeling of hot blades in his shoulder made him want to scream.

"You!" someone shouted, drawing Otto's attention. He looked up at the man who entered, stepping over the unconscious form of the woman he'd punched with his project on prosthetics technologies. "You piece of shit!"

The man spoke with a Southern accent and wore a trucker hat. He was also carrying a shotgun. He had mud-green eyes that were wide with rage. "I'm going to kill you!"

Otto desperately waved his arm, screaming as he did so. The prosthetic project spun around to hit the man. The man blocked it on his forearm, then kicked the cart, sending Otto's project sprawling onto the ground.

Otto tried to think of a way out. But he'd run out of options. Exhausted everything. As he stood there, staring at the man who stalked towards him, fear flooded his body.

And then, the screaming began. Not from Otto. From outside the trailer.

Otto and the man looked at the screens in the conference room, which showed what the cameras outside were picking up. And both stopped to stare.

* * *

 _Melinda May_

May rolled to get behind a tree, then spun out of cover as bullets hit where she had been. She fired back at the attackers, then swept out the legs of one of them when they approached, punching him in the face when he tried to stab her with a knife. Nine people left to fight. If it wasn't for Melati, May would have had much more trouble. But the reptilian woman had lost any semblance of humanity. She was screaming in rage, her eyes blackened in fury. May raised her gun.

Then someone screamed. Not like the shouts of rage or pain that had been filling the air. This one was a screech.

May ducked behind a tree and poked her head out in the direction of the scream. Then she froze.

One of the soldiers was shooting in the direction of the swamp. And striding towards them, was the creature.

Eight feet tall, walked through the swamp with red eyes set firmly forward. There was something surreal about the sight of the creature in the daylight. The sun shone upon emerald arms as they swung back and forth. Its body was soaked in water and the swamps at its feet seemed to _part_ in front of it. It didn't make a sound.

But when the soldier that was shooting it screamed, red eyes snapped to land on him. May's own eyes widened. And the creature shifted it's path. And suddenly, Melati was no longer the focus of attention.

The soldiers kept shooting at the green creature, attempting to destroy it. Bullets passed through it, spurts of green ejecting out it's back with every shot. It didn't care. Its eyes were on the soldier who'd screamed. The soldier who was slowly backing away, his eyes wide, his small red beard shaking as he quivered. The eight other soldiers weren't as frozen. Three ran to fight Melati, who snarled even as she had her stomach shot out. Two more stayed with the scared solder. The rest rushed the creature, switching their guns for melee weapons. May, not missing her chance, reloaded her stolen assault rifle in the meantime, ignoring the soldiers fighting the creature to aid Melati.

As the two men ran towards the creature, one of them yelled a battle cry, lifting a machete high. He sliced the creature's right arm off in a vicious attack, sending the limb bouncing onto the ground. The man let out a victorious cry.

The creature didn't spare a glance. It kept moving. The right arm it had lost sank into the swamp. And as they watched, it grew its arm back. At incredible speeds, branches, mud, and leaves flowed to reform its limb. The second attacker stabbed the creature in the chest. The creature took a long knife into its form, then swept out a still reforming right arm to send the second man flying. The first man roared, slicing and dicing at the creature. Then, as his actions were proven to be futile. His eyes widened. He let out a gasp. A flash of fear crossed his face. He reared back to attack again.

And the creature, in a smooth motion, reached out and grabbed the soldier's face. The man screamed, his machete stabbing the creature's stomach. Red eyes turned slowly, like spotlights landing on a nervous actor on a stage. Then, smoke rose from the man's face. And his scream became something horrid. His face began to melt under the creature's grip, he was lifted into the air to kick and scream in fear.

Everyone stopped fighting. May, Melati, the soldiers, all stared at the monster. And it's red eyes turned to look at them, as the man in his hands stopped moving.

 _"May, we've been delayed! What's going on in your end?"_ Coulson said then.

"Coulson," May said. "That thing is back."

 _"...May. It's drawn to fear."_

May understood without anything else. She hid behind a tree and closed her eyes. Despite what some thought, May could feel fear. Fear was useful. It made sure to keep one alive, to warn of danger. But it had to be controlled. To keep it from paralyzing you. She usually kept that balance. A hint of fear to make sure she never lost what had kept her alive.

She forced that down now. After her encounter with the Berserker Staff when she had to push back a lifetime of rage fueled by ancient alien magic, she found it easier to control the petty emotions of a human being.

The others in the area weren't so lucky. Melati, at least, had calmed down from the rampaging anger that had enveloped her from the start. Instead, she was panting in the center of the clearing, crouched low, her claws held out. She looked like an animal. Her clothes had been ripped to shreds, blood dripping from her fingers, and breath coming out in great gasps that sounded almost like ragged roars.

The creature swiped out a hand, grabbing his other attacker around his right hand. The man screamed as his fist melted under the creatures' grip. The man tried to push the creature away with his other hand, only for the hand that met the monster's body to begin to burn. Bone started to show under the skin and flesh. May felt a flash of pity. Then she moved slightly out of cover and shot that man in the head.

The creature didn't flinch when the man who had been screaming in his grasp collapsed wordlessly. It simply let the man's corpse fall. And it focused it's red eyes on the soldiers.

But May and Melati were already getting to work. As the creature strode towards the soldiers, May shot a woman in the stomach, then the neck. The other soldiers turned to aim at her. Melati struck the three men who had gone to attack her. Leaping dozens of feet forward, she landed feet first on one man's back, then swiped her tail out at another, sending that soldier flying into a nearby tree. The last of the three shot Melati in the leg. She grabbed him and tossed him several feet into the air, where he smashed into a tree with a nasty thud.

Then the creature got to the last two soldiers. May raised her gun, but the monster was already reaching out. One of the soldiers screamed. His mouth was grabbed by the creature. Another soldier tried to run. She was snatched by the back of her neck.

May lowered her gun, staring as the two soldiers died more horribly than she had seen in a long time.

"...Is it… On our side?" Melati growled in the back of her throat.

"I don't think it has a side," May mumbled.

"Don't move!" The creature, Melati, and May looked at the trailer. A single soldier was coming out of the trailer. And he was holding Otto by the neck, a shotgun held to his back.

The older man was bleeding freely from his shoulder, already looking pale. He stared at them, before his eyes landed on the creature. His eyes widened. "Fascinating… absolutely fascinating."

"Shut the fuck up!" the soldier shouted. He released Otto's neck to slam a fist into the back of his head. Otto screamed in pain, and the soldier grabbed him again. "You're going to let me go, got it! You and your band of freaks! Or I'm killing the fatass!"

May clenched at her rifle, watching the man carefully. Melati growled.

The creature took a slow step forward.

"H-Hey, back the fuck off!" the soldier shouted, staring at the creature. "T-Tell this thing to back off or I'll kill this guy!"

"He's not on our side," May said softly. "It's not on _anyone's_ side. And it's not going to listen to me."

The soldier stared at her. Then he turned to run.

May shot him in the back of the head.

"Dear God!" Otto fell to his knees, clutching at his shoulder. "Dear god! That was…"

They all noticed it at the same time. That the creature hadn't stopped moving. It stepped towards Otto. Red eyes glowed.

"Hey, get away from him!" Melati screamed, leaping towards the creature.

A green-leafed arm smacked her aside, sending her flying.

"Melati!" Otto cried out in horror. Then he stared at the creature. "May, what-"

"It's drawn to fear," May rushed up next to Otto, kneeling next to him as they watched the creature. "Coulson told me. That's why it attacked the soldiers. It kills people who are afraid of it! Dr. Octavius, you need to keep calm!"

Otto was breathing hard, his eyes wide. The creature reached out. "Fear, fear, I-I need," he swallowed. "The antithesis of fear is knowledge… How does it sense fear?" His voice was shaky. "It is made of some sort of plant-life, so it must have some way of interacting with its environment, of sensing fear using some sort of- oh god!"

The creature's hand reached out, fingers scraping along Otto's left hand. May pulled him up and back, physically pulling him into the trailer. "Come on, Doctor!"

Behind them, the blown-up doors of the trailer were snapped out, and the creature followed. The trailer shook as hundreds of pounds of monster strode in.

May pulled Otto through the lab, past the bodies of those he'd beaten. As she did, Otto continued to bleed. He spoke to himself.

"Logic Otto. Logic, come on," he shouted in pain when May sat him down in a chair in the conference room. She ran up to the front of the trailer and worked at the keypad. After some quick presses, the door opened, revealing the driver's area. She pressed a sidewall and a panel opened, revealing several small weapons. "Oh, well, that would have been nice to know about!" Otto screamed.

"We didn't have time to go over everything," May explained. She grabbed a flare gun and some rounds, then spun to face the door as Otto rolled to a stop next to her. "Will this work?"

"I don't believe so," Otto said, his voice shaky as he clutched at his bloody shoulder. His left hand had stopped smoking where the creature had touched him. "I need to calm myself… This creature, did Coulson have any explanation for it?"

"No," May said. Just then, the creature was standing in the door. She fired a flare round into its face. The fire burned in the creature's chest. It didn't seem to care. "Damn it," May fired another round, then ran back into the cabin.

"Anyone would assume that Ted Sallis and the super-soldier serum being poured into the swamp would have made this, this swamp thing," Otto said. For some reason, May thought that 'swamp thing' just sounded wrong as the creature's name. "But that makes no sense," he furrowed his brow at the creature. Slowly, he spoke. "Your form… I have seen Swampfire do similar things. But he is an alien. A being born from a completely different world. How could a human, a man… but it is possible," Otto stopped shaking. "The Hulk. Fantasma, Thor, Dial, Abomination. So many wonders in the modern world of man."

May came out of the trailer, carrying a grenade. Then she stopped.

The creature had stilled. It was staring at Otto.

"With so many monsters and wonders, I suppose that it is not natural for a scientist to claim anything is impossible," Otto whispered. Behind the creature, Melati rushed in. May hurriedly waved at the reptile woman to stop before she could leap at the monster. Melati did so. Otto kept speaking. "So. It is not a matter of, 'this is impossible'. It is a matter of, 'what are the rules'... What, my fascinating friend, are the rules that make you what you are?"

The creature stared a moment longer.

"...Is it broken?" Melati asked.

As though signaled by that, it walked forward. May watched, controlling herself, as the monster's hand reached out for Otto once more. It touched the back of his left hand, still smoking. And Otto let out a surprised gasp of relief as the creature's touch left a bubbling foam.

Then, slowly, it turned and began to walk out of the trailer.

"I…" Otto stared at it's back. "Agent May."

"Yeah?" May asked, exhaustion hitting her just then.

"I believe I'd like to get medical attention now," Otto whispered. Then he passed out.

And the monster walked off into the swamp.

* * *

 _Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD_

"They're almost done!" Daltry shouted as the fighting continued. He fired his shotgun at one man, then caught a haymaker from a large woman on his right arm.

SMACK!

With a right cross worthy of the classic Westerns Coulson had seen in his youth, Daltry punched the woman in the face, knocking her flat on her back. A man tried to stab Daltry. The sheriff blocked the stab on his shotgun, then kicked the man in between the legs. His opponent's eyes crossed before Daltry laid him out with another hard punch.

"Anyone tell you that you look like Clint Eastwood when ya fight?" Coulson quipped, firing an ICER shot that brought someone else down.

"I've always been told I was pretty," Daltry said. Then he grinned. "But yeah."

A man landed on his back next to them. The man tried to scramble to his feet, only to get a boot to the face. Skye grinned at Daltry and Coulson. "You two are so cute."

All around them, the bodies of Nakamura's men lay. Some were dead. Most were knocked out, ICER's allowing them to drop the death toll significantly. Daltry looked around, panting. He had scrapes on his face, his jacket discarded. Coulson's suit was covered in dust and blood. Skye's armor had been similarly damaged despite it's enhanced durability.

Daltry, despite his exhaustion, still looked fierce and angry. "...Where's Danny?"

Skye frowned, looking around. Coulson did the same. Then he saw Danny.

The man was lying in the dirt behind one of the trucks. He'd been hit in the leg and was crawling away. A trail of blood was leading from where he'd originally fallen. He'd gotten pretty far.

Before he could say anything, Daltry saw the deputy as well. Growling, Daltry began to walk forward.

"Joh-"

"Don't," Daltry snarled at Coulson. He kept striding forward. "This part… It's something I have to do."

Skye and Coulson shared a look. Neither said anything. Daltry was soon at Danny. The deputy, realizing he'd been caught, spun onto his back and tried to raise his gun at Daltry.

Daltry stomped down on his arm.

"Aaaaaagh!" Danny screamed.

"Enough," Daltry smirked. "Danny. I always liked you. But you know how I feel about chances… You get one," Danny snarled, trying to reach for his belt for another gun. In a lightning-fast move, Daltry's revolver was in his hand. A .44, a massive gun that shone in the light like a sword in the hand of a knight. The barrel was pointed at Danny's nose. He froze. "Danny. You've been stupid. Stupid enough to steal from the government. The branch of the government that deals with _superheroes_ for fuck's sake. You were stupid enough to attack me, and their agents. You're already under arrest, Danny. Everything you say will be held against you in a court of law."

Daltry cocked back the hammer of his revolver. The gun seemed to vibrate. Danny's sweat was making his face shiny. "You tried to kill super-agents, Danny. You've been stupid for months…" The gun was massive. "Don't be stupid now."

"..."

Danny slowly laid back. Daltry looked up at Coulson. "If y'all have people to take care of things like this. Might be a good time to get them."

"Badass," Skye whispered nearby.

Coulson chuckled, then brought a hand to his ear. "May?"

 _"We're okay, Coulson. But we've got a hell of a story to tell you,"_ she said softly.

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ _The next_ chapter is a small wrap-up, the Dial and Jen catch up. The next bit of the story is going to be Jen telling her own perspective on things while she and Dial talk to hang out in the tower.

I also wanted to take the time to remind you guys of my "pay-the-on"! You get to read new chapters of Dial four days before anyone else, and I'll be adding some new benefits to it for the five-dollar patrons and above, but even 1 dollar a month helps me to keep writing this story! Literally, since I'm able to put more time into this story now thanks to my patrons. Thus why this chapter was so damn huge. So thank you guys for supporting me.


	103. Chapter 103

_**Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD**_

 _May 19, 2014-Citrusville, Florida Everglades, Louisiana_

One day after the whole fiasco, Phil was standing in Sheriff John Daltry's office. The Sheriff looked exhausted. Coulson couldn't blame him. There was a lot going on.

"Deputy Daniel Nakamura has refused to talk to us," Coulson said. "But we have enough from his people. Some of them are career criminals from all over this area. A lot were related to each other. But Nakamura was smart. Used his money to hire them, even got some idiots from out of town."

"All to kill us?" Daltry asked tiredly.

"Well, most of them didn't really know they were going to kill BRIDGE agents," Coulson said.

"But they did know they were going to kill a sheriff."

Coulson didn't have anything to say to that.

"What sort of-" Daltry stopped and sighed. "I need to be more discerning about who I trust… Danny was like a son to me," he looked up at Coulson, and the agent felt a pang of pain. "I thought he would replace me when I was done, if I didn't get voted out. And now…"

Coulson walked forward and sat down in front of Daltry's desk. He placed his hands together and leaned forward. He opened his mouth to speak. Then he closed it, blinking.

God. Was this really so hard to talk about?

"...I had an agent working for me a little while back," Coulson said after that false start. "His name was Grant Ward. I was the one who asked him to work for me. We spent a few months working together with the rest of my team. He was my guy in the field, the man I could trust to take on almost any challenge," Coulson smiled sadly. "I trusted him. Until-"

"HYDRA," Daltry said, eyes widening in realization.

Coulson nodded. "He'd been tricking me for months. Integrating himself into the team, getting closer to us, learning our secrets. Even as I saw him as an ally, he was ready to betray us…"

Coulson leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms. "I sometimes ask myself what was real. If he'd ever regretted it. If he really saw us as his friends. I shouldn't. The past is the past. Grant Ward is dead. And unless I get to meet him down the line, I'll never know the truth."

"...Guess I'm glad I didn't kill Danny," Daltry said. "Even if the answer ends up being that he was always a piece of shit. I'd rather know… How do you deal with it?"

Coulson smiled. "Grant was part of a team. And a lot of that team is still around with me. They have my back. That, having people to trust in. It helps more than you know."

"Heh," Daltry smiled quickly and nodded. "I suppose it does. And your team is pretty damn good."

Coulson blinked. He was ready to correct Daltry, to tell him that two members of that team were actually elsewhere. Then he thought about that. About Otto and Melati, and how well they had done on this mission. Of Fitz-Simmons, and how they made a point to visit him everytime he stopped by the tower. Or of Tony constantly bothering him. Of Skye. Of May.

"...Yeah. I have a damn good team," he said in satisfaction. Then he chuckled. "But now, we have to focus on the future."

"Got it," Daltry's eyes hardened. "So tell me, Coulson. What the hell do I have running around in my swamp?"

Coulson chuckled. When Daltry glared at him, Coulson shook his head. "Honestly, it's gonna be hard to swallow. But… When HYDRA and SHIELD ended up fighting in that lab, a scientist Ted Sallis was shot and fell into the swamp with a case full of experimental super-soldier serum."

"Are you even allowed to tell me about this?" Daltry asked, shocked.

"I have approval from my Director on telling you some of this," Coulson said with a wave of his hand. "Anyways… When Sallis fell into the swamp, the serums interacted with his body. My biological expert is still looking into the samples she found, and one of our experts has a theory that something may have interfered with the process," Dial had been very adamant that the Nexus of All Realities was probably involved with the process. Coulson still had trouble dealing with that idea. "But when it was over, that creature was left in his place. The Man-Thing."

"Jesus Christ," Daltry rubbed his forehead. "Who comes up with these damn names?"

Coulson didn't say anything about that.

"So what now?" Daltry asked. "Your folks come by and pick up this thing?"

"...We can't."

Daltry's eyes widened. "Why the hell not!? I can't have some giant plant monster running around in my backyard!"

Coulson winced. "Daltry. There is more going on with Man-Thing than just some 'monster'. He's necessary."

"The hell does that mean!?" Daltry asked furiously.

"It means that if he isn't in your swamp," Coulson's eyes narrowed. "Then things get worse… Citrusville, and all its people, will be in big trouble."

Daltry stared at him. "...Coulson, what-"

"We aren't going to just leave him there," Coulson said softly. "I'm having one of the Avengers come by to explain things further as soon as he's available. And BRIDGE will be making a team to help you. A group of experts," Coulson leaned forward. "John. We aren't going to leave you alone with all this. We need you to protect this town."

"Jesus Christ," Daltry mumbled. "...What do you need me to do?"

Coulson smiled. There it was. Under the uncertainty was something he'd seen from Daltry before. Stubbornness. Harsh and tough as stone. An unwillingness to back down from anything. Daltry was meeting Coulson's eyes with that hard gaze. He didn't understand what was happening in his town. But he didn't need to.

He was Citrusville's sheriff. His town needed to be protected. His own deputy, a small army, a literal plant monster, none of them changed that fact.

"We'll have that discussion soon," Coulson said. "In the meantime, just do what you always do. Protect the town."

Daltry scoffed. "As though I was going to do anything else."

* * *

 _May 20, 2014_

"Mahmoud isn't coming?" Skye asked Coulson, confused.

Coulson, Skye, Otto, Melati, Daltry, and May were all standing on an airfield watching as a Quinjet started to make it's descent towards them.

"Director Hill said he's on leave for now," Coulson explained, eyes on the Quinjet. The truck and Daltry's sheriff car were waiting behind the small group. "Apparently his trip to the Savage Land was… harsh."

"Is he all right!?" Skye asked, turning to give him a worried look.

Coulson knew that while Skye and Mahmoud had flirted for a bit, they ended up simply being friends. Close friends. So he was quick to reassure her.

"Dial is fine. Doesn't even need medical attention. But he's taking some time off," Coulson walked forward as the Quinjet finally landed. "In the meantime, we have another expert here."

The back of the plane opened up. As the cargo door slowly lowered, a woman could be seen standing inside. She was elderly, with pale white hair and dignified air about her, her hair pulled up into a tight bun. In her purple dress, holding a black cane, she looked like a headmistress for an extremely strict school. She looked across the group with an arched brow. As she did, a small black cat ran past her, coming to a stop in front of Skye, who cooed and leaned down to pet the animal.

"Mrs. Harkness," Coulson said in greeting as the older woman came to join them. "It's a pleasure to have you here to consult."

"Mr. Coulson," the older woman responded, looking across them. She noted Octavius and Melati in particular, before stopping on Skye. "Behind the shoulders, dear. Ebony has a fondness for being petted there."

"Oh?" Skye followed suit, petting the black cat happily. "Ebony? Such a pretty name, hmm?"

The cat purred, and Agatha seemed pleased. In a very dignified way though.

"Now, I believe we are not here simply to chat, are we?" Agatha looked at Coulson, whose back straightened on instinct. "Because if you did, I will be quite cross, young man. Swamps are not to my taste."

"...I like her," May said with a smile.

They drove for a short while before finally arriving in the swamps, soon coming near the labs. However, when Daltry began to turn the car to head towards the lab, Agatha, who was sitting in the back with Skye and Ebony, spoke.

"No. Turn right."

"Huh?" Daltry looked back at her, confused. "Uh, ma'am, the lab is-"

"The lab is not what matters," Agatha cut him off mercilessly. "I sense that our true target is just behind it. Most likely connected to it. Turn right now."

"Daltry," Coulson added, looking at Agatha. The older woman met his eyes and nodded. Coulson nodded back. "I think we should trust her on this."

"...My life has gotten so weird since you BRIDGE folks," Daltry mumbled as he followed instructions.

"We get that a lot," Skye chirped.

* * *

They went down the road for some time. Then off-road. The trailer, which May, Otto, and Melati were bouncing around in, had to stop behind them. Agatha guided them to a place a few hundred feet from the secret location of the SHIELD lab.

They got out of the car, and Coulson stilled.

The swamp felt different there. Very different. It was a warm and sunny day outside. But here… it was cold. Insanely cold. The trees were so tightly packed that the canopy blocked almost all light. A heavy fog hung in the air. And there was a sense of something. Something hanging in the world. Possibility.

"W-What is this?" Daltry asked, stunned.

Ebony strode forward, paws walking atop the ground of the swamp with ease. They were in front of a section of water, the area surrounded thickly in plant-life. The black cat looked back at Agatha. The formidable older woman didn't say a word. She raised a hand and pressed a palm outward. The air rippled like water being hit by a rock.

"Jesus Christ!?" Daltry shouted in shock.

"Not quite," Agatha snapped. "Now, be silent. I am working."

Daltry gaped at her, looking at Coulson. The agent only shook his head and stepped back to watch Agatha work.

For several long minutes, Agatha simply stood there, staring at nothing. Coulson, Skye, and Daltry watched. Ebony licked herself clean.

"Coulson?" May's voice drew their attention. Melati and Otto were following May through the swamp, the trio coming to a stop beside Daltry's car. "What's going on?"

"Agatha is doing her study," Coulson whispered.

"Magic?" Otto sounded skeptical. But he didn't interrupt, only watching.

"Wonder what she's seeing," Skye whispered.

"More than can be believed," Agatha answered.

"...Ears like a bat," Skye mumbled to herself.

"Mind your manners," Agatha stopped and spun around. Hard eyes landed on Coulson. "What lunacy caused this?"

She didn't shout. But in the cold and dark place they stood in, her harsh tones might as well have been a gunshot to the heart.

"We don't know," Coulson answered.

"Uh, yes," Otto stepped forward. "We did find some strange energy readings, but were unable to detect the source. Or what exactly they are doing."

"That is because technology, for all it's incredible versatility, is not made to understand this," Agatha said grimly. "Agent Coulson. Was SHIELD attempting to access other worlds?"

Coulson shook his head, already understanding what she was getting at.

"Then this is… a natural phenomenon," Agatha said slowly, sounding surprised. "It was rumoured, but to finally see after all these years… the Nexus of all Realities."

"This is way above my paygrade," Daltry said.

"The Nexus?" Melati asked.

"A cross-dimensional gateway," Agatha explained. "A place where all of the multiverse is connected. From here, one could travel in between all realities."

"Are you serious?" Otto asked, stunned. "The Multiverse… Do you have proof?"

Agatha scowled at him. "Don't be foolish. To try and prove it would be to open our world to the worlds beyond. I would rather not initiate another Rio or Atlantis incident."

No one seemed to know what to say to _that_ implication.

"This place should be guarded," Agatha said, sounding confused. "Where… Oh."

He rose. From out of the waters of the swamp, he slowly peaked up at them. Red eyes blinked lazily. Then he walked up to them.

"Jesus," Daltry said softly.

"Don't be afraid," Coulson said. Not to try and console, but to warn. The instant one of them felt any fear, they were dead.

The Man-Thing strode towards them, coming to a stop before Agatha. She stared up at the creature, undaunted by his size or appearance. Instead, she seemed sad.

"Oh. Oh you poor wretched creature," Agatha held out a hand and placed it on Man-Thing's chest. She shook her head. "What did you do to deserve this?"

The Man-Thing's red eyes closed.

"...Is there a way to change him back?" Coulson asked.

Agatha shook her head. "No. Whatever happened… I can feel the strands of metaphysical energy tying him to the Nexus. He is it's guardian. The one chosen to protect it and destroy those that would come out of it."

"Ted Sallis is dead then," Otto said sadly.

"No," Agatha shook her head. She closed her eyes and hummed to herself. "I sense a human soul within this creature. Sleeping within… Perhaps that is the genius of the Nexus," Agatha turned to look at them. "A human soul, so the creature cannot be possessed. Asleep, so it cannot be manipulated. But also so that it might have the strength that humanity can offer it."

"...So we can't get rid of this thing?" Daltry asked gruffly.

"Absolutely not!" Agatha barked. She rounded on Daltry in an instant. "This creature is tied to the Nexus you fool! It is it's guardian! The protector of our world! He must not be destroyed, moved, or controlled!"

"Okay, okay, damn!" Daltry stepped back in the face of the witch's fury. "I get it. But I need to keep my town safe. If this thing is wandering around melting faces off the second someone gets spooked, I can't just stand by."

Agatha calmed, turning to look at the Man-Thing. The tall creature looked around. Then it turned and began to walk away, apparently no longer interested in it's visitors. "I suppose that I will have to suggest some ways to aid in keeping the unwary from this swamp. This must be kept secret however… The Nexus of All Realities is dangerous. Possibly more dangerous than anything else in this universe."

Dial had said the same thing, Coulson mused to himself. That this thing was the equivalent of finding the Death Star in the middle of nowhere.

"Then it should be studied," Otto said softly.

"Indeed," Agatha Harkness turned her back on the swamp and the Man-Thing, who disappeared into the waters. "In the meantime, I will begin preparing some basic wards. Something to drive off any curious minds, giving them an urgent need to be elsewhere."

"Like Hogwarts?" Skye asked.

"Uh, maybe we shouldn't make that compariso-" Coulson began to say nervously.

"Exactly like Hogwarts," Agatha said, nodding her head.

Coulson blinked. Huh. He thought she'd be offended, but she just went with it instead.

"Once I am done, I'll write up a proposal to your director on what should be done next," Agatha declared.

"Great," Coulson said. "In the meantime… there's someone I need to see."

* * *

 _A couple of hours later, the Citrusville Psychiatric Hospital_

Coulson, Barbara, and Daltry were in her room. Coulson was speaking, while Daltry stood beside Barbara. He was looking down at her, worry on his face.

Barbara wasn't speaking. Her hands were clenched tightly together, placed on her knees as she sat there. Drops of water hit the floor as Coulson spoke.

"-still alive," the agent said as kindly as he could. "But… Ted isn't there anymore. That creature. It's replaced him. Turned him into a guardian. And there's no coming back from it. He will always be that way… I'm so sorry, Barbar-"

"Stop."

They sat in silence for a moment.

"I prayed he was somehow out there. But not like this," Barbara looked up at Coulson. Her face, still a ruined mess on half of it, was dripping wet. She rubbed her face under her nose, snorting as snot dropped from it. She winced, and let out a sob. "Oh g-god," she said, shaking. "T-Ted i-is-"

She cried. Openly, with no shame, she cried. It was a sad, ugly thing. Coulson and Daltry didn't stop her. Daltry leaned down towards her, wrapping his arms around her. She stared, unseeing, at the wall as she wailed. Coulson shut his eyes.

This was the part he'd hated. The people who were left behind, when the monsters were created. When people were lost.

"It's okay," Daltry lied to Barbara. "It's okay."

* * *

 _ **Mahmoud Schahed/Dial**_

 _May 20, 2014- Avengers Tower, New York City, New York_

When Jen and I had finally finished, it was around six hours later. Er… keep in mind, it wasn't because we were having sex the whole time. We took some moments to relax and talk. Just to hang out. But when we weren't… Damn. Just damn.

After that, we both just lay down in bed, Jen lying against my chest as we stared up at the ceiling, our blankets tossed on the floor and the sun shining on our nude bodies.

"..." I just stared at the ceiling, stunned.

"That good, huh?" Jen teased, dragging me from my thoughts. She turned her head against me, her hair tickling my chest, to give me a wide grin.

"Pretty much anything I say-" I tried to think of something to tack on, only to literally be at a loss for words. She laughed, which had an oddly calming effect on me.

I grinned back at her. "So… how was your mission?"

She rolled her eyes. "Ok, really? You wanna talk about that _now?"_

"I wanna talk about a lot," I admitted. "But you looked… well, satisfied," she gave me a saucy look. "I mean, like you'd had a good time on your mission. Or at least, felt good about it."

"I did," she said thoughtfully. "Went through a lot of stuff I didn't expect."

"You wanna talk about it?"

She gave me a sultry smile and grabbed me in a sensitive zone. "Yeah. I'm guessing you need the rest."

I chuckled, not feeling hurt by the fact she was way more energetic than I was right now. Honestly, considering the difference in our power, the fact I was still awake was a testament to how my recent training regimen had done.

Jen got up from the bed, the blanket falling down as she did. Uncaring of her nudeness, she began to walk out, long black hair swaying with each step, green skin glistening. Damn. All eight-feet of her was enough to make a man go wild. A part of my body tried to show his appreciation, but he'd need a moment.

"Come on. Make me breakfast and I'll tell you about it."

"Fair deal," I got up and followed her.

In the kitchen, Jen sat down at the island counter while I went to the fridge and pulled out some eggs. As I prepared the rest of the ingredients, she began her story.

* * *

 _ **Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk**_

 _May 18, 2014_

My name's Jennifer Walters. And I'm the Sensational She-Hulk.

That's what the newspapers have been calling me at least. Foggy makes fun of me for it, and I gotta agree, it's a pretty ridiculous name. I kinda love it though.

It's like the rest of the world understands what I understand. Mousy little Jen is gone. Now I'm lean, mean, and evergreen.

Being hulked out has been a blast the last few months! I can leap to the height of a skyscraper, lift cars, and even reach the top of the refrigerator!

Plus, I'm pretty damn gorgeous. But you don't need me to tell you that!

But my body wasn't the only thing that changed since that asshole Sterns had kidnapped me. I'd moved to New York City, joined the Avengers, and ended up working for a different law firm. I've helped with rescue efforts in Rio, fought demons, dinosaurs, and other freaky things. My boyfriend can turn into over a dozen weird as hell aliens, but still blushes like an adorable kid everytime I flirt with him. ("See, there you go, blushing!" "Do you want these eggs or not?")

My life has become a whole lot better. More interesting for one.

That said, I still had boring things to do. I love being a lawyer, love putting together for a case and pushing myself to the edge as another lawyer tries to shatter apart my defense. There's a thrill to fighting with someone that way, testing your will.

But the cases I had nowadays were slightly less exciting than I wanted.

"Okay, so, the VA is going to keep claiming that his injuries weren't sustained in battle, obviously," Foggy said as he worked through the pile of files on his desk. "We've got some time before the medical report comes in, but the doctors say that he likely got them during the war."

Matt was running his hands along a piece of paper as he spoke. "They probably didn't reveal themselves until now. Happens, sometimes. Soldier gets wounded in battle, doesn't feel the damage until years later. Twenty years, in this case. We should be able to help him though"

"So it's a slam dunk," I said. I wasn't entirely focused, mostly staring out of the window.

Foggy looked at Matt. The trio was sitting in their office, within the room they'd designated the main meeting room, putting together a case for the Department of Veteran Affairs to reimburse a Veteran for his upcoming operation. Murdock adjusted his glasses.

"Well, it might be a bit more complicated than that, but essentially, yes," Matt wasn't quite looking at me, but I was used to it. While Matt and Dial had long divulged the secrets of Matt's superhuman senses, Foggy was still in the dark, so Matt had appearances to keep up. I got it, it was just kinda weird to talk to someone who never really _looked_ at you. "Jen, are you okay? You seem… Well, I don't know, you sound-"

"Bored," Foggy finished, giving me a grin. "Come on, Jen. Tell us your wows."

"It's pronounced 'woes'," I replied, grinning back at the cheery lawyer.

"Eh, potato, tomato," Foggy smirked, then leaned back in his chair. "Seriously, you okay?"

"Yeah," I shrugged. "I don't know, I guess I just feel like I've been in a rut lately. It's been awhile since I've had some excitement. I mean, it's nice that we'll be able to help Pope," I gestured to the case in front of us. "But we all knew that the only reason he was having trouble was that he couldn't afford a lawyer that would want to help him. This whole thing is easy."

"Hey, that's what I wanted out of this job!" Foggy said. "Living on easy street, making the big bucks, taking it to the man!"

"And helping people," Matt chided gently.

"I mean, sure, that's important, but come on! Money!" Foggy joked.

I laughed, running green fingers through my hair. "Yeah, it's great. I just really want to punch people now, ya know? Sparring with the Avengers is fun, but it's been a while since I've been on actual mission."

Foggy blinked and shrugged. "Well uh, not sure I can help you. I mean, I could volunteer as a punching bag, but have you seen this face?" he pointed at himself helpfully. "This is the moneymaker. I can't sacrifice this face, Jen. Not even to help my friend with her weird sadist dreams."

"Hahahaha!" he surprised me so much that I couldn't help the laugh. "I'm not a sadist, you goof! I'm just…"

"Bored," Matt said. "I get it. Hey, who knows? Maybe you'll get your wish soon."

I nodded, but kept my thoughts to myself.

Ever since Rio, things had been quiet for me. I had some smaller missions, some sparring. But life had quickly gotten very routine. Hell, I never really got a chance to test things out!

I could bench press trucks damn it! I was getting trained by Captain Freaking America! I just wanted to see what I could really do.

But it was like life wasn't giving me a chance.

Yeah, I know, I'm whining. Woe is me, I have a sweet job and superpowers, why should I complain? But I was bored.

* * *

An hour or so later though, I got a call. Straight from BRIDGE. I answered my phone and it went to video call. It was some skinny young black woman in a suit with long hair, looking a little nervous. She was so cute!

"Hello, Mrs. Walters," the young woman said very politely. "I'm Agent Tolliver?"

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

"...W-Well," she said, brushing her hair back. "I-"

"I'm kidding. What's up?"

She took a deep breath and seemed to relax a bit. "Well, we have a mission that might need Avengers assistance. It was flagged for superhuman strength and I was told to ask you for help. Are you busy?"

"Not even a little bit," I got up immediately and ran for the door, yelling back. "Foggy, Matt, I've got an Avengers mission! Send me a text if anything changes."

"Wait, seriously?" Foggy came out of his office and gave me a weird look. "You wanted a mission and got one the same day?"

"What can I say?" I gave him a grin before I headed out of the door. "Life loves me."

* * *

 _May 20, 2014_

"So I'm guessing you paid for tempting fate like that, huh?" Mahmoud looked up at me from where he was cooking eggs. He made quite the picture. He'd let his long hair out of it's ponytail, which gave him a whole 'barbarian' vibe I was really digging, especially with the scars.

My boyfriend had sadly put on a pair of sweatpants, but he hadn't put on a shirt yet. It let me get a good look at his chest flexing as he moved around, and his arms bulging just a bit as he moved. Then he turned to get something out of the refrigerator, bending at the waist. _Nice._

Down girl.

I looked at him for a long moment, pushing down my instincts. Instead, I really _looked_ at him.

I liked Mahmoud. He was funny, smart, and brave. He told me all the time that he used to be lazy and unmotivated. You wouldn't think it. He worked out all the time, trained with Black Widow, and learned as much as he could about everything. I admire that about him.

But he was keeping something from me. I could tell. He knew everything about me, about Bruce, my dad, about my career as a lawyer, my powers. But whenever we talked about his past, there were times he would just… clam up. He would talk about family, sure. I knew about his four brothers and one sister (poor girl). But then he would mention something random, only to stop and change the subject.

In lawyer talk, we call that evasiveness.

I wanted to trust him. But how can I, when I always know he's holding back?

"Jen?" Mahmoud said. I blinked, looking up at him. "You okay? You stopped talking."

"Yeah… yeah, I'm good," I lied. "Anyways, where was I?"

"You were about to get your mission," he grinned at me, the dimple just to the left side of his lip deepening. I smiled back.

"Yeah. Well, I guess I should have been careful about what I wished for. Good news though. Finally have a nemesis."

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ Okay, there we go! I know some people are excited for Dial to meet Man-Thing, but he and Jen are getting to know each other better.

The next chapters, as I said, are going to be focused on Jen and Dial. They'll be told from her perspective, so we can get some outside views on Dial, not just from her, but from society at large. Should be pretty short, but I'm having fun writing it.

And once again, I've got a ! This chapter came out four days ago for those folks, and you can get the same thing. I'm also adding a new reward there. Access to my notes. As in the various notes I use to jot down random ideas and keep track of the massive library of info of things I have to remember. Everything from current characters and their armor appearances, future locations, characters, and tech!

Next chapter, Jen meets with someone she's been in a room with a couple of times. Dial finds out about #whichdialalienwouldyouf&*k. Thor eats waaaaay too much.


	104. Chapter 104

_May 18, 2014_

 _ **Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk**_

When I left the law firm of Nelson and Murdock (Even though I'm a full partner, we kept my name off to try and keep reporters at bay for a bit), a car was waiting for me outside, a big SUV with the BRIDGE logo on the side. The door opened for me as I stepped towards it, and I got in immediately.

Inside was the cute BRIDGE agent from earlier. What was her name again? Agent Toniver? No. It was-

"Agent Tolliver, right?" I asked her, crossing one leg over the other.

"Yes," she gave me a smile. She had long black hair, black skin, and was wearing a women's business suit. She was also positively tiny, only about five feet tall.

"I'm supposed to take you, one of our specialists, and an investigator to the bank."

"What, am I gonna take out a loan?" I quipped.

"Huh?" she blinked at that, looking confused, before laughing. She snorted a bit, looked mortified, then hurriedly continued speaking. "No, they uh, they want you to investigate a spree of bank robberies."

"Bank robberies?" I'm a smart gal, so I figured it out pretty quickly. "You guys think a superhuman is doing these? Or at least someone that needs my green ass to help with?"

She nodded, biting her lip slightly. "Yes. Here, I have the file," she reached into a bag by her side and pulled out a manila folder. A bit more traditional than I was expecting. BRIDGE sometimes seemed obsessed with holograms these days. I took the folder and opened it up. Huh. Real paper and everything.

"There have been two robberies so far. The first was the Queens Community Bank. Someone went in and ripped the ATMs out of the walls, taking hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then, yesterday, someone entered the Midtown Consolidated Bank and somehow pulled a vault door off a wall. Do you know how much force _that_ takes?"

She sounded positively excited about that. I thought about that for a second, but she immediately started talking.

"The vault door was put in place back in the 1900s, so it weighs 45,000 pounds or 22.5 tons! It's pressure system applied 8 tons of pressure, and the whole thing was just ripped off the wall! I mean, the rebar-reinforced concrete cracked first, but that's still a massive amount of strength!"

She clenched her fists in front of her, eyes practically sparkling. "But there's no sign of any heavy machinery being moved into the bank! That means either a single person with the strength moved that much weight or someone created incredibly small and efficient technology that can do the same! It's incredible!"

I blinked at her. Damn. She was enthusiastic. I decided not to mention all the people that I had met recently who both probably had the strengths or the smarts to do the same thing. "Got it. So I'm going in case there's a fight."

"You and one more person," she pointed at the folder. I'd been looking at pictures of the banks, one a small street bank, the other a much bigger one. "We also have an investigator coming to help you both. Your role is frontline support. One of our specialists will be your back-up."

Okay, I'll be honest. The idea I needed back-up was annoying. I could punch through steel for crying out loud. Well, maybe the specialist was another Avenger.

It wasn't.

"Frank Castle," Tolliver tapped on the file.

-

 _May 20, 2014_

"Hrrrrk!" Mahmoud suddenly choked on nothing, coughing out of nowhere.

"Mahmoud!" I got up to help him, but he held a hand out, waving me back as he hurriedly grabbed a glass of water from the sink and guzzled it down. I frowned. "Something wrong?"

He took a bit. Then he turned and gave me that look again. Like he was deciding how much to tell me.

I didn't like that look. It made me want to hit him.

Damn it, Mahmoud. What are you keeping from me?

I kept those thoughts off my face while he spoke, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well, Frank's a good soldier. He just never struck me as someone who would be doing a bank robbery investigation," he coughed. "Well, not unless he was about to kill someone who did the robbery, I guess."

I blinked. "Okay, you _really_ have a bad opinion of him if you think he'll just randomly kill someone like that. You didn't act like this when we were with him in Rio."

He coughed again, smiling at me. "Sorry Okay. Frank Castle and She-Hulk go into a bank with a BRIDGE agent. What happens next?"

"Actually, the funny thing about that," I watched as he went back to the stove, placing the egg omelet he'd made onto a plate and passing them to me. I took a bite and smiled. He'd put too much salt. Still pretty good. He started making another one while I took another bite and tasted some mushrooms he'd snuck, smiling a bit wider. "You didn't put shrimp in this again, did you?"

He chuckled, looking over at me. "No chance. 'She-Hulk hate seafood!' I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I know to listen to you. For one thing, you're way too good at winning arguments."

"Top of my debate class," I took another bite and shook my head. "Anyways. We went to pick up Frank from his place."

-

 _May 18, 2014_

I'd actually met Frank Castle a couple of times. In Rio, mostly. Hell, he was there when Dial turned into that monster of a creature he called Blight.

Frank had struck me as a crazy serious guy, one of those soldiers who were kinda born for it. Flattop haircut, rough-looking face, always kinda about to growl.

That day though, when he came out of his house, he was smiling, carrying a big duffel bag over his shoulder. Tolliver and I were standing just in front of his lawn, waiting for him as he came down towards us. He stopped smiling when he noticed me, immediately switching to a scowl.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"Huh. Nice way to say hi, Frank," I said while blinking at him.

He didn't seem to care, just glaring at me. "You know my neighbors don't know about what I do, right? You just going to stand outside my house all green and shit?"

Okay, to be honest? I didn't think it would matter that much. The second he mentioned it though I felt dumb as hell. And before you laugh, Mahmoud, I was there when you walked around in Diamondhead form in the middle of Time Square.

"Uh, right," I winced. Damnit, why didn't I think of that? "Sorry. I'll go ahead and-"

"Dad!" a young voice called from the house. Two kids came running out of the house. A young girl and boy ran up together. The girl, a little older than the boy stopped to stare up at me, but the boy ran to wrap his dad in a hug.

The girl had long cinnamon brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was wearing a shirt with a picture of dinosaurs on it and a pair of blue jeans. The boy was a little younger, with the same color hair. They didn't look much like their dad. But they had the same eyebrows, if that makes sense.

Frank was surprised, and I could see him trying to pull back that anger. "Hey, hey," he tapped his son on the shoulders. "You're gonna end up cutting me in half if you hug me so tight."

The kid pulled back and grinned at his dad before noticing me. His jaw dropped as he stared up at me. "You're the Hulk's sister!"

"Cousin, actually," I grinned down at the kid. "How's it going?"

"Cooool," I gotta admit, seeing his wide eyes was pretty damn cool.

Frank, apparently realizing he was stuck for the moment, took one of his kids under each arm. "Yeah, so… These are my kids. Frank Jr. and Lisa."

He tried to hide it, but he sounded downright proud as he said that, his fingers clutching tightly at their arms.

The girl, Lisa struggled out of her dad's grip and walked up to me, looking up at me. She looked almost contemplative. "...You're an Avenger?"

"Some days. I'm also a lawyer when I'm not punching dinosaurs."

Clearly that was the wrong thing to say. She scowled at me. "You shouldn't hit dinosaurs!"

Oh my god. So cute!

"You're a fan of dinosaurs too?" I asked her, kneeling down to try not to loom over her so much. It didn't work, but she wasn't fazed.

"She's got about a dozen in her room," Frank grumbled. "And all over the house."

"I did too," man, did I ever. Bruce and I used to spend so much time playing with dinosaur toys. One of the coolest parts of being in Rio was seeing the big guys come to life. "I asked a friend of mine to get me one as a pet. He's going to a land of dinosaurs," I whispered conspiratorially to her.

"U-Um, that's classifie-" Tolliver stuttered behind me.

"Are you lying?" Lisa asked, narrowing tiny eyes at me.

"Not even a bit," I grinned down at her and patted her head gently. I was honestly surprised she let me. "Dinosaurs are still alive. And my friends are-" damn, couldn't say fighting them. "Researching them right now."

She stared at me for a second. I think she was trying to see if I was lying. Then her eyes widened. "Really!?"

"Really, really," I chuckled, looking up at Frank. "You the reason she's so paranoid?"

"She's got good instincts," he said with a shrug.

"Your dad's mean," I whispered to Lisa. She gave me a conspiratorial grin.

"Frankie, Lisa!" a woman came out of the house and walked over to them. She was an older version of Lisa, with her brown hair let flowing as she stepped out of the house and came over. Her face had some small wrinkles from smiling, and she looked positively radiant in a white sundress with blue flowers across it. She hesitated on seeing me, gaping at me, then looking at Frank.

"Frank, what-" she hesitated again.

"Jesus Christ," Frank mumbled to himself, shaking his head and looking at me. "See what you did?"

"Can I help it that I tend to stand out in a crowd?" I said with a smirk, cocking my hip. He rolled his eyes and waved at his wife to come closer. She came over with some trepidation, leaning into him as he hugged her close. Then they kissed.

"Ewwww," Frank Jr. leered, Lisa bumping him in the shoulder.

Frank and his wife grinned at each other as they separated before she looked over at Tolliver and I. Her smile faltered for just a second. "Hello? I'm Maria," to her credit, she held her hand out for us to shake really damn fast. I took it with a smile.

"Jen."

"Agent Tolliver."

After handshakes, Frank Jr. spoke up. "Dad, are you going on a mission?"

Frank and Maria froze. The kid sounded… well, he sounded worried. He was trying to hide it, but I could tell that he was scared of his dad.

"Buddy… see, buddy I-

"Have to sign some paperwork," I said quickly, stepping forward. I sighed dramatically. "Boring, I know. But whenever I'm not fighting monsters? I'm a lawyer. Your dad got some pretty sweet armor recently. Have you seen it?"

"Yeah!" Frank Jr.'s eyes lit up. "Dad looks so cool! With a skull on the chest and everything!"

The older Frank shuffled slightly, looking a little uncomfortable.

"Well, he's gonna be signing some stuff so he'll be able to use that stuff more often. And maybe, if he's lucky, he'll be able to play around with it while we're out there," I patted the kid's shoulder, grinning when he gave his dad a proud look. "We gotta go though."

"Yeah," Frank patted his son on the head, who grumbled as he pushed his dad's hand away playfully, then kissed his daughter on the head. Maria kissed him again, giving him a sad look so fast her kids didn't notice, before pulling her kids in.

"Come on guys, we better let daddy finish his paperwork," Maria said.

"Okay. Bye, Mrs. Hulk!" Lisa cheered, Frank Jr. waving as the pair ran inside.

"Mrs. Hulk?" What?

"Like that's worse than She-Hulk?" Frank, slinging his bag over his shoulder, passed by me while Tolliver hesitantly followed.

I'll be honest. Wasn't feeling optimistic about my teammate at the time.

-

We sat in silence in the car. Frank listened to Tolliver give her assessment in silence, finally nodding before he started rummaging in his bag. He'd come for battle. He was wearing the 'casual' uniform BRIDGE soldiers wore on assignment, a black sweater and black khakis with a small BRIDGE logo on both. He had a single handgun on his hip, but his bag also had a rifle carefully packed away in separate pieces. He wasn't putting them together or anything, just making sure he had all of them. Then he looked at me, noticing I was watching.

"What, you want one?"

I ain't one to leave an opening like that. "Nah, I bought two of my own," I flexed both my biceps with a grin.

He scoffed, though I could see him smirking a bit. "Yeah. Yeah, okay," he zipped up his bag. "I know you can handle yourself in a fight. But we ain't fucking detectives," he looked at Tolliver. "Hopefully your guy shows up."

"H-He will," Tolliver said. She looked pretty intimidated by Frank. "I'm supposed to drop you off and he'll meet you there afterward."

"Good," he leaned back in his chair. "So why am I here? You got Mrs. Hulk, you got your detective guy. Why me?"

"Your incredible charm and wit, maybe?" I teased.

"According to the director, we don't want any assets going out alone right now," she said. "HYDRA's remnants are still underground, but we don't want to have anyone get kidnapped by them again. So even though Miss Walters is superhuman, we don't want to take the chance that she could get sidelined by something that counters her."

I didn't like that. The idea that I needed protecting. I hadn't met much that could take me on these days.

"Yeah well, let's just get there and get this done, huh?" Frank looked out at New York City. "Promised I'd be home for dinner."

-

When we got to the bank, Tolliver couldn't leave fast enough. Once she was gone, Frank and I stood there awkwardly. Me, more than him.

The bank was surrounded by cop cars cordoning off the place with yellow tape, which meant there were also a lot of spectators and reporters. Then my eight-foot-tall ass showed up and everyone had something else to focus on.

People were staring at me. I could hear a couple calling out my name, and a few had their phones out to take pictures. I crossed my arms and looked out at them. Honestly, even after all this time, seeing how weird people acted about me was still strange. Matt and Foggy had gotten over it, none of the Avengers acted weird, even the staff in the Avengers Tower and BRIDGE members didn't really think I was a crazy sight anymore. But the average New Yorker still treated me like part-celebrity, part-freak.

"Hey, take off your shirt!" one douchebag shouted in the crowd.

There's always one idiot.

"Hey, can you get someone in charge?" I said to one of the police officers on duty.

"They're on their way, ma'am," the lady said, looking apologetic. "It'll just be a minute."

"HEY, TAKE OFF YOUR SHIRT!" the same idiot yelled.

The female cop and I shared a look. For just a moment, I felt angry. If I actually went and confronted the idiot, he'd probably scream about being abused or something. Logically I knew that hanging him on a lamppost by his underwear would end badly in terms of my reputation, but I was actively considering it.

Frank, standing next to me, growled and turned towards the guy. I held out a hand in front of him. "Let it go. We have actual things to deal with."

He glared at the idiot, who gave Frank a smarmy smile back, before turning away. Honestly, that's the problem with guys like that. They think they win just because the people they yell at aren't supposed to punch down to them.

I ignored him as he kept on yelling at us. Apparently unsatisfied with my lack of reaction, he tried to move forward.

A cop who'd been cordoning off the area shoved him back with some prejudice. "Back off! This is a crime scene, chucklehead."

"Come one ma-" the idiot tried to argue.

"You want to complain, you wanna get taken in for disturbing the scene?" the cop warned.

I didn't have time to hear what the idiot said before someone came towards us, an older woman in business suit wear. "Frank Castle, She-Hulk? I'm Detective Leslie Perez."

Frank took her hand gruffly. "Ma'am."

The black-haired woman gave me a look I was used to, one of surprise and awe, before shaking my hand as well. "I was told there would be three of you."

"Our BRIDGE investigator should be here soon," I said.

"Huh. Well, might as well take you in for now," she turned and walked into the bank, Frank and I following.

The inside of the bank was covered in paper and pens, chunks of shattered wood scattered about. Several officers dressed in jackets that said 'crime scene' on them were dotted about the room. The room was circular, with the various teller desks surrounding the center. A chandelier hung from the ceiling, oddly unharmed by the devastation underneath it, it's glass crystals glowing in the sunlight outside. A vault door sat near the left side of the room, pieces of bent rebar and concrete hanging off of it.

"Yeah, that's the reason you're here," Detective Perez said when she noticed my gaze. "The second we noticed that we tried to figure out what the hell could have done that. Then one of our guys noticed the handprints," she pointed at them. I walked over and kneeled down to take a look.

It looked like a human hand pressed into clay, squeezing hard. Except in steel three inches thick. "I'm guessing you didn't find fingerprints, huh?"

"Nope. Whoever the superperson was, they used gloves," Perez sighed. "Gotta say, I don't like living in a world where people can just toss a vault door like this. Uh, no offense."

"None taken," I said absently. Out of curiosity, I held my hand to the print. "Holy…"

It was bigger than mine. Just barely, but it was.

"The thing is… they also beat a security guard half to death," Perez shuddered. "His ribs, arms, legs… he's lucky to be alive. Looks like he was attacked by a damn gorilla… How much strength does someone need to do something like this?" Perez asked me. "I mean, are they stronger than you? Are they bulletproof? I mean… can we even stop them when we find them?"

I looked up at her. She bit her lip and turned to look at the vault, which was covered in yellow cards with numbers, the signs of someone taking evidence. People were avoiding the sight of the vault door.

I looked at Frank. He was nudging at a nearby chunk of wood with his boot, a disinterested look on his face. "Hey, Frank, you okay?" I asked, knowing his answer was just what I needed.

"Yeah, just bored," he said idly.

Perez blinked. "You're _bored_?"

I laughed. "Yeah. Frank isn't as impressed by all this stuff as most people are."

He looked at Perez and shrugged. "I'm a soldier. I don't really have the luxury to be impressed. Still, this place is a lot cleaner than I thought it would be."

"Clean?" I asked, nothing all the destruction.

"Yeah," he pointed at the vault, then motioned his hand to the door. "See. This shit got destroyed in a straight line. From the vault to where the door got thrown. But everything else is fine. Fuck, the bank doors aren't even cracked."

He was right. The wooden desks had been destroyed by the door as it smashed into them, but nothing else. That got me thinking.

"You know… a while back, I had to persecute a bank robber," I said thoughtfully. "He was cooperating, so he told me a lot about how he worked."

"Oh?" Perez said. "You think that will apply here? I mean, this guy, or girl, was superhuman, you think they'll do things the way regular robbers do?"

"Absolutely. Super or not, people are people. Stupid, smart, emotional people. We're dealing with a different scale here, but," I got up and walked over to Perez with a smile. "People are people. That's the best and worst part about superpowers."

"Yeah," she winced back from me once I got close enough. I was actually surprised by that. She swallowed and turned around. "I'll leave you folks to it."

She turned and walked off a bit faster than necessary.

"...Fuck," I whispered to myself, looking around. I turned to Frank-

-

 _May 20, 2014_

The doorbell rang, interrupting my story. Mahmoud looked over at the door, getting up to get it. I stopped him.

"I got it, babe," I rose up and answered the door, and was met by the sight of one of my favorite blondes. "Thor?"

"Hail, Lady Jennifer," he said with that old-school charm. "May I and Natasha enter? We wished to speak with Mahmoud."

"Sure!" I blinked at him. "Wait, Nat?"

"I'm here," said a voice behind Thor. The tiny redhead stepped around Thor with that crazy amount of grace she always had. She gave me a sexy smirk. "How's it going, Jen?"

"Great!" I opened the door for them. Mahmoud perked up like a puppy when he saw them.

"Hey guys! What's up?"

"You're chipper this morning," Natasha gave him a smirk. "Oh. Yeah, I get it."

"...Get what?"

"You and Lady Jennifer have affirmed your relationship at last!" Thor said with a grin.

Mahmoud turned bright as a tomato. Even with his dusky brown skin, I could very clearly see it start in his cheeks and go down along his neck to his pecs. "I-I-I-What are you guys-"

"I mean, we were already in a relationship. But yeah, we banged," I shared a grin with Nat, who gave me another smirk as she smoothly sat at the counter and stole Mahmoud's food.

"Are you guys superheroes or high schoolers?" Mahmoud grumbled, still blushing.

"Relax," Thor clapped a hand on my embarrassed boyfriend's shoulder. "It's a natural and good thing."

He actually did relax, giving me a sheepish grin. "Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty great."

So damn cute.

"Still, I'm surprised you're alive," Natasha said idly. "Tony was betting on 'death by snu-snu'."

"...You guys bet on us having sex?" I tried to sound surprised.

"I bet money on Omnitrix kinks popping up," the super-agent grinned.

As soon as she said that, my eyes landed on the Omnitrix. So did Mahmoud and Thor's. We stared at the green glowing gauntlet before sharing a look. "Uh…"

"I mean, not for the first time/Not unless she asked," Dial and I said at the same time. Then we stared at each other.

I'll be honest, I'd been half-tempted, but I didn't know if _he'd_ be open to it. It was weird, right? Right?

Oh god, was I blushing!?

"...Awkward," Thor whispered, while Nat chuckled under her breath. Thor raised his fist to his mouth and coughed. "What were you speaking about before we entered?"

I wasn't relieved at the change in subject. Not too much anyway. I sat down to eat while Mahmoud hurriedly went to get Thor some coffee.

"Jen, uh, was talking about the mission she had while I was getting chewed up and spat out by the Savage Land," he said. His back was turned to us. Which was why he didn't notice how much his little joke affected us.

Natasha stopped eating, her emerald eyes tracing across his back. I'd have gotten jealous at the sexy spy eyeing up my boyfriend if I didn't notice the way her eyes stopped on each scar he'd gained. I wonder if he even noticed the fact he had little ones threading up and down, with a large patch on his left shoulder blade that looked like a raised spider web.

Thor sighed sadly, sitting down heavily on his chair.

I got how they felt. When we'd been lying in bed, I'd found myself counting his scars. They'd felt interesting. Little smooth bumps on his skin. When he was talking about his fights, about that Stend asshole… hearing, in detail, how each one happened, hurt. He'd almost died. And I hadn't been there.

When you saw Dial in action, turning into a giant tiger man to lift cars, into a goo monster to slip through cracks, or a pterodactyl alien that could break the speed of sound, it was hard to remember Mahmoud, the normal human who could bleed. How could he be so strong and so vulnerable at the same time?

But then, I could relate now. The memory was still fresh in my mind.

When he turned back to us, he had coffee in hand for Thor, who took it with a smile. "So, you were in the bank?"

I blinked at how suddenly he just jumped back into things. "What, should I just keep going?"

"Of course!" Thor said happily. "I love a good story. Battles won and lost, great heros triumphing! Natasha never shares her stories," he gave her a sour look.

"Why should I? None of mine are as good as yours," she teased.

Thor paused. Once again, the big guy proved he was immune to sarcasm. "True, but I still want to hear some."

"...It's a good thing you're cute."

Nat, Thor, and I looked at Mahmoud. He shrugged. "What, it's true."

I grinned at him while Thor chuckled, patting Mahmoud's shoulder. "So, right. I might as well start the story from the beginning for you guys?"

"I have nowhere to be," Nat said.

"Well, it all started at the office…"

-

At the same time I was restarting my story, my phone was buzzing on the dresser in our bedroom. A bunch of notifications from a few different sources. Later I'd take a look at it and find out that while I was pretty happy about the state of the Avengers, some people had some different opinions. Polarizing opinions. I had to stop myself from going out and punching idiots after a few minutes of reading and watching the dumber stuff being said about us.

Like the frog said. It ain't easy being green.

-

 _Interlude: Social Media_

"J. Jonah Jameson here, from the , to talk about the events of the last few months!" A bombastic man said far louder than needed. He was balding, the remains of flattop haircut starting to fade, wrinkles etched into his face. But when he spoke, it was with an energetic and aggressive manner, his wrinkles giving him the air of a dignified man who was used to righteous anger, for good or ill.

He was wearing a simple suit and sitting at a black desk, the screen behind him showing the bugle logo of his news organization.

"Ever since HYDRA revealed they've been infecting SHIELD like the parasites they are, and Captain America took them down, we've been living in a damn chaotic world, damn chaotic listeners! But lucky for you, JJ is here to break it all down for you with my unbiased report!" he leaned forward. "Now folks, I'm not gonna sugar coat it! Things aren't rosy in the world today! Anyone who claims we live in a better world today is _lying_ to you! But things aren't all bad either. So let's start with the good."

A picture of Captain America came up next to him, the all-American standing on top of rubble, a wide smile on his face as he carried a child in his arms and helped an injured woman stand, an older man over his shoulder.

"First off, we've got the greatest damn hero in the world still standing up for us!" JJ pointed at the image. "In a world of freaks running around _claiming_ to be heroes, Captain America is still the leader of the Avengers. Hell, his sidekick, Falcon," the image of Sam in flight over New York showed up next to Cap. "Is even leading their offshoot team. It's a damn good sign, to show that even when all the crazies are running around, we still have an honest American taking charge in the field!"

JJ's smile was temporary. "But then, we have to talk about that. About the freaks we've got in the world today. Starting with this guy."

An image of Dial showed up. The brown-skinned hero was scowling, dust and mud across his face, hunched over. A far less heroic image than the one shown of Captain America.

"Now, I love Cap. It's easy to tell why. But I have to question his judgment. Why does he trust this man?" Another image, this time of Dial in Blitzwolfer form, biting into a tri-horned demons shoulder like a vicious animal. "Dial, real name Mahmoud Schahed! He came out of nowhere with a watch that he claims holds aliens he can turn into. Inserts himself into the Avengers right when HYDRA makes them desperate for allies, then starts pulling in others to join in no less. Where do I even start!?"

JJ slammed a fist onto the desk. "First off, he's too damn powerful! This guy, kid really, shows up and what? He can turn into _eleven_ different aliens that can each be an Avenger on their own? And does anyone remember _this_?"

An image of a helicarrier appeared. An Upgraded Helicarrier, completely black and covered in green lines like circuitry. It spun it's cannons in various directions and started firing. Green waves of energy split the skies, ripping apart HYDRA forces in moments.

"We're dealing with someone who can turn a helicarrier into a superweapon," JJ said, his voice foreboding in tone. "That's not the least of what he can do either."

JJ was replaced by footage. Four Arms sparring with the Hulk, their fists sending visible shockwaves through the air. Diamondhead slicing through tanks with blades of crystal. Big Chill moving through walls before blasting bursts of ice. Men getting beaten by an invisible force before Fasttrack appeared. Goop burning through a glass window with acid as a man screamed and ran away. Fasttrack blasting massive waves of blue light from his tendrils. Swampfire blasting fire. Rath laughing maniacally as he ripped into HYDRA soldiers, screaming out slurs and taunts. Jury Rigg with a sadistic smile on his face as he hefted a nightmarish gun that inflated the heads of demons like balloons until they couldn't move anymore. Wildmutt, covered in blood and snarling as it fought dire wolves from out of prehistory.

"Let's not forget his 'friends'," JJ said, positively incensed. "First, we've got Carl 'Crusher' Creel," the image of Creel appeared, midway in turning into steel. More images appeared, such as Creel in his boxing days. "A former _thug_ and _criminal_! Known for being a mob enforcer of all things! And then what did he do!? Now I know what you want to say, listeners. 'But Jonah, Creel was reformed!"

He shook his head. "Don't be foolish. Creel was a criminal for a damn long time. Are we supposed to just trust that this career criminal has _reformed_!? Tell that to the victims who walk the streets of New York, fearing the name of 'Crusher' Creel!"

"And what about Russia!?" the image of the Winter Guard appeared, standing proud in the sunlight. "Now, I have no problem with fostering better relations between nations. Hell, I welcome it," he scowled. "But the Winter Guard is just the start of a new problem. _Government_ superhero teams. Teams that will defend the nations of their own interests, first and foremost. Worse, teams that will do work for governments!"

"Say what you will about the Avengers, but when Rio needed help, they went," JJ soured further. "I'll even give credit to Dial. That kid saved lives out there, right alongside Captain America. I didn't see a single Winter Guard member fighting out there, saving people from the rubble."

He slammed a fist on the table. "So why the hell is one of them an _Avenger!_ "

The image of Fantasma appeared, dressed in her purple uniform, floating on a platform of magic and glowing violet.

"A self-proclaimed witch," JJ scoffed, showing just what he thought of that. "Who we know nothing about! She has exactly one good deed to her name that we know about, and that was in service to her own country!? Let's break out a hypothetical. Let's say this 'witch'," he did some quote marks. "Has to help the Avengers. And Russia decides it's against their best interests. You know what she'll choose? Russia. Every Time."

JJ shrugged. "Now, if she proves me wrong, fantastic. But I doubt it."

He leaned back in his seat. "I could go further. Talk about how BRIDGE is coming very close to becoming the strongest damn army on Earth, with a bevy of superhumans under their control called 'Graveyarders' according to my sources. How all their soldiers are packed with tech that can rip through tanks… But I will say one thing."

He tapped a single finger on the table. "I am _warning_ you. But I am also here to tell you, I have hope. I am worried that these are the signs of bad things to come. I am worried that governments will take cues from Russia and we'll have big government building secret teams of superhumans, black ops with superpowers, with all the wonderful actions that follow," he lost that excited tone to his voice. "The last few months have shown us we're vulnerable. How dangerous things have become. At any moment, the world can fall out from under us… But we're also _protected._

"I may warn you about the possibility of Dial and others becoming threats, because it would be idiotic to just take them at face value! But Captain America, the very man who brought down HYDRA, trusts him. They went shopping damn it!"

A picture of Mahmoud and Steve side by side in Forbidden Planet appeared, the two grinning as they pointed at a comic book.

"If Dial is on the up and up, if we don't end up fighting a war against that insanely powerful alien, then we've got a hell of an ally on our side. If BRIDGE really has shed themselves of HYDRA, and Maria Hill isn't going to use her personal army to start shutting down democracy, then we'll have the world's most advanced soldiers ready to fight off any superpowers we had to fear!"

He calmed down very fast. "It's a big if, I know. But New Yorkers, Rio natives, and much more, know that 'if' is worth it. I'll take the Hulk over the damned Chitauri, I'll take Tony Stark over any demons, and I'll take Dial over robot monkeys."

"...And let's talk about that. Robot monkeys. Because while I will be keeping an eye on the freaks claiming to be helping us, let's not forget the freaks that are confirmed enemies!"

"HYDRA is still out there! Those monsters are still plotting to take away your, our, freedoms! We can't just sit and wait to do something about that! HYDRA needs to be eradicated," the last was said with vicious anger to it. "Then we have things like demons flying around, countries making their own superteams, even AIM is apparently on the rise. There are threats everywhere."

"And honestly, AIM?" he looked incredulous. "They _just_ got accused of trying to kill Tony Stark, a leader of industry, and the _PRESIDENT._ And now, the United States Military is going to get back in bed with them again? I don't care if AIM starts making tech that blows everything we've got out of the water! Do not trust them!"

He slammed a fist on the table and growled. "We're about to cut to a commercial for crap nobody wants- What?" JJ stopped to look at someone off-screen. "The hell are you mouthing over there, Jared. **No!** No, I'm sticking with what I said, damnit! If they want to charge us out the ass so they can sell whatever garbage they want to trick the American people out of, then I'm damn well telling people about it! Except for that 'manscaping' trimmer, the wife likes that one."

-

 _Author's Note:_

That's the chapter for now, along with something I promised a while ago. Looks at the way the world is responding to Dial.

The next chapters of Dial should be ending with things like that until we finish the She-Hulk arc. Which itself should be relatively short, if brutal when it comes to the ending. Should be fun.

I have a list of suggestions for portions of society I want to highlight, including young Kamala's view of the world, but if you guys have more, let me know.

In the meantime, please consider supporting me on ! Even a dollar a month will help me to start writing this story full-time, and five-dollar s get to read these chapters four days ahead of time!

Next time, Jen and Frank start to realize just what they're dealing with, Nat steals Dial's food, and the FBI shows up. Kinda.


	105. Chapter 105

_Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk_

Well, Nat and Thor, now that you're all caught up on the story, ya freeloaders. ("Another coffee, please." "Here you go, Thor.")

Frank and I got to talking about the scene.

"You said you had to prosecute a bank robber, right?" Frank looked up at me. "That guy give you any tips?"

"Well, what you said got me thinking. About this place being cleaner than you thought?" I looked around. "Normal bank robberies work off Occam's Razor. It means-"

His eyes widened. " _Lex parsimoniae_ , right. Simplest solution is the best."

"Uh, yeah. Kinda didn't expect you to know about it."

He smirked. "What, you thought I was just some jarhead?"

"I once saw you take a knight in Rio out with a catom ax."

"And you're eight feet tall and green, I don't insult your intelligence."

Fair enough. "Well, in the case of a robbery, the question is, 'how do I get the goods without ending up in pain?' You go for the simplest way from there. So the first step is information. And the best way to do that easily in a bank is to just to act like a customer."

The rough soldier nodded, looking around the room full of cops. In my mind's eye, I could imagine the place as it was before. A clean and orderly bank, with tellers and customers. I imagined one of them walking around and carefully eyeing things.

"Sometimes though, it'll be someone on the inside," I could picture a teller carefully noting things down. "Either way, they'll keep track of things. Figure out the shifts of guards, the way police patrol the neighborhoods, work or come in late to find out how many people are likely to be around at night."

"Basically the same thing army intelligence should do."

I could hear a bit of annoyance in his tone. " _Should,_ do?"

"Bad experience with a fuck up of an _intelligence_ agent," Frank smirked. "Punched his eye out."

"And _I'm_ supposed to be the scary one," I mused to myself. I looked around a bit more, still thinking. "They needed intel. Once they had it, they enter… where? From the back door? No… An employee entrance. Nobody said anything about any doors being broken down other than this bad boy. They must have found a way in. And then there's no reports on any camera catching them."

"A hacker, maybe?" Frank asked.

"Hacking isn't as easy as pop culture makes it out to be. Someone hacking the cameras would require a huge amount of skill. Banks can't allow themselves to be robbed. Not because of their money, that's insured. But if a bank gets robbed, it ruins their reputation. So cybersecurity has to be strong. That's just logical sense, especially for a big one like this," I waved around at the pretty place. "Hell, I think these desks are mahogany or something. At least, they were," I kicked one of the random pieces of wood, sending it scattering across the floor.

"Okay, they get the intel," Frank said. "They enter the bank, head straight to the vault, open it with super-strength, run out. Nothing super complex then. And no evidence other than we're looking for someone who's got bigger hands than you."

"Not that much bigger," I grumbled to myself.

"We got something!" someone said in the back. Frank and I turned to see someone waving from the back. Hurriedly we followed them, Perez joining us. Once we got there, the crime scene tech led us to an employee exit, Frank and I sharing a look at that. Outside, we walked down the street for a while before reaching a section where an officer was guarding one of the yellow lines. There, just on the ground near a dead tree, one of those planted on sidewalks to give a bit of life to the city, was half a bootprint.

It was pretty damn big. Bigger than my own feet. Of course, size wasn't any measure of strength. I mean, Fasttrack is a pretty normal sized alien, but he can lift a hell of a lot for his size. Still, this was pretty ridiculous.

"This is perfect," Perez said, kneeling down as the tech began preparing a mold. "We finally have something."

"Then you better tell me about it," we turned to see a woman standing there. She was about waist height to me, which made her a few inches shorter than Frank. She had long black hair, green eyes, and the looks of a supermodel. She knew it too. Even under her black jacket with the proud block letters displaying a familiar FBI, she wore a tight orange t-shirt that displayed her midriff, a tight black skirt that stopped at about mid-thigh, and a pair of black high heels, the tattoo of a chain around her left ankle. She looked like a high school student fantasy of an FBI agent. "Agent Ananastasia Rinaldi, FBI."

"...Ananastasia. Not Anastasia?" I asked hesitantly. Seriously, spellcheck hates that name. Has a red squiggle under it and everything.

She smirked, cocking her hip and placing a hand on it. "What, did I stutter?"

"What is the FBI doing here?" Perez said, sounding annoyed.

"Asking why you're letting this freak and her friend intrude on my investigation," she glared up at me. "We don't need some dumb strongwomen trampling around our evidence."

Okay. Bitch.

"It's not 'your' anything," I growled. "This is a BRIDGE case. Or you haven't seen the fact that someone who can toss around cars is involved in this? You planning on taking them down with a _gun_?"

"Oh? So you're just here as _dumb_ muscle?" she chuckled. "That makes sense. In that case, why don't you let the professionals handle this, and we'll call you when someone needs to throw a punch."

"Not happening," Frank stepped up next to me, growling. "This isn't a debate. I haven't memorized the rules or anything, but as far as I know, any superhuman activity means BRIDGE has jurisdiction."

"Then prove it," Ananastasia sighed. "I mean, are you two even certified for this kind of thing?"

Damn it. She finally had a point. Frank and I weren't actually investigators or detectives or anything. Where the hell was that BRIDGE agent who was supposed to be helping us?

Perez looked between us awkwardly. "Maybe one of you better call your superiors so I can figure who exactly I'm supposed to kick out."

"Good idea," the smug FBI agent flipped her hair.

"I'll call command," Frank looked at Ananastasia (stupid damn name) like she was scum on his foot. "In the meantime, if you touch any evidence-"

"What, you'll pout at me?" she sighed, walking up to press a finger against his chest. "You're cute, but not that cute."

She ran that finger along his chest in one of the most blatant attempts at seduction I've ever seen. Perez and I shared a look of surprise. Frank, on the other hand, was unfazed.

"No. I'll break your fucking arm," Frank growled, slapping her hand away. He turned away without another look at her, raising his phone up to his ear.

She looked startled. Then pissed off. When she saw I noticed, she quickly hid it. "If I see a single green handprint in there, I'm going to be speaking to your superiors."

"If you talk to me like that again, I'm going to shove your heels up your ass."

Ananastasia didn't seem to know what to say to that, so she just huffed and turned away. Perez and I were left behind with the crime technician, who was desperately trying to ignore the world around her while making a mold of the bootprint.

"...As soon as we're done measuring dicks," Perez said, looking as annoyed as I was. "I'm gonna suggest you head to the hospital to talk to the security guard. He hasn't woken up yet, but-"

"It'll be worth a shot," I agreed immediately.

"Is she right?" Perez asked. "I mean, I know the FBI usually has sole jurisdiction among federal law enforcement agencies to investigate bank robberies, but BRIDGE should be able to take over when there's evidence of superhumans."

I crossed my arms and sighed. "I'm pretty damn sure that FBI chick doesn't have a leg to stand on. But it's more than possible someone up the ladder is trying to take the case from us, so we still have to make a stand. It's bullshit, but bullshit we have to shovel."

"I hate politics."

So does everyone in the universe.

 _May 20, 2014_

Thor lowered his coffee and frowned. "Hmm. I have never had to encounter such a situation. Is it really so complicated?"

"I guess as the crown prince, ya never had to deal with that kind of stuff," Mahmoud said. "Either you had jurisdiction or you were too damn strong to stop."

Thor chuckled embarrassedly. "Well, I have always been asked for help. I never had to worry about this organization or that deciding I wasn't allowed to aid the people."

"Whatever the case, she had no right to interfere," Natasha leaned back in her chair, placing one leg over the other. "We do have some joint FBI and BRIDGE operations, but nothing close to a problem of jurisdiction ever pops up."

"Yeah," Mahmoud rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I mean, the FBI is usually damn good. I'm supposed to head to one of their profiling conferences actually. But they don't have guys who can punch superhumans out just yet. Which doesn't make them useless or anything."

"Of course," Natasha replied. "But it does mean that we're supposed to aid them. Imagine if the FBI had to hunt down a killer with an Omnitrix of their own."

Mahmoud gave her a look that told me he'd had that worry once or twice, a sad and morose look.

"What happened to the agent who was supposed to help you, anyways?" Natasha asked.

"Well, Frank found that out pretty quick," I got up. "Come on, I wanna grab a drink. I'll tell you the rest in the rec room."

 _May 18, 2014_

When Frank came back after fifteen minutes on the phone, that Ananastasia chick had disappeared at some point. Which, seriously?

"She's just gone?" I asked Perez as we stood in front of the bank. "She decided to leave after _demanding_ we prove we have jurisdiction?"

"That's what our officers say they saw her do," Perez looked as frustrated as I was.

"Well, what did BRIDGE have to say, anyway?" I asked Frank.

"That we have jurisdiction, and Ananastasia's superior is gonna give her a dressing down," he said simply.

"Fan-fucking-tastic," Perez shook her head. "I'm so happy we could waste our time with all this then. First we have a robber stronger than fucking She-Hulk, now this..."

She turned and walked away fast, clenching a tanned fist as she did. I gaped at her.

"Stronger?" I growled. What the hell? Because this thief had bigger hands and feet!? Goddamnit, I could toss tanks, why was I feeling like I had to prove myself?

"Also, we aren't getting backup," Frank said with some frustration to his tone.

"What?" I asked.

"The BRIDGE investigator is working on another case, one that takes priority," he shook his head. "We're supposed to stand down for now."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah," Frank looked frustrated. "We aren't investigators, so we're just waiting on them to find someone else. We're to collect the evidence and coordinate with the NYPD if needed, but we're basically just going to sit around with our thumbs up our asses for now."

"...Who says we need someone else?" I asked. See, this is where I got reckless.

Frank cocked his head to the side, but didn't say anything. I spoke quickly.

"I mean, we aren't investigators, but we do have some evidence, right? And we know that a security guard was sent to the hospital. He's gotta know something. I mean, if he knows even the hair color of his attackers, that can be useful," I looked around. "Come on, Frank. You really wanna let this go?"

"We were told to," he scowled up at me. "Why the hell are you suddenly invested?"

I hesitated for a moment. I'll be honest, I wasn't sure why at first. But then, I had to remember just what kind of day I'd had.

Perez being so nervous around me as well as doubting my strength, that FBI bitch. After so many years of proving myself in every conversation, showing my father, my fellow lawyers, every criminal, cop, and client that I was more than just a mousy girl, that I was strong and smart enough to take on anything that came my way, I'd gotten used to proving myself.

When I became my bodacious green self, I hadn't needed to do that anymore. All the Avengers were respectful of me, Matt and Foggy treated me like what I was. A sexy, smart, super-strong lawyer.

But now, in the streets of New York, I was feeling that same urge I once had. People didn't think I could step up. Ananastasia didn't think I was smart enough. Perez thought that the robber was stronger than me. I was feeling the burn anyone does when a challenge pops up. The burn to beat something.

Yeah, see. I knew you three would understand.

Frank looked more annoyed than anything. "Ms. Walters, the only interrogations I've ever been involved in involved a lot more violence than you might like. What do you want us to do when we get to the hospital, ask nicely?"

"We aren't 'interrogating' anyone, remember? This guy got beat to hell, and we're gonna beat up the people that did it to him. You don't have to convince him to tell us anything. We go in, ask him some questions, go out."

He glared up at me for a long moment. He looked left, then right. "Yeah. Yeah, okay. Why not?"

"Yes!" I wrapped an arm around his shoulder, having to bend over to do it, and grinned at my sour ally. "You won't regret this, Frankie."

"Get off of me," he growled.

"Ah, don't be so grumpy. This will be fun!"

"I take back everything. This sucks," I said as I stared out at a sea of reporters in front of the hospital.

"I already regret this," Frank growled, glaring daggers at a young man shoving a microphone against the window. We were sitting in a taxi, slowly rolling along while people were shouting at us. Dozens of flashes were going off all around, cameras getting thousands of pictures. Seriously, I was literally just sitting in a cab, what were they hoping for?

The taxi driver, an older Haitian man in his forties, looked back at me. He had a cool accent, a 43CX almost smooth. "Ms. Walters, I'm really honored to drive you and everything, but these people aren't letting me go any further."

"It's fine," I grinned at the guy and got a bashful smile back. "Thanks for everything, Samuel."

"Call me Sammy, Miss," he said with a kind smile. Then he looked around. "...Will you be needing a ride after, Miss? I can pull the car around back?"

"You sure about that?" I asked.

"Of course, Ms. Walters," his smile became a bit softer. "You Avengers have been protecting us. I don't mind driving ya."

I tell ya, that made me feel warm inside. I nodded at him, then looked at Frank. "Okay. We run for the entrance?"

"Yeah," he said, shaking his head. "Damnit, I miss being able to shoot things that annoyed me."

We shoved open the car doors. I tried to be gentle, but I still ended up sending a few people flying back.

As soon as I stood out of the car, I towered over the crowd. For half a second, they finally quieted down. Then they started shouting questions.

"Jennifer! Who's that guy that was in the car with you, a new boyfriend!?"

"Any truth to the rumours that you'll be modeling in Victoria's Secret next week!?"

"Are you dating Brad Pitt!?"

"What's your favorite pizza!?"

"How was breakfast!?"

"Why aren't there nude photos of you online!?"

"What's your favorite movie!?"

I pushed through as gently as I could. Some guys tried to get in my way. I picked up two men and placed them gently aside while speaking. "I'm here for a job. Just get out of the way."

The sheer amount of people ended up slowing me down. When I finally reached the entrance, Frank was there with some of the hospital's security guards. They stopped the reporters from entering at the doors, shoving them back. "How the hell did they know I was here!?" I yelled, annoyed as hell by now.

"If it wasn't for the stupid questions they were asking, I'd think someone knew we came for the security guard," Frank said.

That… was a good point. No one seemed to know that I was here for an actual mission. Just that I was on my way here. Actually, there were a lot of paparazzi at the hospital too. More than should be here considering _I_ didn't even know I would be at the hospital until about thirty minutes ago.

Before I could think any further on that, a nurse came up to us. He was a short man in blue scrubs, with large forearms and a tight beard. "Ms. She-Hulk? You're here to speak to Mr. Romero?"

"Yeah," I said immediately, recognizing the last name of the security guard. "Is he awake?"

"He just did," the nurse turned and started walking quickly. "He was pretty beat up, but the guy is damn tough. He's ready to answer any questions you guys have. Honestly, I think he's half-ready to just go out and beat people up himself."

"My kinda guy," Frank said with a smirk.

"As long as he's good to talk," I said as we strode down the hallway. We entered an elevator and stood there for a bit. The nurse kept looking up at me as we waited. I looked back at him, curious.

"Sorry, it's just… never seen a superhuman before," he said nervously. "You're really tall."

I smirked. He blushed, and looked relieved when the door snapped open, rushing out.

Frank and I followed, heading down the hallway together. We passed a man in a doctor's coat and finally got to the end of the hall a little after that. As we came close, a loud pitched whining sound could be heard. I was confused as to what it was at first. The nurse, on the other hand, cursed and ran forward. At the end of the hall, two police officers were standing nearby in horror as some nurses and a female doctor were working around a man dying on his bed.

"Code Blue!" someone yelled.

"What the hell happened!?" the nurse shouted as he ran in.

"We don't know, he just started coding!" the doctor shouted as his patient was dying.

They got to work around the man on the bed, desperately trying to save him as Frank and I watched. I stared at them for a moment, thoughts swirling through my head.

Our one witness dying before we could get to him. Paparazzi outside, gathered early. Like someone had been…

"Oh no," my eyes widened in horror. "Someone did this."

"What do you mean?" Frank asked, looking up at me. Even as he asked, I saw him come to the same realization.

"They were trying to keep us from finding them," I looked around. Nobody was looking guilty. Except… What the hell was a doctor doing going for an elevator when someone was dying?

"Come on!" I shouted at Frank, rushing for the elevator as fast as I could. I kicked my shoes off to sprint as fast as I could. The elevator was already closed. I didn't let that stop me.

I stopped in front of the doors and slipped my fingers in between them, shoving the metal doors apart with a loud whining sound. I could see the elevator going down below me. Without hesitating, I leaped down the dark shaft, wrapping a hand around one of the metal cables. I could feel the metal wire trying to scrape the skin off my palm, but thankfully I was too tough for that. I fell towards the elevator below as it came to a stop and quickly squeezed down on the cable in my hand, braking myself just over the elevator. I landed a bit heavily on the elevator, the whole thing shaking under my bare feet.

"Fuck!" someone shouted from inside. I leaned over and grabbed the door on top of it, pulling hard. The metal crumpled like paper under my fingers. I ripped it off more easily than I expected, stumbling back onto my ass with a yelp.

"Holy fuck!" someone shouted again. The doors for the elevator dinged open under me.

"No, no, NO!" I got up and leaped down into the elevator car as the fake doctor rushed out. I leaped forward and grabbed his coat, only for him to slip it off and keep running as I stumbled. "You son of a-!"

I ran after him as he sprinted for the doors. I smashed through the hospital doors in a shower of glass. He screamed.

And someone came out of the skies to kick me in the stomach. I gasped in pain, the booted foot shoving me back.

Pain filled me like nothing I've felt since I first went green. I went bouncing across the hospital floor, flipping over and over, until I crashed into a wall behind me.

"W-What just-" I gasped, coughing as I grabbed at my stomach. I looked up at the doors. A redheaded giant with long hair was spinning around to run away as well, disappearing around the corner.

"Walters!" Frank shouted as he came from the stairs. "You good!?"

"No," I snarled, snapping to my feet and rushing forward. I ran outside and spun my head left and right. Nothing. They were gone.

"Goddamn it!" I roared, more glass shattering behind me, and slammed a foot into the ground. Some car alarms began to sound while the ground shook, a series of cracks under my feet. I breathed hard, glaring at nothing while people screamed.

"...Walters," I spun around. Frank was there, holding a pistol in his hand. He was staring at me like he was deciding whether to point it at me or not. "...Come on. We'll track them down."

Still panting, I looked around. Some paparazzi were headed towards us, confused by the ruckus. I turned and walked inside, trying to hold my anger back. But it was getting harder and harder.

Mr. Romero had died. And I wasn't even able to stop the people who'd done it.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my StarkRigg phone.

"Who you calling?" Frank asked as people started coming over curiously.

"A friend," I waited for barely a moment before the line picked up.

"Hello, Ms. Walters," a British accent said. "How may I be of assistance?"

"Jarvis," I looked behind me. "I'm gonna need you to help me track someone done. Might need to hack some cameras."

"Simply inform me of where I should start," he said smoothly.

 _May 20, 2014_

"Red-haired giant?" Mahmoud asked calmly as we finally reached the rec room. He went to the bar and grabbed a bottle of vodka, tossing it to Thor, who grinned at him while Mahmoud went to the fridge and started pulling out ice cream.

"Pass me a bowl of rocky road?" Mahmoud gave me a grin and a nod, looking over at Nat, who shook her head. "And yeah. That was all I saw at the time though, just a nine-foot tall redhead. The bitch suckerpunched me," hard to hide just how much that still pissed me off. "Later I learned her name."

"Mary. Mary MacPherran. And it turns out, she had a lot on her mind at the time."

 _May 18, 2014_

 _Mary MacPherran_

Mary ran into the car and looked back at the hospital. "Go, go, go damnit!"

The driver smashed down on the accelerator, spinning off. She looked out of the back of the car window and had enough time to see that green bitch coming running back out of the doors before they disappeared around the corner.

"That bitch is alive!?" the idiot next to her shouted. He was wearing a doctor's coat and looked absolutely freaked out.

"She's an Avenger you idiot, of course one hit didn't take her out!" Mary shouted angrily, smacking him in the face with a casual wave. He screamed in pain as his nose broke. "Why the hell did you let her look at you?"

Blood poured from his nose. "You fuckin-!"

"What?" Mary grabbed his shirt and pulled him close. "I fucking… what?"

He stared at her, tears in his eyes. The driver said nothing, focusing as hard as he could on the road.

God, that was delicious. The fear in his eyes as blood poured from his nose. Mary pulled him closer, pressing her other hand to his neck. She forgot her anger. Instead, she began to squeeze. A sense of ecstasy filled her when his eyes widened. She could feel him begin to struggle.

She brought him closer, pressing his forehead to hers and breathing deeply. He coughed, a bit of blood landing on her face. "Why did you let yourself get seen? You made me do this."

You made me do this. She'd heard people say that to her all her life. Her step-father first.

Saying it now, as a weak pathetic person clutched and pulled at her arms, crying silently, her hand squeezing, made her feel so _perfect._ She finally had power.

She let him go. He breathed in, gasping. Then she clenched her hands hard. She felt flesh give way under her hands, felt something rip. He tried to say something, but the blood had begun to pour over her fingers.

That feeling was something she clenched to. The power over someone else's life. She slowly pushed him back as he died.

"I'll burn the car when we get home," the driver whispered.

"Good," Mary leaned forward in her seat and pressed herself to the back of the driver's. She brought her right hand around to press an index finger against his chest. For a moment, she hesitated. The driver was cute, but she'd never gotten used to flirting with people.

Then, the thought struck her. If he refused, why would that matter? She could do whatever she wanted.

She smiled. Just like her stepfather would. "Come to my room when you're done."

The driver nodded quickly, swallowing. Mary smiled and ran a finger along his chest, knowing she could rip him apart in seconds.

Knowing that an Avenger was after them made her feel much less confident, but killing the man had her on top of the world once again.

 _Interlude: Kids_

 _Queens_

 _Peter Parker/Nothing Yet_

"Okay, put that piece there!" Ned said loudly. Peter leaned over and gently put in the lego piece, Ned holding two others apart to let it fit. If either of them had been doing this alone, they would have had some trouble with it, but together, Peter was able to get the job done.

When the piece finally clicked in, Ned and Peter shared a sigh of relief before grinning at each other.

Ned Leeds and Peter Parker. Friends for life. Ned Leeds was a slightly overweight young man with dark tanned skin, who's smile tended to spread across his entire face. Peter, on the other hand, was almost painfully thin and pale. When he smiled, it was usually very nervously, as though someone would wipe it off his face at any moment.

Peter leaned back in his seat. They were sitting in Peter's room after school, working together on their latest project. A Lego model of the Firehouse from Ghostbusters. The two thirteen year olds had had to save for months together to get the box, but they were having a lot of fun putting it together.

"It looks great!" Ned grinned at Peter. "I can't believe we're almost finished."

Peter grinned right back at his friend, leaning back further, only to yelp when he almost fell backwards. He'd never had the best sense of balance. "Yeah. We should probably decide how we'll carry it to your house."

"You sure man?" Ned said nervously. "I mean, it's already here, we can just leave it?"

Peter shook his head. "It's okay. I want you to have it. I don't have a place to put it anyways."

That was true. Peter's room was sadly a bit sparse, looking more like an unlived in college dorm room than something a teenage boy would live in. Besides, Peter felt a little guilty taking the Firehouse from Ned when his best friend had paid so much for it.

(Peter ignored the fact that he'd paid as much as Ned had.)

"Well, thank you, man," Ned said with a smile. Then his phone beeped a notification. Grabbing it, he raised it up before laughing. "Ha! Look!"

He showed it to Peter by tapping the screen, a blue beam coming from a section of the phone. The new StarkRigg phones had the ability to pop up holograms of whatever their screens were showing. The feature took a lot of power from the phone, but it was so useful nobody minded.

The hologram was a picture of Tony Stark rolling his eyes sarcastically at Chernobog. On the image was a caption saying 'yeah, he's not evil at AAAAAALLLLL'. The dark god was roaring maniacally.

Peter laughed. As much as the Russian government had tried to highlight that the Winter Guard was a force of good, they couldn't hide Chernobog. Not when the literal _dark god_ had access to the internet.

"Look at this one!" The next picture had the caption 'When People Rant About Demons Online'. It showed Chernobog sitting on a throne with a tub of popcorn, a shit-eating grin on his face.

"Are you _following_ him?" Peter asked Ned incredulously.

"Yeah, he's really funny!" Ned said with a grin. "He says he's going on a trip to visit America soon. He wants Netflix to do a documentary on it."

"Seriously?" Peter said incredulously.

"Oh, here's your favorite again!" Ned turned the phone to show Tony Stark in his armor with Dial, in Diamondhead form, Thor, and the Hulk, the four laughing together as bullets bounced off of them. 'When you and the homies have bulletproof opinions.'

"Well, he's really cool," Peter mumbled, getting a grin from Ned. Honestly, that was just part of why Peter admired Tony Stark so much. Peter could still remember being a kid, standing in front of a giant one-eyed robot. He'd been wearing an Iron Man mask and glove. He was so scared. All he could think to do was to use his toy glove to shoot it. It was dumb. The glove was just a toy. The robot had pointed a gun at him. He closed his eyes.

For a moment, when he heard a repulsor blast, Peter had the crazy thought that his glove had worked. His eyes snapped open.

The robot was gone. And Iron Man stood there. Tall and proud, his red and gold suit almost glowing in the light. Peter, for the rest of his life, would remember the sight of Iron Man's blue eyes looking down at him.

 _"Nice work, kid."_

Then he took off into the sky.

After that, how could Peter _not_ think Iron Man was the coolest hero ever?

"Hey boys," a man came up to the door, smiling down at them. A warm feeling came over Peter when he saw the man. "I think it's about time I drove Ned home, don't you?"

"Sure thing, Mr. Parker," Ned said with a smile.

"Uncle Ben, can you help us carry this?" Peter asked.

The man stepped in to look over the Firehouse. He had thick brown hair similar in color to Peter's, and light blue eyes, a short beard about his chin. He gently picked it up in strong hands, looking it over carefully. "Yeah, I think we can carry it out, Petey."

Uncle Ben smiled at Peter Parker. To Peter, that meant the entire world.

 _Jersey City_

 _Kamala Khan/Nothing Yet_

"Kamala! Dinner!"

Kamala winced in front of her computer. The young girl was reading a fanfic on , a website for nerds like her. She'd only recently gotten into it, and was quickly becoming obsessed with the stories on there.

Though she had to hide some of the guilty pleasure stories from her parents. She was only 12 after all, they'd freak if they found out that this site had shipping stories. Er, the sexy kind of shipping, not the literal one.

She giggled just a bit at the latest story she was reading, a funny one where the Avengers were dropped into a magical world and fought against demons. She'd spent some time playing with her best friend, Bruno, where they'd play out that exact scenario!

It was so much fun! She played She-Hulk and he would play Captain America, and they'd beat up demons. Or aliens. Or HYDRA. A couple of times though, she'd play Dial.

She-Hulk was her favorite Avenger. A tall, powerful, pretty woman, who was always confident and spoke her mind, and just did whatever she wanted.

But Dial was… well, he was Muslim. Like her. He spoke about it sometimes, real casually. He was pretty cool too. He could turn into all sorts of different aliens and fight bad guys all over New York! He was someone who looked like he could be her brother, who was also a world famous superhero.

She wanted to be like She-Hulk and Dial and Black Widow. She wanted to be an _Avenger_.

Which was why it sucked that her parents wanted her to be a good wife.

"Dinner time, _beta_ ," a Pakistani woman walked into Kamala's room. She was in her early thirties, an older version of Kamala, with the same long black hair and bright chocolate eyes set into light brown skin, some small wrinkles in the corners of her eyes. Kamala had her back turned to her, so she missed the warm smile her mother had as she stared for a moment at her young daughter.

By the time her daughter had turned around, her mother was frowning just a bit. " _Beta_ , that doesn't look like your homework."

This gentle admonishment was met by a wince from Kamala. "I'm only reading a bit! I'll do my homework soon!"

"After dinner," Muneeba Khan told her daughter, getting a groan from her.

"Okay, _ammu…_ can I visit Bruno later? We're supposed to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles together!"

" _Beta,_ it's almost night time," when Kamala pouted cutely at her mother, Muneeba hesitated. "You can call him on my phone and watch it with him on the photo-call."

"You mean video-chat," Kamala corrected immediately, before grinning and rushing towards her mother, hugging tight around the waist. "Thank you, _ammu!_ "

Muneeba smiled down at her daughter as she rushed away. She turned to look about the room.

Recently, Kamala had become obsessed with the Avengers. So it was no surprise that she had bought a lot of action figures. They were placed haphazardly all about the floor, on the bed, and in the closet. On the table was a figure of She-Hulk, her fist raised in a pumping motion, placed prominently in the room Muneeba pursed her lips thoughtfully.

She wasn't sure how to feel about her daughters obsession. She was a good, smart girl, if a very energetic one. Maybe she would grow out of it?

Then she noticed one of the figures. Dial. In his human form, wearing green and black armor, resting on his back with legs and arms spread awkwardly.

Dial hadn't realized it, but he had a mixed reputation in the Muslim community. He proclaimed his religion, but no one ever saw him go to prayer. He openly dated a non-muslim woman and had been seen partying with men and women who had been drinking.

Yet, he did not drink himself. He was well known for his work as a superhero, had been seen literally killing evil _jinn_ and protecting people across the world. He was a complicated subject all around.

Muneeba hesitated before finally closing the door. When she got downstairs, she took a look at her family. Yusuf, tired from work, smiled at his daughter as she excitedly talked about her latest obsession. Her son, praying piously before the meal would begin, his beard just barely coming in. Yusuf noticed her standing there, and looked up, his eyes warm. Even after all these years, he still made her smile.

The mother and wife joined her family for dinner, and all was right with the world.

 _Montana_

 _Humberto Lopez/Nothing Yet_

In the desert of Montana, in the early morning, Humberto Lopez played with the small rock he'd found, looking it over, his blue eyes full of wonder. It was shiny and red, looking almost like a jewel. "Mom, look!"

He ran over to his mother, who was patiently brushed at a fossil embedded in the dirt. She had dirt all across her face and arms, her jeans dusted a light brown. She looked up at her son, the ten-year-old waving the red rock in his hands happily. "Look what I found!"

"Oh?" she looked up from the stones and leaned back to sit on her heels. Her son passed her the red stone, which she gave an interested look. "Wow, that's really cool, _mi vida!_ Where did you find it?"

"In the dirt over there!" he pointed at a random section of earth. "There was a black light, and then I found it on the floor!"

His mother frowned at the rock, then at where Humberto was pointed. "A black light? _Mi vida_ , light can't _be_ black."

He blinked at her. "Well, that's what I saw."

She looked a little skeptical, but finally smiled and handed him the jewel. "Well, it's a heck of a find. You might have a real talent for this," her smile became a bit teasing. "You sure you want to do this forever though? Hang out with your mom and dad in a bunch of old rocks?"

He pursed his lips thoughtfully, then nodded. "Yeah! Dinosaurs are awesome, mom."

She chuckled. "Sweetie, you know that paleontologists _can_ find more than dinosaur bones, don't you?"

Humberto scowled, the way all children did when they thought an adult was saying something unreasonable. "But dinosaurs are-"

"You know Megaladons are sharks the size of a small bus?" his mother said, passing him back the stone.

"...I guess those are cool," he said reluctantly.

As his mother laughed, neither noticed the red stone glow for just a moment. Soon, it would awaken.

In the distance, an old woman with fur across her body watched the mother and son work together. She raised her staff and disappeared in a flash of black light.

 _Author's Note:_ Okay, so that's the chapter! Hope you guys enjoyed it.

One sad thing about tacking on the interludes at the end is that I don't get to hear as much about peoples thoughts on the main story. It's fine, I'd just like to know what people think of Jen's current mission. Which should, if all goes well, end in punches.

Oh, and if anyone is confused as to who the characters are. Peter and Kamala are fairly obvious. Humberto Lopez is the future Reptil, a hero who can transform portions of his body into Dinosaur parts, like giving himself raptor legs when he wants to run or kick harder, or parts of his arm into anklyo shell for defense. And yes, he's ten. There is a reason for that.

Mary MacPherson is the second Titania. The first, Davida, already showed up in this story. There will be a conversation about that, obviously, but she is one of the parallels to Jen. The two have a lot in common.

As for the ages of the various characters, this is once again me deviating from the Marvel comics. Considering the way the MCU is shaping, Kamala might have been a 4 to 5 year old child in 2014, considering that their present-day is 2024. But I decided to make her 12 in my Dialverse.

But the important thing over all is that Jen is coming to the end of her story. Next chapter, the fight of her life begins in the past, while an impromptu patrol begins in the present, and enemies prepare for the future.

On another note, I hope you all are staying safe. I've been keeping healthy thus far, and I hope you guys are okay. Love you all. Like, in an intense, scary way.

Meantime, please consider supporting me on Pa t r eon to get early access to chapters, as well as some new documents I'm going to be posting links to. They'll be the notes of this story, things like character designs, wiki style notes, and diagrams and such. Still editing them, but it's been fun thus far!

Later guys!


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